From the archives

From the archives - 01.22.2021

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This entry is all about making street portraits during a global pandemic. Think of this as a follow up post or sequel to “From the archives - 08.19.2020” .

In my previous post about making street portraits, I talked about how I became comfortable with approaching strangers for their portraits. However, with COVID-19 having been around for close to a year now, this posed a challenge for me both creatively and mentally. Those challenges being: Do I want to approach strangers during a pandemic? How do I even begin to ask people for their portraits? How could I even make an interesting portrait with most of their face covered?

At first it was pretty difficult, no one was really out. The streets of San Francisco was still relatively empty which meant I had to look a little harder or really keep an eye out for anyone that piqued my interest. I thought the aspect of the mask would hide too much of the persons face or be too distracting for a portrait. But then I soon realized that the masks people are wearing became more expressive or added a layer of mystery to them. The masks had an interesting way of adding to the subjects outward personality but without being too distracting. Some people even took down their masks because they preferred their expressions shown (All their choice, I didn’t ask them to).

I also knew I had to change my approach to interacting with strangers. Being the soft spoken person I am, I had to learn to communicate with people through a mask that usually muffles my voice. This meant I had to project my voice louder than I’m comfortable with, but not in a way that changes my tone and speak with clear intentions. I would still compliment the people I talked to as a means of connecting with them; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. I felt like most people didn’t want to interact with a stranger and I totally respected that. But of the people that did let me photograph them I kept the interactions brief and respected their boundaries.

I feel like photographing people in masks is going to be the norm for a while until things are deemed safe and Covid is not a serious threat anymore.

Shot on Kodak Ektachrome E100 and Kodak Tri-X 400 with a Leica M-A and a 35mm Summicron.

From the archives - 08.19.2020

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This entry is dedicated to one of the most intimidating aspects of street photography: street portraits.

I’m naturally a shy person so street portraits have always been difficult for me. The act of walking up to a complete stranger and asking them for their portrait was completely out of my comfort zone. There have been countless times when I encountered people on the street and felt compelled to take their photo, but would stop myself by making up excuses in my head (ie: “they would probably say no” or “they would probably think I’m weird or creepy” or “I wouldn’t even know what to say”). After the moment of opportunity passes, the thought of “why didn’t I just talk to them?” would linger in the back of my mind and this frustrated me.

Instead of letting myself get discouraged, I decided to challenge myself by slowly engaging more with my surroundings. My goal was to build up my confidence so that I could approach strangers and ask them for their photo. I first started by asking friends of friends in social settings. This allowed me to learn how to talk to someone I wasn’t familiar with, but who also wasn’t a complete stranger. Then I started to gain the confidence to ask strangers. Without the crutch of familiarity, I applied what I had learned from my previous interactions in order to push myself to talk to strangers. There were definitely a lot of no’s but equally as many yes’s.

Over the years, I’ve found that a simple compliment or even being completely transparent with your intentions can go a long way with most people. It makes them feel at ease and they’re more open to the idea of a stranger taking their photo. Sometimes my subjects will let me take their photo and be on their way or sometimes they’ll get excited and will let me direct them. Those experiences usually yield the best portraits. I’ve also learned (if possible) it’s important to give your subjects a copy of their portrait via email or even a physical print. Sharing your work with them gives you the chance to broaden your audience outside of social media/your normal sharing outlets and it makes for a nice gift. The photos below are some of my favorite street portraits and they’re in no particular order.

Shot on various film stocks and various cameras.

From the archives - 08.12.2020

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While I was in the process of revamping my website and figuring out a better system for cataloging my archive, I came across these photos. These are from my first trip to New York City back in 2017 while I was on my first paid travel freelance shoot (expenses paid for by my client). What makes these photos special to me is that they were all taken in the span of 15 hours and this was my fist time developing color negative film.

During this time I was still working full time at a coffee shop in SF and balancing freelance jobs here and there. While I was at work, I got an email from a previous client asking me for my availability for a shoot and that they had a surprise. After a bit of back and forth, we lock in dates and my client revealed to me we were doing a 2 day shoot in New York! I was in shock. I never thought that I would get the opportunity to get paid to travel for a shoot. Excited about the news, I immediately talked to my manager to get the days I needed off. Long story short, I could only get 1 of the days off effectively turning a 2 day shoot into a really packed 1 day shoot. And to make matters more difficult, I had to come back the same day in order to make it to work at the coffee shop the following day. So I booked a ticket for a red eye flight (8:40pm) from SFO to JFK and return red eye (9:10pm the following day) from JFK to SFO.

Fast forward to the airport, I had a bag full of gear with me (Camera, 3-4 lenses, tripod, external mic, extra batteries, tripod, laptop, and chargers, my film camera, and 2 rolls of film) and I’m waiting to board my flight in the terminal. While I was waiting, I was going over the schedule for the day. We had call time for the first shoot at 8am-11am in Brooklyn and a call time for 12pm-3pm for the second shoot in Manhattan. This gave me about 2 hours of free time upon my arrival and 6 hours of free time before my departure. When I finally got to JKF, I quickly figured out how to navigate the NY MTA and get to Brooklyn as fast as I could. I managed to make my way to the Brooklyn Bridge and walk about half of the span, then squeezed in enough time to wander around DUMBO before making it to the first call time.

After the first shoot, we hopped in an Uber and headed to Manhattan. Seeing the busy streets of NY from a car for the first time was very overwhelming especially compared to the streets of SF. This got me excited to hit the streets as soon as we wrapped on set. After we finished on set, my client and I parted ways and I was free to wander the streets of Manhattan. I made my way from SoHo, to LES, to East Village, to Time Square, to Grand Central Station then booked it back to JKF in order to catch my flight back to SF. I was so tired from walking around and carrying a heavy bag that by the end of the night, I fell asleep in my seat before the plane even took off haha. I drank so much coffee the following day just to keep me up.

Looking back I really wished I had brought more film with me on this short trip because every place I went I had to think about if the shot was worth taking. I had my digital camera with me but after using it all day on set, it was nice to snap some photos and wait to see the results. I was really pleased with how these came out. I’m not sure if its because of how I developed it or how I scanned it but I’ve never been able to get replicate this look from this film stock. In any case I think that is part of what makes them special to me.

Shot on Kodak Gold 200 with a Contax G1 using a 45mm and 90mm Zeiss Contax G lenses.

A few frames - 07.31.2020

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These were shot maybe about a month or so ago after California’s Shelter in Place (maybe sometime in April or early May?) orders were put into effect. This was such a surreal time; the once busy city of San Francisco at a stand still. Streets were so empty that there was a slight eeriness in the air. This was also during the time that outdoor activities were deemed “low risk” so some areas of SF started to breathe life again.

In retrospect, that little bit of uncertainty put the things we took for granted and what was considered “safe” and “not safe” from that time into perspective.

Shot on Kodak Gold 200 with a Contax T3