I’m taking a course via @magnumlearn taught by @littlebrownmushroom. It’s basically videos where he talks about or demonstrates his approach to making photographs. In the section about photographing people, there is an assignment to photograph a stranger. I am painfully shy and hate approaching strangers. Funny enough, so was Alec Soth. Over the years, I’ve worked out a way to do this. I get them to approach me instead. And the bait I use is my cameras. If you take out a distinctive and/or iconic camera, people will approach you. Polaroids are good for this. I usually get someone coming up to me when I have my SX-70 out. I get more people approaching with a Polaroid pack film camera, like my old 250 or the 195 I picked up last year. But the best camera for bait that I’ve found is my Speed Graphic. There is something in the imagination of Americans that sees one and wants to know more. I always describe a cigar-chomping ambulance-chasing photographer in film noir films from the 1940s and 50s, basically Weegee, when I talk about the camera when people ask. I ask to take their picture, and most of the time, they say yes. And then I fuck it up like this because the rangefinder on the Speed Graphic is a pain in the ass. I met this couple on the boardwalk in Asbury Park a few weeks ago on a freezing, blustery late November day. They were up from a town in southern Maryland. Waldorf, which they noted was kind of like Astoria, Queens, except not. The Polaroid 545 holder kind of obstructs the rangefinder, and I find it particularly difficult to focus with it when it’s mounted on that camera. And so I wind up spending $15 for a blurry shot like this because I worry about taking up too much of these kind people’s time. I also forget to bring my business cards with me. I have these beautiful letter pressed cards that I printed myself with my Flickr and Instagram links and my e-mail. I never fucking bring them with me. I would be better at this if I were more of an asshole. #createaportrait #alecsothcourse #film #new55film #new55pn100 @new55film #film #filmphotography #filmphotographic #ireallyfuckingsuck

I’m taking a course via @magnumlearn taught by @littlebrownmushroom. It’s basically videos where he talks about or demonstrates his approach to making photographs. In the section about photographing people, there is an assignment to photograph a stranger. I am painfully shy and hate approaching strangers. Funny enough, so was Alec Soth. Over the years, I’ve worked out a way to do this. I get them to approach me instead. And the bait I use is my cameras. If you take out a distinctive and/or iconic camera, people will approach you. Polaroids are good for this. I usually get someone coming up to me when I have my SX-70 out. I get more people approaching with a Polaroid pack film camera, like my old 250 or the 195 I picked up last year. But the best camera for bait that I’ve found is my Speed Graphic. There is something in the imagination of Americans that sees one and wants to know more. I always describe a cigar-chomping ambulance-chasing photographer in film noir films from the 1940s and 50s, basically Weegee, when I talk about the camera when people ask. I ask to take their picture, and most of the time, they say yes. And then I fuck it up like this because the rangefinder on the Speed Graphic is a pain in the ass. I met this couple on the boardwalk in Asbury Park a few weeks ago on a freezing, blustery late November day. They were up from a town in southern Maryland. Waldorf, which they noted was kind of like Astoria, Queens, except not. The Polaroid 545 holder kind of obstructs the rangefinder, and I find it particularly difficult to focus with it when it’s mounted on that camera. And so I wind up spending $15 for a blurry shot like this because I worry about taking up too much of these kind people’s time. I also forget to bring my business cards with me. I have these beautiful letter pressed cards that I printed myself with my Flickr and Instagram links and my e-mail. I never fucking bring them with me. I would be better at this if I were more of an asshole. #createaportrait #alecsothcourse #film #new55film #new55pn100 @new55film #film #filmphotography #filmphotographic #ireallyfuckingsuck

Sun Dec 15 2019