Street photography is hard!!! I got so excited about this assignment but got so disappointed with my results! I had lots of tries, it was hard not wander along aimlessly, I am really good at the aimless bit, I indulge in it and usually get lost but also find things along the way.
I liked the idea of trying to find a topic that could fit in to a bigger story, maybe this could keep me on track (?) I came up with some ideas. Binge drinking - Britain being a nation full of drunks first came to mind. I got really excited about this and thought I would have a go, using a mobile phone. Test shots showed dreadful quality so I binned the idea for time being. Instead I went in search for people drinking coffee. I got this really interesting documentary for Christmas called Black Gold, about the coffee business and how the big corporations of the western world are sucking poor coffee producing countries dry. Two billion cups are drank everyday in the west for which most of it the farmer has not been paid a fair price. I had a few goes and realised quite quickly that it was almost impossible to see the coffee cups in the pictures, I quite liked the idea of photographing through windows... I had some luck yesterday, a big ad in Metro stated that it was 'coffee day' and Starbucks was giving away free coffee in the afternoon. I got pics of sum guys in Mexican hats handing out coffee. Apparently Starbucks is going fair trade all the way. I just red an article saying only about 20% of fair trade is fair.
My other topic was shopping, consumerism, which meant I went to Oxford Street, a street I absolutely hate, I first tried to shoot the shopping area in Kingston, where I live but the bigger street worked a lot better.
Last out was Trafalgar square, I wanted to photograph the last surviving pigeons, relating to the feeding ban that has been in place for a few years. I got a bit side tracked and ended up photographing down from the National Gallery. I didn't realise at the time but it all looks terribly boring.
5 comments:
hi anna!
wanted to mention a project i saw once , made by a bartender...she photographer her patrons at the bar, portraits - it was a really series...i used to shoot at night in the city a lot, sitting in a bar, shooting wide open, fixed focus and you can get some interesting stuff and still be discreet
also really like your idea towards coffee - fair trade...kind of fits in with your larger ideas of consumerism and you can look at consumerism or policy like NAFTA through lens of people, eg, the human costs of free trade...
gosh I am glad you found it as difficult as me, aimless wandering !!
looks so easy but its so hard, I found myself being very timid and also very aware of invading other peoples personal space. I know I would hate it if the situation was reversed and it was me being photographed unawares. Hopefully we will get better at this !!
I saw more of your Trafalgar and bird images on the DRR site. Really nice. As for the aimlessly walking around, one of my shoots was a disaster as well.
I like the Trafalgar Square pic and like a lot of others I found it hard not to follow my nose and hope I would stumble across a good shot. As it happened I stumbled on a good scene of a big advertising poster and spent a while waiting for the actors to arrive as Paul put it. I need to go back with a wider lens but it was a good excersize even though when I went out in the morning I didn't know what I was looking for.
hi anna,
i like the pigeon shadows - it gives a really nice perspective on what was a very tried theme....i haven't seen the rest of your photographs; but i do liek the one you've posted here!
both aimless wandering and wondering were one of my key achievements......worry not!
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