New Haven, 3/15/09The reports are that New Haven had 300,000 visitors to enjoy the Irish celebration. New Haven is a really small city. Its famous university is large in reputation, but its population of students is tiny compared to the big universities of America's heartland. This many people on the sidewalks made for total gridlock.
New Haven, 3/15/09
4 comments:
Ok, ok, I was definitely wrong with my 'no people' assumption...
Lively pictures, and I can't help to imagine that you took some of them with a tongue-in-cheek expression.
Markus, oh, just wait for the continuation. Lively, indeed.
But, I must clarify about the notion of tongue-in-cheek. No that's not what I'm thinking, never, while in the moment of making the pictures. There is never any sarcasm in my attitude. It's all about being right there, right then, with the people I'm photographing. Yes, in the editing process I may select for humor--why shouldn't photographs be funny?--but I hope my pictures show my view of this thing that happened at a certain place and time, plainly and clearly, and that I was privileged to be there.
A problem with street photography is that it can be done with an attitude where the photographer feels superior to the subjects. I hope this never appears in my pictures.
Maybe my usage of tongue-in-cheek was a bit off: I thought it more in the way of smiling, laughing inside, a certain kind of amusement about the not-obvious that you discover only at a second glance.
Sarcasm or a feeling of superiority certainly is a completely inappropriate attitude, especially for street photography: If I want my subjects to comply with me shooting pictures, I should be honest and open.
Exactly, Markus. I'm all for finding humor in photographs--way too much photography takes itself far too seriously--but when people are involved it should always stay on the side of laughing *with*, not laughing *at*.
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