Literature and Photography

© Stephen Uhraney Photo. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction Allowed.

The relationships of photographic images to text and language are ongoing and changing. They come in the form of blogs, editorial photographs, and as stories like photo essays, especially in Life and Look magazines. I mention these two because they were popular during the heyday of photo essays. Pictures illustrated the written word, to give proof to the events that took place. But I’m not interested in describing here the use of pictures for literature, but rather how literature guides our shooting styles.

I love to read and – full disclosure – I read lots of photography biographies, monographs on photography, and anything else with the word “photography” in it. But I also like to read classics like The Catcher in the Rye, The Sun Also Rises, On the Road, etc., books that take you away but, more importantly, exercise your imagination. You form images when you read, you picture a scene, you see what you’ve read. These images stay with you, and if you’re a photographer you store them in your mind, you file them away. Then, when you’re out shooting, something triggers those stored images and you try to recreate something you’ve read. Literature has an impact on your creative process. It doesn’t have to be an exact representation of what you have read, and in fact it shouldn’t be. It is more like a feeling, a sense of time or place.

I occasionally like to use quotations on my photographs that have been inspired by things I have read. They don’t necessarily come from the particular book that inspired the shot, they just fit the image. I will see something when out shooting, a particular scene, and I know before I take the shot what reference I will use.

The pic above reminded me of Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road. I was on a very early morning assignment and took a break in a diner. This gentleman was sitting at the table next to me, scratching lottery tickets, the cook in the background pouring coffee, the television on but full of static, the smell of bacon frying, the Formica table tops… All these impressions were inspired by the novel and Sal and Dean’s journey. Lottery tickets didn’t play a part in that book but they do in another, Dean Koontz’s False Memory. It’s a rather harsh novel.

The quotation goes like this: “Although he didn’t believe in the lottery, he did believe in miracles”

Read, everything you can, use your imagination, create images from the words, then when you’re out shooting you’ll discover you’re brought back to those books.

“Everything you can imagine is real.”
― Pablo Picasso

On Duty Fire Station 104 – A Shift

© Stephen Uhraney Photo All rights reserved

Two ongoing projects have kept me busy, so this is my first update here in a while.

The second of those projects is currently underway, at the Brightwater development with about three more years to go. The first one just wrapped up. I was fortunate enough to embed with the Mississauga Fire Service at Station 104, specifically A Shift. Mississauga is the sixth largest city in Canada and has an extensive Fire Service.

My story with Station 104 begins in a coffee shop in 2022. I was taking a break during a photo walk, sitting at a small sidewalk table. I heard the siren before the truck raced past, heading east on Lakeshore Rd. I probably took a photo, I don’t recall, but I do remember what I thought: fire trucks go by all the time, but we don’t see the people inside. They keep us safe and help us during the worst times of our lives, and I wanted to show those people to the residents of Port Credit. I contacted Fire Chief Deryn Rizzi, and we began this project in the summer of 2023. I would eventually end up spending 30 24-hour shifts embedded with A Shift, going to calls, watching TV, talking and laughing, cooking meals and drinking endless cups of coffee. Two minutes after walking into 104 just a little before 7am on my first day, I was thrown into the fire, as we were all leaping into the truck, on our way to a house fire. Not too many days later, I saw A Shift bring a man back to life. He had collapsed in a variety store and was VSA-Vital Signs Absent before we arrived, and they brought him back. But as we returned to the station, no one talked about it. It is just what they do. It was another day on the job.

My crew will roll their eyes when they read this, but I consider them superheroes. Yes, they have training and equipment and experience and back up but, every time the alert goes off in the station, they don’t know what they are going to see or be asked to do. They’re selfless. They rush in and help. And then they walk away, talk about the weekend, go grocery shopping, make pizza on Saturdays, and do it all again the next time the alert sounds. See? Superheroes.

This documentary will be shown for the month of February at the historic St. Lawrence Starch Building in Port Credit, Ontario, Canada. Opening Night February 1st at 7pm.

It will then be permanently installed at the Garry W. Morden Fire Training Centre in Mississauga. My heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Chief Deryn Rizzi; without her support this would never have happened. Also to my crew, A Shift: you guys took me on as one of your own and made me part of the crew. I can’t thank all of you enough for your friendship, camaraderie and support. You guys are the best!

