These days "Street photography" has become a popular genre. However, I feel like anyone wanting to take on the task of becoming a street photographer must have a few rules to live by. The number one guiding principle should be respect. Respect for the people you're photographing, respect for their privacy if they want it, and respect for the environment around you. As a photographer, I never feel that I need to steal a photograph. If someone doesn’t want their photo taken, just move on in search of the next opportunity. Also, I don’t really blend in too much, but I don’t get in the way either. I try to move quietly, slowly and deliberately in a way that does not draw attention to myself, yet is not sneaky. Every photographer has their own perspective on life, the meaning of images, and the purpose of photographing. My hope is that my images elevate the common by recording the simple and prevalent attractiveness of daily life. The American composer, Aaron Copland, wrote “Fanfare for the Common Man” as a tribute to the workers who built and farmers who fed our nation. There is a lot of photography out there of the darker side of the human experience. I do not wish to add to that body of work. As a buddhist monk once said to me in Thailand while I was working on my street photography project there, “The world is full of misery, this is not news to anyone. What we really want to know is if there is a reason for hope?” So, at the risk of sounding pollyannaish, I hope my photo will will be positive and portray the best in people and places.
Last Friday a group of us from the photo class took film cameras to one of the famous night food streets here in Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Alor. The street is packed with all sorts of vendors. Their are plenty of seafood restaurants, a place for you can get almost anything on a stick, the famous and controversial durian fruit, as well as typical consumer items (fake luxury goods). Jalan Alor can seem like a tourist trap, but in fact the food is wonderful, diverse, and plentiful, while prices are only a little higher then street food other places. It was a great place for dinner and an interesting place for street photography.
For this photo shoot I chose to use the Mamiya 7 medium format camera with a 65mm ƒ4 lens. The film was the Ilford Delta 3200 120mm film. I shot using ISO 1600. Some of the photos were hand held, but most of them were taken with the camera mounted on a tripod. For example, the group shot of all the kids (not the one at the table) was taken while the camera was on the tripod, with a shutter speed of 1 second. I took two images, and one was clearly sharper than the other... but the kids did hold still for the long exposure!
