Dichotomies
The irony of my interest in street photography is my inherent personality; I am naturally introverted, shy, empathetic, and I don't like making people uncomfortable. In street photography, you have to have some level of disengagement to where you don't hesitate regardless of whether your subject is 100% on-board with you taking their photograph or not. Think of Steve McCurry. If you don't know his name, I'm certain you know his work, specifically the National Geographic picture of the young Afghan girl with the piercing green eyes. This was a photograph that sticks in the mind, one that you almost can't shake. It had a great impact on me as a teenager obsessed with photography. But in the decades that followed the immortalization of that image, the truth was revealed. The photographer took it without the permission of the subject, a young girl fleeing a wartorn country and living in a refugee camp, who felt violated and unsafe with this white man taking her photo without so much as speaking to her first. While I didn't know this particular story until much later, as a teen I struggled to take the photos I longed to when around people I did not know due to the feeling I got about it; it just felt...intrusive.
The reason I am thinking of this, the way in which my love of street photography always inspired me but never turned into a reality of my art, was the recent commercial shoot I did. It was my first commercial shoot, at the place I worked at not so long ago. 9Wood is located in the heart of Springfield, Oregon, next to the train tracks with a view to the east of rolling hills that are speckled with orange and yellows this time of year. While I worked there for many years, I was too shy to speak to many of my colleagues outside of the circle I worked with directly.
This inhibition of mine was in stark relief when I arrived there on the first day of November, but I gathered my courage to walk in. It seemed few or none knew of my purpose, and so I went through explaining myself as best I could, asking permission as I went, and trying my best to not get in the way of workers.
This shoot was challenging for me personally, as it called into the spotlight my own private anxieties. Despite or perhaps because of that, I am quite proud of the photographs I walked away with. The masks make the gazes more piercing, the warmth of the wood they're working with shines through, and brings depth to the images.