One professional comment: coming up with ideas for documentaries and then selling them is not all that difficult. Some would have you believe that it’s impossible, but I say no. It is a lot of work, yes; it took more than six months of meetings and contracts to get this story going before even one picture was taken, but if you truly believe in a project, it is worth it. My impetus for all these stories is to show Port Credit to the people of Port Credit. I felt they deserved to see the brave men and women who selflessly protect them. So, if you have an idea for a story, get to work on it. Step one is approaching the people involved, who you want to shoot, to explain your idea and how the pictures will be used. Give them photos along the way. Documentary work is all about seeing beyond the surface.

“To look behind walls, to see life.” - LIFE Magazine

Imagination is everything

Photo by Stephen Uhraney All Rights Reserved

I always wanted to be a photographer. As I have said in past blogs, that destiny was inspired by my grandfather. I imagined I was a photographer, and I would look at the fantastic pictures in Life and Time magazines and imagine going on assignments to far-off places and taking memorable pictures for the world to see. I AM a photographer I would think, I AM shooting these fantastic pictures. I placed those thoughts into my imagination and then did everything I could to make them happen. That’s the key: imagine then put in the work.

It’s called Living from the End. Call those things that already exist, that you cannot see, into your imagination as if they already do exist and work backwards to make them happen. Make your future dream a present fact, have that feeling of accomplishment that it’s already there, the feeling of the wish fulfilled. You can fail at anything you don’t want to do, so why not imagine and take a chance on what you do want. Imagination is everything. You can get anything you want if you have faith, and you believe you have it.

I know all this sounds cosmic and believing in the universe is not everyone’s thing, but I AM a believer, it has happened to me on more than one occasion. If I did not have faith and imagination that this would happen, I would certainly be stuck in a job and life I did not want. I would not be fulfilled in the way that I am. Place positivity into your imagination. I Am, I Will, I Can. Push out the negative thoughts, like I Am Helpless, I Have No Control, I Am not Smart Enough. Practice positivity.

This is all about the Law of Attraction. Put into your mind, thoughts, and imagination what you want out of this life, keep those positive thoughts and what you want will manifest itself. You don’t have to believe it or me, just give it a try. You have everything to gain. If all you dwell on is the negative, that is what you will attract, but manifest in your imagination all things positive, imagine that you will get or have what you want. You owe it to yourself.

I believe the picture above speaks for itself.

One last point: keep this to yourself. The best way to kill a dream is to share it with negative people.

“When you change what you believe, you change what you do, which changes what you get.”

– Odille Rault

Why we do it

© Stephen Uhraney Photo, All Rights Reserved

I often get asked how long I have been a professional photographer. The answer is 42 years – and in all that time I haven’t worked a day in my life. I am fortunate to have found my passion at the very early age of 10.

My first camera was a Kodak 110, a gift from my grandfather. The first shots I took were of my friends playing the most Canadian of games: street hockey. The photo I remember taking wasn’t a shot of their smiling faces, but a detail shot of battered hockey sticks and a ragged tennis ball on the cracked road. That photo unfortunately has disappeared, but the image has always stayed with me. Being an editorial photographer typically means going in, taking the shot, then leaving; it’s always felt incomplete, never being able to stay around and get the whole story. I’ve always wanted to shoot more, to understand the lives of the people. At a news scene, all the photographers jostle for the same shot: the person being treated by the paramedics, flames spitting from a second story window… Documentary photography is entirely different, because you shoot stories, things that interest you. You have a chance to investigate, research, and learn, spending hours with your subjects, often going back multiple times. You can shoot the battered hockey sticks and the ragged tennis ball. This is far more rewarding.

For the past 15 years I have been doing just that, concentrating on documentary photography through self-assigned local projects: a boxing club, an older adult drop-in centre, a shelter for homeless men with alcohol problems, a trauma unit in a busy hospital, portraits of the clientele at a local food bank. Not glamorous stories to be sure, but stories about life, everyday life, there for all to look at, that we can learn so much from. They are infinitely interesting. Concentrating on these types of stories, you begin to understand people, seeing what they go through, good or bad, how they live, work, play. Then you truly appreciate where you are in the world. Through my efforts, I’m challenging the viewer to look at everyday life, to see the details and get the whole story.

