RustyBug
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 Re: The opposite of "meaningless street photography"... | |
Mitch Alland wrote:
So, while I didn’t really expect to get a lot of response on a gear forum,
Why not post it in the street forum ... specifically, if you are also asking for folks to contribute their "meaningful" presentations of the topic / genre (and there is no connection at all to the gear side of things as a predicate).
Fred could probably move it there for you.
A few pics ... are they a 20 year project that was granted unique access, nope. Am I making and selling books from the work, nope. Am I using them to produce lectures and exhibits, nope. Were they orchestrated with the assistance of governmental authority, nope. Did they have folks sitting on a couch for half an hour in awkward silence on a scheduled basis, nope.
Are they meaningless ... IDK, kinda depends on who's asking ... and who's answering. 
Backstory on #3 and #5.
#5
I'm taking pics of some urban decay, documenting some of the historical architecture before demolishing in a plighted area. It's cold and dusky out, and these two guys approach my truck and hand me a drone. I inform them that it's not my drone. They tell me they KNOW that, and that's why they are giving it to me.
You see, there are these folks that chase / exploit plighted homeless individuals, with their images ... and yet, the neighborhood knows that I don't do that, so they gave me the drone (damaged, as they knocked it out of the air, while it was chasing them).
Then, as I'm leaving ... they turn around and shout "Take our picture." (process that for a moment), so I oblige with a one-off shot from inside my truck. It was crapshoot shot, under a sodium vapor street lamp (quite dark to the naked eye). I really expected to get "nothing" from the shot, so I was glad to see this from it.
They said I should come eat with them sometime, if I was genuine.
Later, I made prints of the image and went out to find them ... to no avail. I had wrapped the prints as a present, and brought some wine to share with them, in the event I could make good on their offer to hang with them.
As I mentioned, I couldn't find them.
#3
It's now the holiday, and I was still searching for them, when I ran across this couple. I asked them if they knew the two in the picture. They did, so I asked if they thought they might cross paths with them, and they thought they would.
I asked if they would be willing to deliver the prints and the wine to them. They agreed to take the prints and the wine and deliver them. So, for me ... the shot isn't just some homeless people ... it is a shot of people who are willing to go on their less advantaged journey, and yet, still be willing to help me.
I've never since seen these guys again, and my "best intel" is that they are no longer in the area. I haven't seen the couple again either. And, I have no way of knowing for sure if the pictures / wine got delivered, or consumed by the couple or others.
BUT ... I KNOW this. These pictures are meaningful to me, because these folks respected me, and I respected them ... whereas others (  photographers) were disrespecting or exploiting them with their idea of ( "remote" ) street photography.
For others, these could easily be "meaningless" pictures. Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder ... meaning is likely similar. I don't expect these to be of much meaning to others, but then again ... what does it matter if others do / don't find them "meaningful"? And, at what point is the "meaningfulness" about the photographer's hard work to produce the project vs. the imagery, itself (rhetorical).
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