Study in Sidewalk Sleeping

Sidewalk Sleeping, panhandling, and bums in general are a part of the

overall San Francisco experience since courts have upheld their right

to panhandle. The city has cut down on welfare subsidies and

offered 'care not cash' (in-kind services instead of cash payments),

but some residents eschew offers of shelter, preferring to 'go it

alone' on the streets. Your ratings and critiques are invited and

most welcome. (If you rate harshly or very critically, please submit

a helpful and constructive comment/Please share your superior

knowledge to help improve my photography). Thanks! Enjoy! John

John, I really enjoy this image... the composition is strikingly simple and what really grabs my interest in the streak of paint above the man's shoe... I can just picture him drawing that line with his foot, before resting it on his knee. A wonderful example of how important the background is in making a street photo "work".

I took several photos of this man, as I inched my car down the street, but it was this 'background' slash of paint that really caught me, for it appears just as you said, part of a greater whole.

 

While not a 'great' composition, the colors seem felicitious and it literally looks like his shoe did make a paint 'slash' before he went into his blissful repose, there beside the traffic in the late afternoon.

 

I can't imagine how poor it would have been in B&W and/or without the paint slash.

 

I enjoy your comments, always.

 

John (Crosley)

People are the most interesting to photograph. Too bad this is reality! Great photo.

John, What realy is interestingand bizarre in that street shot is not only the red bg. but the line and point on the wall that looks like an exclamation mark... as if saying look at me. I took something like that in Vienna, and it is always hard for me to look at people in that situation. realy good street shot with a saying. Pnina

An Exclamation point for you, Pinina for noting that the 'swoosh' actually does look like an exclamation point!

 

Having been to war and been to countries where people sleep on the street out of necessity (this guy has a bed available to him any time if he will use it, but he has to live by rules), it doesn't bother me so much to take such photos.

 

I really don't bother with photos of the downtrodden so much as a genre any more than I do with other types of photos (say waitresses and customers in restaurants, etc), but I never shy away from a subject. (For instance, as I write this, someone has given this photo a 2/2 rating, and I'll not protest it, but they probably mean to discourage me from taking such photos, and it won't -- they don't know how little I'm discouraged by low ratings.

 

And with the colors and shapes of this photo, as well as the subject, I think it's striking and even if it had a string of 0/0s, I still would post it.

 

And I thank you for your supporting and interesting comment. This took 3 seconds to take, and doesn't necessarily represent any 'viewpoint' of mine -- just what I saw that was interesting.

 

John

Indeed, this guy was just one thing I photographed as I drove up one street and down another in San Francisco, all from my car. (Street photographers needn't be ambulatory, I think I've proved.)

 

I just drove up/down several streets with two cameras with zoom lenses and singled out anything/everything that caught my interest, and I'm posting some of that in this folder. It doesn't represent anything more than a chronicle of how good I could photograph what I saw in an interesting manner.

 

;-)

 

John

John, like i said - you have that magic wizard-like ability to see these jewels of urban realities. It takes many skille=s and talents to work in harmony to be able to look-see-do at the rate you work. man, 2 hours? wow!

Besides the obvious graphic elements holding hands here, you have a way of shooting that leaves the dignity and humanity intact. This is no small doing. It comes from a big heart and highly developed skills. Bravo!

Lee

As I made my loop by car from skid row to downtown this man was closer to Powell Street downtown that skid row, and it appears the purple cast on his body is a reflection of the purple cast light from the wall above him. I am not sure why the sidewalk shows more 'blueish' as it was actually 'gray', but it's a lucky break, and I've learned not to argue with such luck.

 

And look at the 'color coordination -- his skin and his jacket match the wall,and his 'pillow' material match the sidewalk -- my 'stylist' had to work overtime to color coodinate this, running ahead to the plan this 'capture'.

 

Actually, that's just the 'luck' of a very 'lucky' day; or bettery yet, the reward of shooting a lot of film.

 

I took a number of shots as I approached this guy and wasn't satisfied until I got the arching white graffiti touching his toe for a graphic element.

 

;~))

 

John