Photographers are passionate about doing whatever it takes to show us what needs to be seen, what needs to be known. I believe the stories we shoot can stimulate understanding and create a sense of urgency that will move people to action. I believe in the power of the picture. I believe that in this self-absorbed, me-first attitude, a committed photographer can change the world with one great photograph.

The world is moving so quickly, life is the blink of an eye. What we try to do is slow it down, get the viewer to take a breath and show them behind the scenes, give them an understanding and maybe move them, push them to feel something. Photography is light and shadows, it shines a light onto the shadows that needs to be seen. It’s the way we tell stories now. Prior to the invention of photography, as far back as the early indigenous peoples, tribal history and stories were verbal, passed down from the elders. Now, in the digital world with everyone carrying a camera in their pocket, we can get our stories out to hundreds of millions of people within the blink of an eye. There is that phrase again, “the blink of an eye.” It makes me think of a camera shutter. That might just be it: use your eye, take a look, and see what’s going on in the world. Look behind the scenes, try to understand your life by looking at another person. What’s the worst that could happen? You might feel some empathy for your fellow traveller.

The picture above is from a documentary I shot at a homeless shelter for men with alcohol and drug addiction. The gentleman in the bed had contracted AIDS from an infected needle. He passed away shortly after this story was published.

“We tell stories using light. We tell stories using shadows. That’s it.”
― Merlin Schönfisch

Don’t be afraid to ask

© Stephen Uhraney Photo

Have you ever been out on a photo walk and it just isn’t happening? I have, and more frequently than I care to admit.

Have you ever been out and you see someone and think to yourself “I would love to photograph that face”? I have, more frequently than I care to admit. Have I ever acted on it? Yes! The worst that can happen is that the person says no. You won’t be killed, the cops won’t be called, life will go on. Just look for the next one.

The biggest part of street photography is getting over the fear of it. I have said this before but it’s worth repeating. Street photography is not using a telephoto lens and shooting from across the street. It’s all about getting up close and personal. Some of the best shots I have taken have been when the person has seen me. Now, take this a step further. If they see you and don’t want you to take their picture, engage them in a conversation. Tell them what an interesting face they have and how you would like to photograph them. You will be surprised how many people acquiesce, and you will probably get a better photo than you would have had it just been a grab shot. Call these street portraits. Don’t be afraid to ask.

If you plan on doing this, you may need a few extra items, but please don’t carry a huge camera bag. Throw them into a knapsack or rucksack. You will need is a flash, one or two 5-in-1 light disks (white, gold, silver, black, translucent) and, if you have room, a small tripod to attach your flash to. Crazy you say? Crazy like a fox! This will put you above the regular street shooters out there. I fit all these things into a shoulder-carry postal bag.

The pic above was just one of these scenarios. I saw this young lady on the boardwalk in Port Credit along Lake Ontario where I live. I had noticed her fanning herself from about 10 feet away. I raised the camera and she caught me and hid her face and shook her head. I laughed and she was smiling, so I knew I had an opportunity to make something happen. I convinced her to let me do a shot where she could hide part of her face, which to me was a perfect portrait. I switched a 32-inch 5-in-1 light disk to black for the background, held by one of her friends. The other light disk I held white side out to throw light back on to her face. And that’s it. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes.

It doesn’t need to be complicated. Some may think this is too much to do but, really, if you want a good shot, it’s not that complicated.

“Everything is complicated if no one explains it to you.”
― Fredrik Backman

Tech info

Fuji X-T3

Fujinon 35mm f2 R WR

5 in 1 Lite Disk times 2

Photography and Loneliness

© Stephen Uhraney Photo

I have been slowing down on the blog posts as of late. Life happens, things sometimes get turned upside down and you just need to take a break and contemplate what’s happening in your life. Not for nothing, but it’s a good idea to take a look inside once in a while. What I do obviously is turn to taking pictures and just watching life unfold. It’s like meditation to me. I watch life on the streets. I look at interactions of people and situations. It allows me to slow down, breathe, think, work through things. As I move through the world, hoping to be invisible enough to see and record, I am mirroring my own life to the actions of the street. Looking for the melancholy depending on the mood or looking for the joy and happiness – also mood dependent.

