MEET MY STREET

18 / 06 / 2016

I observe what goes on the stage of theatre of every day life and how people, social actors, performing their scripted roles, parts and characters. Anyway, life itself is unrepeatable inscenation and I use street – photography to capture its unique and unscriptable nature...

(in progress)

8STR8

(tips for street – photography)

As an antropologist, I´m used to work infield and I´m familiar with (participant) observation techniques. As the street photographer, I prefer to follow my 8STR8 rules of the game:

1.Get the general feel of city, its public place, familiarize with local, esp. privacy, laws and your (artistic) rights. If you work in smaller, specific community, try to ask local boss / authority for his permission to take pictures at first. Street photography, as a genre, is not staged an lives and dies with „decisive moment“ ; anyway, you can almost always ask for (subsequent) permission.

2.Incorporate your camera as a part of your body (not only to be „at hand“ but right „in the hand“: straightly connected to your „pulse“ and inner feelings [ For example: I wind my strap twice around my wrist ]).

3.Roam the streets diligently in flâneur manner, use your map only for basic orientation and embrace non –readability instead: follow your nose, rhytm of random algorithm, „read“ the streets like labyrinths and ciphers. Every time you´re working infield, try to make at least one extra step out of your comfort zone or laziness. Be safe, but try to embrace the unpredictability to be able to see „black swans“ flocking right in front your camera.

4.Take up a role of grand theatre observer. Life is a stage where people, like social actors, performing their social roles and taking a part in life inscenation with its unscriptable nature. „All the creatures on the beaches / making waves in a motion picture,“ sings Anthony Kiedis“ from RHCHP in 21st Century (Fox). Looking at life from wide screen and„motion picture“ perspective helps you a lot when you feel anxious, introverted nad depressed.

5.Mirror the e.motions, rhythm of a street, wear neutral colors, move like a shadowing boxer and slow down your walking , gestures and body language in general (try to move your body like underwater).

6. Act in the moment of „right now“ and try to develop situational awarness (it sounds easy to be mindful and know what´s going on around you, but it requires practice). Your ideal state of mind is „relaxed alertness“: use flow in order to stay on the track and in the zone (in terms of anthropology: look like non – participating observer or the unconcerned one). It might help you step closer into proxemic zones and „juggle“ with „social bubbles“.

7.Try to see the unseen in the space of second split of second, evolve creatures living wrapped in shadows and pay special attention to the light ( i.e. not only to the „golden hour“, but especially to light fractures, contrasts and glitches).

8. Be patient and count the „law of coincidence“ (or „Seriengesetz“) in your game. You can do a lot of unproductive and tiring walks, you can obey advices of the best street photographers of the world, but nothing ever happens on the street. And then, all of the sudden, you meet „Lady Luck“ at the corner and BANG! BIG TIME. Within the frame of limited time, pictures are jumping, one after another, through the flow of photons, right into your eye and lenses.