One of my pet projects.
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I know this may seem odd but I have never been a stranger to odd lol I had thoughts, a while back, on a special project that I wanted to do. While I am traveling, I try to get out and capture shots of people living life in its rawest form. The one thing that strikes me, is the look of despair as one of the most common character personas. A common expression written upon the faces of those who live it, no matter what country or city they live in. My thoughts are this: “No matter the burred vision of ones chattels over another’s, the one thing we all have in common is the gift of life, we share this in equal abundance with a given moment. No matter the essence of ones life-Life Happens-“
These are a few that I managed to find in my archives..
Thats good stuff.
I too enjoy capturing those moments…I have some great memories and a few photos from several trips to Haiti along the same lines.
My issue is that sometimes I have a very hard time getting the camera out in those moments.
Are you asking permission to photograph these people?
Was wondering the same thing.
Everything is going to the beat — It’s the beat generation, it be-at, it’s the beat to keep, it’s the beat of the heart, it’s being beat and down in the world and like oldtime lowdown and like in ancient civilizations the slave boatmen rowing galleys to a beat and servants spinning pottery to a beat…
-Jack Kerouac (Desolation Angels)
Ben – These images are emotion filled and wonderful. Jack Kerouac use to be the usual read until late which has turned to the stories of John Gierach. Jack’s words in so many ways describe these images. The life so far down that the small excitements come from the basics. These simply are wonderful images.
There are some wonderfully diverse photographers on this board. There is the action of John Bennett; the natural but modern images by Chad Simcox’s single source light; the soft details of the real world that Ben share’s with us; and there are to many others to list that it is a shame not to list them all.
I have a similar “pet” project with buildings but no people. I use to have thousands of these shots but now I am only left with a few. Everything and everyone has a story and images like Ben’s inspire us to find those words. Photography is a great way to make the imagination tell the rest of the story.
I moved the photos to another thread.
http://www.itinerantangler.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?num=1214434442/0#0Are you asking permission to photograph these people?
[Emphasis mine]
Evocative and emotionally stirring images, Ben.
Looks like you just got paid the ultimate compliment, my friend. 😉
Hey, Carter. Not sure I meant anything other than that photography can connect us powerfully with others. Sorry, if anything else was conveyed. Nothing directed personally.
Scott
Ben,
great images. The post processing is an interesting take on these photos making them almost surreal and therefore giving a different perspective on the daily existence of these people. It seems as if either the viewer or the subject doesn’t believe things are the way they are. The 4th photo, in my opinion, is the best. It get’s into the face of this person and presents him as a person. The others feel like they are viewing the people as an object or subject instead of connecting with the human spirit/emotion. You do state that your goal is to “capture shots of people living life in its rawest form”. However, I do not get the feeling of watching these people live, rather a view of them as I pass by on the street. Get to know these people, then tell a story about who they are and where they come from with your photographs. Show us how they live, how they survive, not how they exist.
I hope this doesn’t come across as harsh, rather as words of encouragement and inspiration. I studied conceptual art, where critiques are harsh and hopefully true, but with the intent that they help you better communicate what you are trying to say without words.
Take a look at the book “Lost Angels” by Alfredo Falvo. He gets into the lives of his subjects living on Skid Row in L.A. There are prostitutes, junkies and theives. But there are also a lot of good people that are living in these situations through circumstance.Kevin,
I recognize #2 and 3 of your set. Are those along the Caney Fork? I swear that is the bait shop on the left side of the road after you cross the dam and head north towards Happy Hollow. I think that’s HWY 141 and HWY 96 Is that right?http://society6.com/grainfarmer Fly Fishing and Landscape open edition Photography prints.
http://grainfarmer.vsco.co/ iPhone photos
http://instagram.com/chad_simcox InstagramChad – You got one of them. The Bait shop is right outside the Okefenokee National Park. The rest where shot driving up 441 to Athens,
Thanks John, but I don’t get the “But for the grace of god there go I”. Guess I am getting slow with in old age [ch9786].
Thanks Tim. I know what you mean about taking advantage of those less fortunate and please know that it is not my intent. My purpose is more to get people to recognize life is life and we are all linked in common through our emotions. I just chose to go more to the despair side as I think it has a much deeper root.
Carter, sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. These are my own private works and not anything that I have been commissioned to do or had an assignment to do. All of these images are in public places and are not intended for commercial use so, I do stay on the proper side of international law.
Thanks Lee Church, yes, I always have at least one SB800 and gels, so that I can balance the flash with ambient light sources. Sometimes it is needed to help balance the feel but I try to set them low enough to remain natural appearing. If I plan on using flash, I do 2 things. Have a friend carry the remotely set up flash (with the gels, snoots, diffusers, barndoors or what ever) and have them aim the flash for the desired lighting. The next thing that I always do, I always give the subject what they would consider to be a large amount of money to help put them back into the mindset that they were before I disrupted their life. Pay first and you get an overdone smiley picture.
