four seas four suns: Facing It

Man with pipe, (Bryant Park ) Aug 2010

I take a lot of photos, but I'm always a little wary taking photos of people. It's something I have to work my way around, because I'm actually very interested in how people look, but very conscious of being behind the camera taking the picture. The double introspection is a bit much. Either you are aware that you are asking them to be super-aware of themselves. Or you are 'taking' their photo without their permission and neither seems palatable to me. If you are asking them to pose (or pause) for the photo - then you have to deal with the face most people throw up. The one they think is their best. Then you have to deal with the feeling of putting them in that position. Then, there is only a small window of time within which both parties are actually 'willing' to have the picture be taken. This is just my experience. 'Taking' a picture of someone who is not posing or not in a public performance role feels a lot like stealing to me. The only time it feels ok is when the person is an incidental part of a bigger scene, as in the picture of the girl with the umbrella. Its something I am still sorting out. One morning I saw a fascinating couple near Bryant Park. He was black, she was white, they both wore dreadlocks and were both wearing white except for the brightly colored ribbons in their hair. And, they were pushing a shopping cart with their personal effects. I felt relatively OK with the idea of crossing the street to a discreet vantage point and taking a shot of them. Which I did. But somehow, the man became aware of me, ( Crap! Was I not discreet enough?) turned his partner's head away and started to shake his fist at me. That's right. No-one else knew what was going on - but he and I were very aware of each other and the fight we were having. I felt terrible and deleted the one shot that I was able to squeeze off before he detected me. So, my reservations were not unwarranted. Fast forward an entire year and I'm in the same park ( I pass there every day on my way to work). I went to shoot a gigantic red hibiscus and then sat down for a bit. I was right behind this man. Should I? He was engrossed in his newspaper and his pipe - which he knocked against the side of the park chair every now and then. I took one - he didn't flinch. I took another and another and another - actually not even composing the frame, but working more with the feeling of taking a photo without 'permission'. I'm still not sure that it feels right.