THE GESTALT OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
WHAT is street photography? WHY do I do street photography? HOW to do street photography?
THE PORTFOLIO
Street photography is all about life and the human condition – a complex, confusing, messy topic that is difficult to understand at any age. Still, it’s helpful for the photographer to be older with a little life under the belt. It’s also helpful to be a psychologist, a philosopher, a storyteller, an artist, a designer, and most definitely, a humanist. For this reason and more, good street photography requires a lot from its practitioner. Not only does it take skill, it also requires optimism, persistence, passion, of course, luck. And very definitely, quick reflexes. Not surprisingly, a lot is expected from the viewer. It requires patience and a discerning eye. When photographer and viewer are matched, the experience becomes deeply satisfying for both.
EXPLORE THE STORIES THROUGH THE BLOG
THE EYE BEHIND THE LENS
My Friend, the 13th century mystical poet Rumi is alive in me. He whispers in my ear, “Behead yourself……Dissolve your whole body into Vision: become, seeing, seeing!” Then he continues: “Shut your eyes so the heart may become your eye, and with that vision look upon another world.”
Science has shown that 80% of the information we gather about the world around us, comes to us through our vision. 10% from sound, 10% from our other senses, touch, smell, taste. Vision is therefore terribly important. Rumi knows however that deep vision involves more than sight. Who we are matters. Life experience, values, humanity, passions, fears and loves, shape what and how we see and how we photograph.
Perhaps, more than anything, as Rumi sensed, when the eye and the heart are in harmony, then time slows, trust emerges and 6th sense, intuition, finds its place in the process. Reflexes are quick. Photographer and camera are one. Another world emerges.
If you want to know the eye behind the lens, study my photographs, read my blogs. When viewed as a whole, my photos merge to form a self-portrait - who I am and how I relate to my world.
“Most visitors to New York City spend a few days seeing the iconic sights and then they leave.”