My adventures in streetphotograhy #3

I was still trying to hone my skill at spotting good locations and the possibilities of finding that "elusive" decisive moments. Joel Meyerovich has also described that moment as ... "... when the picture moment reached some kind of apogee... " ... which is a way of saying that a certain "photographic" situation changes with the flux of life and the Decisive Moment is when this exact situation reaches its maximum expression, it´s apogee.

As an anarchist, I am always aware of the cultural traces I encounter and why they are there plus peoples relation to those, both in a political and in a social way. Take "GRAFITTI", the shot of brickwalls, which each have their share of traces of human communication. While being fascinated with the framing of the geometric forms of the shot, I at the same time, am aware of the story, that the human traces tell ... some contradiction or double standard is exposed.

GRAFITTI
To an alien, this would all look like grafitti, while to us, only the culturally opposed is considered graffitti, and thus unwanted, while the cell phone commercial is accepted, even if it is much less artistic. Therefore the eufemisms to make sure the receiver of a message get the moral value of the action without he himself needing to think (I may point out that I do not condone any form of writing on another persons property. Do it on your own property)

I also realized that one could actually photograph "life" without any life actually being there in the frame. Life leaves traces in the inorganic world, that our mind can use to recreate certain happenings, actions and situations.

GOAL!!
There are invisible human stories that our mind inevitably bring to the picture. Here there could have been a small football match during a lunch brake or some kids have used it and forgotten their ball. It is interesting that there is still a ball there, while a small detail maybe, stil it is evocative.

Another aspect is contrasts, analogies or even metaphors. In the shot "PARKED VEHICLES" I emphasize that even if there is a huge physical and energetic difference between a car and plastic kiddie toys, they are basically doing the exact same thing here. Add to that a comment on child versus adult and children´s inherent urge to mirror adult behavior. It is sort of cute without getting sentimental.

PARKED VEHICLES
At first you focus of the parked car, only later you realize that there are actually a total of four "vehicles" parked here, all in the good, systematic fascion known as human behavior.

--oo--

My adventures in Streetphotography:
Part 1
Part 2