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Joel Meyerowitz's Definition of Invisibility


rj__

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Joel has a certain way about him that isn't threatening. He's also very slender and doesn't cast an imposing impression.

 

Other people don't have it that easy.

 

I'm a large guy, I love street photography but the street doesn't like me. I am almost always challenged by people. When you're a guy, and you're large and look a certain way, people just immediately assume you're a pervert or something.

 

I'm not a quiet, passive person. I'm very outgoing... good sense of humor and personality, hip to trends, but I don't follow them. I don't act like I look. I kinda look like a big janitor, sometimes "GWC" or "Guy With Camera". I'm trying to shed this look.

 

I have a small female friend who has the ability to go up to women and say "can I take a picture of your amazing legs and boots?"

 

Guys can't do that.

 

I have another male friend, a big and burly guy, but a real nice old man, who was taking some street shots and he happened to start shooting some kids playing with a beach ball. A woman asked him what he was doing and he struck up a conversation with her. Everything was fine, she seemed OK with it. He even gave her his card, said he's send her photos. He walked away and went home. 30 minutes later cops went to his house and interrogated him. The woman with the kids called the cops on him and give them his info.

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<i>I have a small female friend who has the ability to go up to women and say "can I take a picture of your amazing legs and boots?"

<p>

Guys can't do that. </i><p>I do it all the time. I don't always ask, but I don't hide that I'm doing it.<p><center><img src="http://www.spirer.com/images/legs1.jpg"><br><i>Legs and Boots, Copyright 2006 Jeff Spirer</i></center><p>It's all about whether or not you want the photo, not gender, as sp says.

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It's all really about good technique and confidence...and a nice smile. If you feel comfortable in what you are doing,so will everyone else.

 

Start in a small way, and work on it. Because you have a cam does not mean you become an expert on all types of photography...even with Leica cam....

 

And for many street is not for them.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 1 year later...

<p>On a really busy corner in a city like NYC people are moving fast, sometimes gaze averted and are guarded and closed to what's around them. Someone shooting would pass in and out of their visual and physical space quickly; they don't miss a beat. They keep on moving, propelled by the humanity behind them and pulled by the people ahead. <br>

A photographer would only be one of the many things encountered on a minute to minute basis. It would take something or someone really special to disrupt the "zone" they occupy.</p>

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