These moods, these thoughts running in and out of our minds, possess us, and yet photographing allows us the gift of not thinking of ourselves possessed at all. We have transferred ourselves out of body and onto the street, onto the subjects we are framing. It’s cleansing, it’s helping, it allows us to slow down the chaotic frenzy in our own minds, the thoughts that are darting in and out. It allows us to take a breath. Nothing is better than the feeling of getting ready to go out and just breathe. Getting the camera and proper lens for the journey out. Putting on your favourite shoes, maybe bringing some of your favourite music to act as the soundtrack to your trek. It is calming.

In the millisecond it takes to release the shutter, an invisible communion has taken place between you and the subject, something that you related to in your own life, an instant has become seen, one that you recognize, an act of witness has been accomplished. It may be cleansing for you, it may not, but the irrefutable fact is that you connected with that moment and maybe, just maybe, it helped you put things into perspective. It’s therapy. Photographers look not only to understand life but understand our own lives. If there is a cure for loneliness, it is this: that click of the camera’s shutter is a sound that evokes either anxiety or relief. “Click, I see you.” We are not alone.

The skill of seeing others is a skill that also needs to be turned inward. We need to see ourselves, understand who we are and why we are here. Photography for me has been a life saver. The last year has been a bummer for me: I became a widower, life slowed down, things just seemed to come to a crawl. You try to make the best of it, you turn to what you know, but that doesn’t always work out the way you want. My cameras have been a life saver, they don’t ask anything of me, they allow me to use them, they allow me to use my skill as a seer of people and to understand my own life. I knew from a very early age that I wanted to make this my profession, thankfully it’s the one path that to which I stayed tried and true, and it has allowed me to get through the tough times.

Things do get better, seeing and feeling helps.

“Seeing is not enough, you have to feel what you photograph.” – Andre Kerstesz

Who We Are

© 2022 Photo by Stephen Uhraney

I truly believe it is our responsibility as photographers to show the world the truth. We need to shed light on the areas of our neighbourhoods and communities that most refuse to look at. The work of photographers such as Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Walker Evans, and W. Eugene Smith (my personal hero) helped to change the world with their social documentary photography. This type of concerned journalism offers a view of the past and the present and gives a voice to the dispossessed in our society. Having worked and still working in the media, I was always intrigued about what happened to the people or places I went to as a spot news journalist. We’d all jostle for the same photo of fire spitting from an apartment window, police with their guns drawn, or a perp being taken away in handcuffs, and these pictures were always sensational and would grab the front page of your daily rag, but I always wanted to know more of what happened after all the excitement faded.

Billions of photos are uploaded to social media every day, which means photography has become so popular that the medium is in danger of losing its self-respect. I’m not sorry to say this: this is the most photographed generation of nothing, as we are raising a self-absorbed narcissistic group of dimwits. I am tired of looking at nothing!

Social documentary photography is a refuge to me, someplace I can go and get totally involved. I find inner peace in immersing myself in something that I care about. It is not breaking news, war zones or advocacy for one group or another, it’s about people and their struggles, their experiences in their daily lives. Look at W. Eugene Smiths Country Doctor essay: Smith spent 23 days photographing general practitioner Dr. Ernest Ceriani. Or how Lewis Hine used his camera and compassion to end child labour in the very early 20th century: Lewis Hine: How Photography Ended Child Labour in the USA.

Social documentary photographers work on faith and hope. They certainly don’t do it for the money. We hope people of goodwill will see the work and be moved to help or correct the problems. We work quietly as documentarians, behind the scenes and away from the public, often working for months or years on a project, and having to sustain ourselves on the odd photo assignment from a good-hearted editor. Don’t get me wrong, I have been doing this for over 40 years and in all that time I have not worked a day in my life. I do what I love. My daughter often says to me “Dad, photography is not what you do, it’s who you are.”

So how to get the stories out there? Newspapers aren’t interested in publishing this work, they are more concerned with ad space, and good luck finding a magazine today, especially one with a conscience. So as documentarians we are left to our own devices. You can write your own blog, such as this one, self publish, find space to hang your photos, or contact Non-Governmental Agencies (NGOs). If you truly believe your work needs to be seen, you will find a way to get it out.

My most recent body of work is Who We Are, 64 black-and-white portraits of the clients, volunteers and staff of the Compass Food Bank and Outreach Centre. I volunteer my photography services to the food bank to help with social media posts and whatever else they need photographically. I have come to love this place and the people that use it, and the volunteers and staff that help run it. I have been there for a little more than a year now, and during this past summer I came up with the idea to shoot the clients that use the food bank.

