When I was in the photography school many years back, there was one assignment I couldn't quite accomplished. That was to shoot the strangers on the streets without asking their permission, with a 50mm lens chest up close range, facing straight to the camera, 36 people (that is one roll of 36 exposure film) in few days time. Being a quite shy boy back then it was almost an impossible assignment.
Over the years, I have seen quite often the street photographers with such an aggressive way to approach the strangers on the streets but to this day, I still can't do it. So all I can do is to step back a little and to observe what's going on and most of the time I just get plain and boring pictures. I'm rather timid and afraid of people so it's quite rare for me to make direct contact to the strangers.
Now I recall that many years back in Tokyo, I happened to meet Henri Cartier-Bresson who was visiting Tokyo then and I had a chance to witness how he worked. He walked around people very quietly ( sneaking around, was more like) almost invisible, with a tiny Leica CL in his hand then, click!
Back then I wanted to be a fashion photographer and had no interest at all in the photo-journalism so I soon forgot all about it and besides I knew nothing about him either.
Now I realize that I have been approaching the people on the streets in similar way because of my personalty but I'm not following his steps . For one thing, I'm not that crazy about the "decisive moment" concept which Cartier-Bresson is famous for. Surely that is part of thrilling aspect of the street shooting but it looks to me an outdated concept. And to me, it's not all about people, there are many other things to shoot on the streets.
Over the years, I have seen quite often the street photographers with such an aggressive way to approach the strangers on the streets but to this day, I still can't do it. So all I can do is to step back a little and to observe what's going on and most of the time I just get plain and boring pictures. I'm rather timid and afraid of people so it's quite rare for me to make direct contact to the strangers.
Now I recall that many years back in Tokyo, I happened to meet Henri Cartier-Bresson who was visiting Tokyo then and I had a chance to witness how he worked. He walked around people very quietly ( sneaking around, was more like) almost invisible, with a tiny Leica CL in his hand then, click!
Back then I wanted to be a fashion photographer and had no interest at all in the photo-journalism so I soon forgot all about it and besides I knew nothing about him either.
Now I realize that I have been approaching the people on the streets in similar way because of my personalty but I'm not following his steps . For one thing, I'm not that crazy about the "decisive moment" concept which Cartier-Bresson is famous for. Surely that is part of thrilling aspect of the street shooting but it looks to me an outdated concept. And to me, it's not all about people, there are many other things to shoot on the streets.
