Jump to content

Current Documentary Projects and Introductions


connealy

Recommended Posts

My inclination as a photographer has always been toward documentary

work, and my main tool in this has been street shooting technique.

In the late '60s I put together a documentary presentation on New

York's Chinatown. The photos were done over a period of a few weeks

while I attended a short photo school course in lower Manhattan. The

negatives from that are probably long gone. The pictures in my "<a

href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?

folder_id=219679">Chinatown Hip Shots</a>" folder are reproductions

of the remaining prints done with a point-and-shoot digital

camera.<br>    I basically took a thirty year vacation

from photography, and I only got back to it a couple years ago,

first with digital, and then back to film with a collection of old

folders and rangefinders (plus my 30-year-old Pentax). In the past

year I have undertaken a new documentary project using similar

techniques as in the first, but this time focusing on the border

communities of El Paso and Juarez. Since I live eighty miles north

of those towns, I have only been able to work on the new project

sporadically. I hope to become more concentrated on the topic soon

as my wife and I are becoming more free to travel. I am excited by

both the similarities and differences in the communities portrayed

in the two projects. At present, my "<a

href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=328355">on the

border</a>" folder is no more than a loose collection of street

shots. As I accumulate more images, I feel I will be able to

identify a variety of themes as I did with the Chinatown work, and

to focus on a few of them which are of interest to

me.<br>   Comments on my work and my current plan are

welcome, but I would really be most interested in seeing what others

are up to in the documentary vein.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The collections you present are interesting and engaging, and if you want to show some connection between them, you might consider a side-by-side presentation of one image from each in a more book-like (or even an online slide show) format.

<p>

Juarez/El Paso is a frequently photographed area - one of the best documentary works I have seen on it is David Perry's <i>Bordertown</i>, now out of print but available from David at his web site. You can see a selection of images from Bordertwon at <a href="http://www.davidperrystudio.com/">David's web site</a> by clicking Enter/Galleries/Bordertown (Bordertown is the first link in the images at the top).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mike, I've just started a border project of my own, but on a different border -- the U.S.-Canadian border. The idea is to document what the border divides. No pix to show yet as it's still in the research stage (which is just a pretentious way of saying that I'm just thinking about it and haven't done any real work yet.)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mike some very nice photographs in the Chinatown folder. I like your style, also in the border photos. Too bad the CT negatives are gone. How are the quality of your prints? Maybe if you could get to a flatbed scanner they might show up better for the web. Still very nice.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll probably run my Chinatown prints through the scanner some day. I may even poke around out in the shed to see if I can find the negs. I'm reluctant to spend much more time on them as I feel I really ought to be moving on thirty years later. It was kind of fun putting the old stuff on line, though.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...