People...

I have never taken the opportunity to photograph people before. Normally in my city pictures pedestrians occasionally find a way to pop into an image, thus proving that in the city you won't ever have a moment of privacy. In this instance though privacy was not my concern. I had no intentions of asking permission of my subjects, I just wanted to shoot pictures of people and see what it would be like.



I got the idea from my friend who's taking a photography course. One image she shared of her experience taking pictures of strangers caught an elderly woman, free of self consciousness, cleaning out her nostril with her pinkie. Somehow my friend managed to capture a multiple of images; miniature series of people in their casual lives. I wanted a try.



When friends asked what my plans were for the city I'd reply, "I just want to photograph people." Doing this in the city of New York makes things incredibly convenient for this first-time experience. Everyone clearly associates me to be a tourist. I have no problem with the label, constantly photographing skyscrapers. Little do they know my skyscraper photographs were to be used as examples for a lesson plan on linear perspective. Regardless, my disguise was perfect and I blended in perfectly.



I learned to be casual about things. I found maybe a street sign or a concrete wall to meter the light. For the most part that was extent of me holding the photograph up to my fact. In some I simply didn't look, I just photographed what was behind me be holding my camera in my hand, acting impatiently pretending I was waiting for people to move so I could snap an image of something else. Meanwhile I was constantly pushing the shutter button.



People freely walked by me not knowing they were being photographed. I think that I was possibly caught once. The main location that I photographed people was at St. Francis of Assisi's Church, across the street from Madison Square gardens. I had a request to stop there since that day was the yearly pet blessing. People came to the churched lined up near the entrance with poodles, scotts, a bird; mostly small animals. Most of the people seemed quite friendly. I stayed long enough to capture what I thought was a good first trial.



I also had taken a stop into St. Francis' church and also John the Baptist's. In the darkness I photographed the people praying and paying homage to the saints. For the most part I got away without getting caught, but from time to time people gave me glances. I tried to keep my photographing subtle and avoid too much motion in the silence of the churches.



In another instance I passed a mother and a small girl in an asian-styled attire. The red of the girls outfit seemed comical to the greys and browns of the city streets. I passed them and snapped a few images as I walked by. The majority of the other images were simply ones of people crossing the streets. There was nothing glamours or special about the images, merely an experiment. I enjoyed this and would like to try it again.