Thanks Richard, that really means a lot to me, coming from you. I need to try and find the rest as I do have a lot of emotion with both these people and their pictures.
Thanks Kevin, I had thoughts of writing short bits about my thoughts, with each image but I wanted to stay away form that and hope that the viewers would have their own thoughts and words. Like your shots there too, my friend [ch9786].
Thanks Scott, it was and is my intent to try and get people to see how we all are connected and share many of the same types of emotions, no matter where in the world each person may live.
Thanks Chad, I really appreciate the time and thought that you put into your post. I was hoping to see something written as you did. I do have an intent and purpose behind both what the composition is and the order in which they are set. Here is my logic and desire. In our lives, we have all seen these people or people like them. We normally see them as we pass by them on the street and automatically start to categorize them as possession less or what ever. My intent is to capture or convey emotions that go far beyond the content of ones chattels and try to demonstrate that a passing glance on the street is a real person with an equal amount of life. Not life as it has become commonly described, through ones accomplishments or material wealth, but more that life is just the simpler matter of breathing the same air and feeling a common emotion, in this rawest form we are all equal and have balanced merit. I set the order in personal hope. I hope to remind the viewer of a moment when they too were walking down any street in the world and remember that one passing glance they too once had. It is the purpose of my order to then have the viewer come upon a similar image that links them directly into the eyes of the other brief glances, a moment where the viewer and subject connect. I only hope that it puts life into the subject and unexpectedly triggers raw emotion in the viewer.
The intent of the entire portfolio, if I ever finish it, is to have the viewer go back and reexamine the previously viewed pictures and remember the common people that they have seen in places that look familiar to them. It is more of a respect to everyone in this world as having the same emotional characters and getting away from the stereotype belief that ones life is measured upon the weight of their chattels, it is the reason that I refer to it as blurred assumptions.
I do wish that I had the time to get into these people lives and document it as you had explained, I love that sort of art. While on assignments, I do my best to get out and see the non-tourist areas of the city or country that I may be in. These pictures are far from what I am contracted to shoot but have more emotional value to me than what I may have with an assignment but due to the fact that I do need to shoot the paid work, I don’t get much time to get to know the people in these images.
These pictures were all taken in either Eastern Europe or Western Europe. Another part of my intent is to show how much in common many people around the world are. I like to hope and think that a viewer may look at the second picture and think that it looks like it was taken of a person in their own city but this was shot on one of the streets in Paris. I would hope that the forth picture may seem like it could have been shot in Griffith Park or along one of the streets there in Hollywood, it was actually shot in a dark ally in Vilnius, Lithuania; and so on with the rest. I don’t really want to tell their story as much as I just hope people stop to think for a bit of how valuable life is and how others too, are very real in their lives but do not have to hold our share in beliefs of how life should be measured, just respect the fact that others we deem to be less fortunate are just as alive as we are and in many cases, their chattels are empty because that is the way that they want it to be. Still, life happens and others are no less important than ours. No matter their choices– Each moment matters–.
Again, thanks for your post and thoughts, I value your depth of thought!
Will Milne, thanks! I can’t say that I purposely tried to get a Lazio look as much as I just let each composition talk to me. Some of these shots, I will set at a far distance and study the subject and lighting before thinking about lifting the camera. I do my best to get documentary images mapped out and dialed in, in the camera and with the type of lighting that I want and/or need. The second picture can be duplicated by one of several methods. One is to put a very light coating of Vaseline around the perimeter of the glass on your lens. Keep it very thin and leave the intended focal point clean and clear. You can also, lightly wipe some of the Vaseline off of the lens, from the most inner part to the outer, and get some very dramatic effects. I carry chapstick for this reason as well [ch9786]. Another thing that fails more often than works is; a slow shutter speed but while the shutter is triggered, carefully zoom in on the subject but leave the longest exposure to capture the zoomed in composition, Takes a very steady hand and patience as there truly is more failure than success. Of course PS will do the trick as well, in most cases.
Aaron Otto, thank you very much for your very kind words.
Regardless of the intentions I don’t think I can see a candid photo of someone in such a compromising situation ever being in good taste.
Welcome Ben
But for the grace of god there go I”
It’s an adage often used when contemplating someone elses misfortune. When I see people who arent as fortunate as myself I often think of that phrase. One thing we cant control in life is under what circumstances were born into. Some people through lifestyle choices end up on the street or in poverty, whatever you want to label it.. Some, it just happens to. Whether through birth and not knowing any better, or having the means to escape, or just plain old bad misfortune.
I very much like your series/project .. I’ve come back and looked at the thread a few times before posting. They are all strong images. For me these types of photos always bring up such conflict about luck, life, family, … the list goes on. In the end they accomplish their goal, to feel and think about their content. Thanks for sharing!
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