Every Thursday night during the summer, The Compass has a BBQ for the clients, so I set up my backdrop and lights and went about trying to convince them to have a portrait done. At first it was a tough go, as you can imagine. I would get asked “Why me?” or “What’s so special about me?” Or I would be told “No one will look at me. Nobody does.” That last one broke my heart. I managed to convince a few and then the flood gates opened. I did not take a lot of their time, as I knew people wouldn’t sit for very long, so each portrait took only about two minutes. The whole time I kept peppering them with questions, from the moment they agreed to sit. They just want to talk, they want to share who they are. My idea was to make them feel special, that they mattered. No one, and I mean no one, will give these people a second look on the street. These portraits hopefully made them feel special and gave back a little dignity. I had one man come back to the camera and take a look at his portrait, and he started to cry. I asked if he was happy with it and his reply was “No one has ever taken an interest in me like this. Thank you.” And then I cried a little too.

A quote I once read says: “Never doubt that a thoughtful group of committed photographers can change the world with one great photograph.”

The series of portraits is available for viewing at the Compass Food Bank and Outreach Centre, 427 Lakeshore Rd. East, Mississauga, ON L5G 1H8.

The Orchard

© Stephen Uhraney Photographer All Rights Reserved

The last few blog posts have been a little preachy. Shit happens in your life and you need to get a few things off your chest, even if they are veiled in blog posts. Enough of that. Let’s get back to some fun.

One of the magazines I used to shoot for has now gone the way of the dodo bird, but back in the day we would have our monthly editorial meetings at The Orchard Family Restaurant in Mississauga. And the editor always paid for the food, something else that has disappeared. This happened every month for the 15 years I worked there.

The diner was a throwback to the 1970s; the waitresses – and yes it only had waitresses – were all dressed in pressed white shirts, black skirts and running shoes. The staff knew who we were and always took great care of us. It got to the point where we wouldn’t even have to order, as they knew what we wanted.

At our meetings, there was the editor and the editorial staff: four writers and me. We would sit and chat, make jokes at each other’s expense, and talk about previous assignments. Once we were done eating, the editor would hand out assignments to the writers and would indicate to me which ones needed editorial photos. Some of us would pitch stories, and I would usually suggest documentary ideas. Some of these made it into print. These breakfast meetings often stretched to two and a half hours. They were so much fun, and I will always remember them fondly.

Even though the magazine is closed, when we meet up now it’s like we saw each other only yesterday. Since working in the media is quite a closed shop, I am fortunate to still work with some of them on assignment for different publications.

I always have a camera with me, and the pic above was taken at one of those meetings. We had wrapped up and were heading out. The kitchen was open, so you could see into it as you walked by. The cook is quite a character. He was at the grill, with a stack of eggs in front of him, and he yelled out, joking, as I passed, so I stepped in behind the counter and he raised his hands like “Here I am, take your best shot!” and I did. It really captures the feeling of the place: warm, welcoming, friendly. I miss those meetings. It was a great time.

Technical info

Nikon F5

Nikkor 20mm f2.8

Fuji 400H Pro Film

Honesty

© Stephen Uhraney Photo All Rights Reserved

Are there any honest people out there? Are we being honest to ourselves? Do we own up to our deceptions? Are we trying to put the blame on others?

Okay relax, you haven’t stumbled onto a blog site by Eckhart Tolle. What I am talking about though is manipulation, deception and being honest to ourselves. Why do photographers feel the need to fool people?

Let me explain. Some photographers go to extreme lengths to fool their audience by manipulating their photographs, to make them look more skilled than they are, and to pass off their work as legit. I don’t have a problem with that, as long as they make it known this is photo art, rather than a photo. When I worked for the dailies, we had to put in the byline if a photo was manipulated.

In my opinion, you should not do anything in Photoshop that you can’t do in a wet darkroom. Sure, bring up the contrast and saturation a little, burn and dodge if needed, but don’t make a sunrise look like the world is on fire! Be honest, because really you are only fooling yourself.

And yes, everyone is doing it. So, if everyone is lying that means you should too? No. Prove to yourself that you are good, make a legit photograph, put in the work.

