City - Norfolk State - VIRGINIA Country - United States
About
Part of my "Bench Warmers" collection (at www.pbase.com/thewizardrod/bench_warmers).
I simply love people (especially candid) photos, whether street photography or portraits, but I am highly terrified to approach strangers hahaha. I actually am always nervous to take people photos.
Originally, I would only shoot florals, statues, etc. It was only last month I made a conscience decision to break my fear. I figured a good first stop would be shooting people from a distance....that is how I began this collection. :)
After the first couple photos, I really started to notice things about the people, when the photo is unplaned, and unknown. I chooose mostly black and white because I feel it makes one focus on the person, their pose, and express much more, than in color.
I have always found candid and street portraits interesting, I only lacked the courage to shoot them. I find a certain humanity about the person when they are just being themselves. So far in my collection I have about 40 such 'bench' photos, mostly of poor and homeless people. If they are awake, I try to take time to talk to them a little, to get their story--for example, one chap who reads then drops his book and sleeps, but only between 2-4 PM weekdays.
I do not mean to be sneaky about taking the photos when they are sleep; rather, they simply are when I find them. If the person sees me, I gesture with the camera, if I am at a distance. Or I will approach them for chit-chat first (you've no idea how much anxiety I have when I approach people hahahaha).
On my website, those that are distinctly homeless, and awake, have a story written about them, and how they got to their situation. :)
This is a very amusing image. Boots, belly, nodding off, carefree, isolated.
Thanks for your write-up of your experiences! It is fascinating to see how you are letting your ideas evolve. People are mostly fun and cuddly, but about 5% are criminally insane and need to have coercive pressure applied if they are to be prevented from destroying the planet... (sorry, wrong meeting! oops!) I mean, made the subject of aesthetically enduring photographs. It is a special kind of person who sees that much brilliance and fun in unusual everyday fleeting constellations of bodies and body parts and gestures.
One terrific candid image Rodney. I'm really glad the bare mid rif look did not catch on for men. It's bad enough on some women. Excellent composition and tones. Regards John
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{K:5362} 10/2/2005