The people project has taken a little bit off a backseat until these last 3 weeks. I have focused on the spaces project as that is what I have been more comfortable with. I felt highly self conscious taking photographs of people as generally it is not something the public is comfortable with. I did not want to upset or offend anyone let alone make them feel self conscious. The photos I was getting were not worth the camera click. Blurry from trying to take them too quickly, poorly framed and improperly though through. I deleted them instantly so I do not even have them to show on here of exactly what NOT to do.
What turned this around was working with another photographer on my course. We teamed up and got our cameras out together which made us both more comfortable. I wanted to keep with my initial ideas of showing couples of people but the practicalities of taking what I needed proved to be more difficult than anticipated in terms of rules for taking photographs in public places, consent from the people if getting in too close and having to try to capture spontaneity in it all.
By avoiding these traps, I accidentally started getting images from further away. Still considered a portrait shot, but the full length of people and mostly from the back or with the people angled away from me, mostly. It was another turning point and the shots came thick and fast and before I knew it I had over 200 to choose from.
Again, I considered Urban Narratives as a term (see Spaces series post for more on this), and decided to formulate the concept thinking about that phrase in relation to what I was capturing so abundantly on the streets. ** Note: This is very clearly Street Photography.
Dual Portraits (couples) walking around the city all have a place to go together. They are taking up a journey – even a short one – around Leeds. They all chose their company presumably to enjoy the destination. Every person lives in their own world every day and when people chose to collide their world with someone elses’, it is a special kind of bond, a kind of relationship and a kind of treasure. Humans love companionship, it is remarkable and a privilege to witness how close people can be, letting one another into their personal space and feeling completely comfortable. These bonds are not bound by age, race, gender or sexuality. Everybody needs somebody.
I need to eliminate 2 of these images to make a final sequence of 8. It will possibly be images #2 and #7 as these dual portraits are stationary rather than moving but I do like the smoke exhaled in #2, but I feel they are possibly the ‘odd ones out’. My favourite photograph in this series is #5 followed by #6. I feel these encompass the people of Leeds and the symmetry in each of these images is a fortuitous coincidence.
It has become extremely important that these images are in black and white. I feel this creates a notion of universal unity and allows us to remove distractions sometimes allowed by full colour images. It is critical that this is clear as black and white should not be something that is done, just to simply be monochrome. Having originally struggled with this project I am thrilled with how these simple photographs have turned out. Apart from anything else I have gained enormous amounts of confidence in my own abilities and the confidence to go into the world and take striking and beautiful photographs.
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