I am not saying don’t be creative in how you shoot; the camera can be a tool to help us see life in a different way. In composition, we can improve the way a scene looks by adjusting how we’re looking at it, using different angles and perspectives. Shoot high, shoot low, use leading lines. To bring up saturation shoot slower shutter speeds and lower ISO, there are many ways in-camera to improve your shot. But overdoing it in Photoshop is only fooling yourself. How are you ever going to get better if you don’t practice being better? Sounds like a plan for life too. Look at a scene, really look at it before you shoot it. Figure out the possible problems with it. Get up high, get down low, try looking at it from someone else’s perspective or point of view. By doing this, you will be practising empathy, which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, and this will resonate far more in a photo than using software to make it look like something biblical.

The thought process today is to shoot as much as you can and then correct later in post. UGH!! Why not learn to do it properly in-camera and shoot less? Practice patience, the fundamental qualities for a photographer and for life. Patience is vital, as things rarely come together immediately in art or in life. Look at what you have in front of you and make it work. Don’t do it for the “likes” because then you become removed from the process and the personal satisfaction of why you started this in the first place. Don’t become over-invested in what others think of what you do. You gain nothing artistically and will only start to second guess yourself trying to please others. Then your work suffers, you become complacent and eventually you will give up.

People do things to get clicks from faceless strangers hitting a button. If you find yourself starved for praise, you need to rethink why you are doing this in the first place. It’s time to reset. Think back to why you started photography, think of the joys it brought you, the places it has taken you if only in your mind, the rainy days you were shooting reflections, the sunny days when you were looking for deep shadows and the days you got the shot of your life. Shoot what you are feeling, shoot your mood, your thoughts. Do it for yourself, not for the likes. Surround yourself with others that are like minded, buck the system and create your own.

The pic above was all done in camera and taken just for me, no one else.

Be honest about what you do.

Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.”

– Spencer Johnson

The big secret revealed

© Stephen Uhraney Photo All rights reserved

I have posted about a dozen stories since starting this blog last April. Yes, they have all been mine, that’s not the secret. The secret is: have they all been candids? For the most part, yes. For almost all of them, there is no way I could have set up those moments.

So, what am I going on about here, then? I could have titled this piece “Become Irritating, Bold and Intrusive.” When you’re out shooting and the day is going rather slowly and you have really gotten nothing, when it feels like you’re just releasing the shutter to make yourself feel better, it is time to change the game, shake things up.

Have you ever been out shooting and noticed a scene and thought to yourself, wow, that would be a great shot, but you didn’t have the chestnuts to go take it? C’mon, be honest, we’ve all been there. How many great shots have we all missed because we were too chicken to impose ourselves into a situation? 10, 20, 20,000?! Seriously, get over it. At the beginning of my street photography career, I would go home after a day of shooting and kick myself for not taking advantage of an opportunity to get a great shot. This happened quite a bit: being scared to approach people and ask if I could take a shot or, even bolder, just walking up within a few feet and start shooting a scene. Courage? You bet! It takes a whole bunch of courage to do that, especially in today’s climate. To me, it’s worth the risk, because it puts you above the rest, it sets you apart. If you want to take your photography to the next level, you have to be bold

And, often, people love to play to the camera. Once you see they’re accepting, you can cajole or even direct them somewhat, but be wary not to over direct; let them dictate the terms of their capture. Some great moments have come out of doing this. I will say this again: doing this takes you to the next level and set you apart from weekend shooters, the posers.

Purists would say approaching subjects first means these are not street shots. Fuck that. People who say that most likely use a long lens and snipe shots from 30 yards away, because they are afraid to shoot up close and use a proper street photography lens, a 20mm up to a 50mm. (On a film camera; say 30mm to 75mm for most digital cameras.) These people piss me off: if it’s out on the street, it’s street photography. By shooting this way we’re not trying to pass off these shots as candid; it’s blatantly obvious there was some interaction. That is what it is about, opening up your vision and taking the next step in your career. Vision, a great word.

The pic above is one of those shots. I was out walking on Queen St. West in Toronto, an area undergoing gentrification. This was taken outside a fetish bar. As I was walking along the street, I saw this scene from a distance away and realized I could not let this go. So, I approached and raised my Leica M6 with the Voightlander 35mm f1.4 to my eye and began shooting. No words were spoken, I just moved right into their circle and kept shooting.

I knew these people were all about being seen. I mean, look at them! They were totally playing to the camera. I banged off six shots, thanked them and moved on. It was great day to be Irritating, Bold and Intrusive.

“There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph.”

– Robert Heinecken

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