New Orleans Street Portraits
I had a great idea. I had been approaching people for years on the streets of NYC but never captured it on video. I only made still images in the style of Richard Avedon’s “In the American West” series. After working in the Fashion and Advertising industry, which was and is over saturated with perfection and fake imagery, I had to put more of the truth out there, more on that in future blog posts.
I had recently gotten into photography vlogs on YouTube, My head was filled with ideas and I knew I had a lot to offer with my ability and courage to talk to anyone. Combining that with a video camera could be amazing content. However, I found myself justifying not going out to the streets of New Orleans to photograph strangers, it’s easy to talk yourself out of talking to random strangers on the street. Somehow I would convince myself there were other things I could and needed to take care of, there always is.
As I lay in my bed in the early morning, I remembered something my friend in one of my jiu jitsu classes told me. He was talking about how the way he felt had nothing to do with his performance in the training session. Sometimes he would feel great and would perform horribly. Other times he would not feel like not going at all but then after making himself show up he would find himself dominating every training partner. How we feel before our performance has nothing to do with the actual quality of the performance itself. I didn’t feel like going out on the street asking random people for photos but I knew I just had to take the first steps…
Get dressed, brush your teeth, Put camera(s) in a camera bag, once I get to that point I am thinking well I made it this far, I might as well get in the car and put gas in it. Next thing I know I’m on my way to New Orleans.
I didn’t feel like going but in the end I was happy I forced myself to get out there.
Up until May of 2019, I wanted to be a pure photographer. A concept that existed in my head for way too long. I was a photo snob. What I mean by that is I never wanted to be in front and never wanted to touch a video camera. Being in front of the camera, I now realize, is extremely useful if you expect to photograph and direct people. I never wanted to adapt video into my work. I never wanted to write, mostly because I was discouraged from English in school. But look, here I am typing away hoping you are reading my words right now. I started realizing I had a lot more to say that could not be expressed in a flat silent three dimensional image.
Watching all these photographer vlogs, I realized they were mostly tech related. It seems as if the equipment was more important than what is created with it. It is the opposite for me. I want to create videos that explore the development of the artist though people.
My favorite saying has always been
“It’s not the tool, It’s how you use it.”
I felt like most of the photo-vloggers were setting a low standard. They had fun videos to watch but the image quality was setting a bad example. I also felt like I had a lot to offer. I want to offer a sense of adventure and curiosity of the world with a small bit of technical camera knowledge.
I am more interested in the development of the artist outside of the camera, yet, I obviously do love the cameras. In fact, before I bought the fujifilm x100f towards the end of 2018 I had been going through some life changing circumstances. I had lost my love of photography for a few years even though I didn’t notice it. I was coming to the realization that it wasn’t as easy as I was led to believe by my education and peers, or was I just entitled? It’s hard to admit, but I was. I was an Entitled little s#!t. I never wanted to have to market myself. I just wanted to live by the saying “create great work and the money will follow..” that's not the exact quote but I assume you get the idea. I had been on and off with part time jobs in pursuit of becoming a photographer for most of my life.
Before the X100F, being a canon fanboy, I tried some of their smaller cameras. I wanted something small, light, and simple that shoots RAW so I tried a lot of the G series by Canon but the shutter lag made me miss way too many shots and was mostly just frustrating.
The X100F had next level focus and quick shutter release. I felt like I was shooting with a real camera, a film camera. I aspire to shoot more with film cameras but I’m addicted to the instant images we are all accustomed to these days.
The X100F made me fall back in love with photography.
And as I write this I am falling in love with writing. How does one know when to stop taking on hobbies? Maybe I’ll blog about it...
When I got the X100F I was still working for a clothing company in Baton Rouge, LA and I could not wait to get into the vlogging aspect of my photography life. With my dedication to jiu jitsu and a full time job I could not find the time to get enough shooting and editing done. I tried to get my employer to work with me on this but it was not working out even after I proved to them that I could get all my work done in less time on my own schedule. They could not loosen their grip. Some people just love to control others, it was more apparent than ever with that dude.
After my experience of working with an unreasonable and controlling employer I was determined to be able to work for myself and willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do so. I decided to explore one of the newest most powerful mediums yet. Vlogging.
I decided to purchase the X-T3, another Fujifilm camera that looks and feels like a film camera. Growing up shooting film, this design just did it for me. This camera had exceptional video capabilities like face finding auto focus, a feature that is extremely useful, if not necessary, when vlogging.
Being a fan of travel vlogs and photography, my idea was to create a YouTube channel that explores traveling but also street and portrait photography. It’s still evolving.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoGU_oIBHCQ2KxmXSdVqPZw?view_as=subscriber
Editorial Portraiture, street photography, and photojournalism are my favorite genres of photography. I want to use my images to tell a story but also learn about and from my subjects, which is why I recently started interviewing people as well. We may see more interviews in the future.
I love the idea of the “fly on the wall.” not interacting with the scene or subjects and just documenting what is happening without interfering with whatever is going on. This is not that. Just to be honest and upfront with people I started doing Street Portraiture. I occasionally catch shots of them before I interact with them and without them noticing.
