Street Portraits from Times Square

I have a folder here:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=286761

 

These are what I call 'Street Portraits'. Maybe I've coined a phrase, maybe not. Anyway, I

made a project of photographing the people walking through Times Square, weeknights

from 6-7:30pm every night I could during last fall/winter. There is a building there with

large banks of incandescent floods, which provide all the light you see in these. I was

usually 12-15 feet away, just close enough to get an intimate composition, without being

in anyone's face. You'll notice how the hue changes as I experimented, through time, with

the fine tuning of the white balance setting on my camera, as well as the exact spot that

people would be walking through. I have a couple hundred more, similar to these, and I'd

post them all, if I could. The odd thing about these is that they seem, to me anyway, to

occupy a sort of grey

area between the expectations of portraiture and also the expectations of street

photography. When I'd have these critiqued as portraits, they'd do so-so. The lighting is

certainly not 'studio optimal'. when I'd have them critiqued as 'street', they lack the wider

view and context that most people expect in a street photo, so they didn't do so well there

either. Personally, I don't mind a bit, I like them a lot. However, any thoughtful comments

from those who take street photography seriously would be greatly appreciated.

theyre ok....ive done this too and for the most part have gotten the same thing......

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they basically look like people walking by that you are shooting....

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like you said, theyre not portraits, and theyre not really street style...

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some might be of interest because of the light, and in some the characters show, but not enough to really shine.....

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i think singling out people and shooting them portrait style doesnt really yield much of a pic....

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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/3882434414/102-5976185-4988929?v=glance">this guy</a> is the only one ive seen come close to doing anything with it, and even he had to use strobes to make em look more interesting than they are....sooooooooooo......there you have it...

I like them a lot. I think the main problem is where you are showing them. Photo.net is a great place, but receptivity to new ideas and approaches which do not fit conventional categories is not its strong suit. Set up your own web site and display them all.

i rather like these, Mark. Some of them have a real grace about them. What I particularly appreciate is that you thought through a project and saw it to an end. Whereas one may have been just a random snap, alltogether I think they are qiuite interesting. Phillip DL, cited by Grant is another game altogether. He is more a dramaturgist thamn a street photographer.

Really good stuff Mark. When work is good I feel envy. Your work is good.

The problem is not that they are new and unconventional. The problem is that they are BORING.

Mark --

 

A lot of these are really good. You manage to capture the anonymity of the crowd in

the individual; something about your efforts honestly appeals more to me than Philip

Lorca DiCorcia's "Heads" series, which struck me as too obvious of a concept for a

conceptual photographer such as DiCorcia.

 

You might want to check out Luc Delahaye's series of photographs entitled "L'Autre"

(The Other). He used a hidden camera, similar to Walker Evans, but the results

remind me more of your photographs than Evans'.

 

Tim

These are not boring at all. Portraits usually attempt to reveal some feeling and strive to appear honest. You've done both. You have some interesting characters there, and their expressions make me stop and ponder what they are thinking and who they really are. Good work!

<br>Truthfulness is one thing that makes street photography appeal to me, and your portraits show the truth about those people. I'd say you've found a good niche in S.P.

Can you tell us a little bit about your approach, technique, and equipment?

Mark,

Quite interesting. Like a character quick-sketch. The shallow DOF is nice. Funny thing is - they look somewhat like what's getting done in some fashion shots these days in terms of colors and facial expressions. Keep it up.

Some of them are lovely, but I think you should edit the folder down a bit. Walker Evans did something very similar in Chicago in 1947, and Harry Callahan took up the theme a few years later, so you should be aware of these precedents and try and work out how your work might relate to or differ from theirs.

Thanks for the thoughtful replies. I more or less stumbled apon this project. I liked the

results I was getting during some afternoon street shots I was taking in Times Square.

Those were full body shots with more of the environment involved. What I found was that I

really only looked at the faces, and didn't care too much for the rest of the picture. I'd crop

them in closer and closer. Why? I dunno. So, every time I'd take more, I'd zoom in closer

and stand closer to the people. I ended up choosing nighttime because I just really like

the ambiance. Though it's tough without any additional light. A few people mentioned Phil

DC. I was familiar with his work when I started this project, but had no idea about the

'heads' series. I was in a bookstore later on when I ran across it. It was one of those odd

half-inspiring/half depressing moments. True, he's got his own spin on things. At the very

least, I prefer found light only. Finding it is half the fun. New York has lots of interesting

light. So I suppose I'm more with Walker Evan's philosophy. I'm unfamiliar with Luc

Delahay and Harry Callahan, though I'll look into them soon. Someone mentioned

approach, technique, and equipment. Approach and technique is that I lean against a wall

in Times Square and spot someone interesting a few seconds before they walk through a

single spot of good light. I keep them in AF and snap, hopefully, at the right moment. I

have a card that holds 51 shots. Sometimes I can go through it in 10 minutes, sometimes

it takes more than an hour. Occasionally, I'll shoot a few in sequence, although those

usually aren't as good for some reason. Equipment is a Nikon D-100 with an 80-200mm

AF lens, usually at 150-200mm (220-300mm, 35mm equivalent). Anyway, thanks

everyone for the words.

Mark,

 

I would agree that these aren't exactly "portraits" and aren't exactly "street" either. But who cares about that!? I found some of them not that interesting but some of them stand on their own. More important, as a "photo story" this is very interesting and quite original. If I was doing this I would edit these (you said you have more of them, add those, too) and select a single particular mood/type of people/atmosphere in order to strenghten your message. I am not talking about something obvious like "young people" or "cell phone talkers" or whatever. Something more suttle. May be a tired look after work day, or something like that. Right now I see too many things but it's too broad to define... whoa, isn't that NYC!? :) Of course, it might be exactly what you're trying to do so I'll leave it to you. Good luck!

Mark,

 

I enjoyed your gallery. It is close to something I've been trying to do, so I was interested in your technique explanation.

 

Not having been to NYC in a few years, I'm wondering how you handled the people-interaction side of this assignment. If you were only a dozen feet away, then presumably you had to deal with people wondering what you were doing. These look "candid" (i.e., shoot first, answer questions later :). Are New Yorkers more blase about having their photos taken -- even at dusk -- than people in small cities?

 

I think your technique of standing in a particular spot and waiting for the right thing to happen at that spot is one I hadn't thought of. For the pedestrian, you are part of the street in a way that a moving photographer isn't. Perhaps that is am important technique in getting candids on the street.

 

I also appreciate your insight that lead you to this assignment: looking at the photos you've taken and seeing what caught your eye. I just did that same thing for all my photos for a year (travel, event, wedding, street, zoo, whatever) and found it was always faces (or pairs of faces) that communicated something elemental (oddly enough, I found that was true in some of the zoo photos too!). Those were (in my own view) my successful photos. The rest are technically good or bad, but not something I want to stare at.

 

Thanks again for posting the gallery.

 

John

John, I only got hassled once in several hundred or more photos. Ironically enough, it was

from a guy whom I wasn't even photographing. He was handing out flyers on the corner

and probably thought, since I had been snapping away for several minutes, that he was in

every photo. I promised not to take his picture and that was it. That actually happened

during the day, early on in the project. Most other times, people simply glance at me and

keep walking on. New Yorker's pride themselves on getting from point A to B and letting

nothing sway them from their course. Prevent them from this, and you'll get a hassle back

with added interest. Some guy with a camera is easily discardable

information for a New Yorker on their way somewhere. Conversely, I'd be extra careful

taking a photo of a New Yorker standing somewhere with little to do. This is what

happened with the flyer guy. However, on a few occasions, people have actually smiled.

Tourists sometimes would go bug-eyed like they had just been photographed for Time

magazine (yeah, I wish too). I met a few people also, which was kind of cool. They were

photographers as well. However, it takes me a bit to warm up to a perfect stranger on the

street with expensive camera gear hanging around my neck.

 

To Pawel and those discussing context and editing: I did actually have an impromptu

exhibit going as I took these. They ended up as color copies running chronologically

across

my cube at work and some vacant others. I have a few snapshots here:

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/2268470

 

People at my work seemed to like it. I'd be very interested in what my photo.net colleages

think about the format.

That's funny, Mark. Yesterday, someone kindly offered to shove my camera up my ... well, you get the idea. And I wasn't taking his picture, either, although he insisted I was. That's the only time something like that has happened to me, and basically I think he made up his mind to be mad at me no matter what I did.

http://www.photo.net/photo/2268470 --- WoW! Mark, your "impromptu" exhibit is awesome! I like the format, literally a wall of faces!