I often meet an ethical dilemma in moments when I have a camera in hand and witness a beautiful gesture of human beings just being human beings. I want to take a picture. I want to save and preserve and visually celebrate the beauty I see before me. And yet, how does one communicate that intention to their subject? How does one make certain the subject indeed feels celebrated, rather than disrespected or taken advantage of?
Photography can be exploitative. It can be dangerously manipulative and unrepresentative – especially when we’re photographing people. I often wonder, “who am I to photograph these people and tell the visual story of the way I perceive them to be?”
And yet, with all the complexity of ethical matters at hand, I still feel compelled to photograph strangers. I love photographing people and the moments they create in ordinary life, in simply being human. I love using my camera to engage with people I may not otherwise have the opportunity to engage with. So how to do this then? I’ve found I create the best photographs when I have an encounter with the subject and can communicate my appreciation for them, and my curiosity about them as people.
I’ve experimented with new ways of using my camera to engage people at home in Vancouver over the past year – and have found it to be a life-giving way to interact with strangers. I’ve had powerful conversations with people in downtown Vancouver who I didn’t know an hour previous to photographing them.
In preparation for my recent trip I wanted to carry a similar concept forward - and at the same time was particularly conscience of the challenges present in doing this abroad. I’m currently in Africa. Sure I can study regions and countries and cities, culture, history, political landscapes, but I don’t know the culture. I most often can’t speak the language. I’m an outsider. An outsider with a camera that wants to photograph people and places. Sure, there are a dozen people an hour willing to allow you to take their picture for $1 – but that transaction feels gross to me. It makes a commodity of human interaction – the complete antithesis to what I hope to capture and communicate in a portrait – which is connection, not some kind of monetary transaction void of either person’s humanity.
So how do we do that? I’m not exactly sure. But I’ve been inspired in recent years by the work of photographers making use of Polaroid cameras and felt they may be appropriate here to attempt a more genuine photographic exchange. So far it's been offering a way to interact with people and leave them with something – not a dollar, but a portrait.
These are the beginnings of my Polaroid portrait project. It is my hope that the subjects below have received at least a portion of the joy I have been given in the interactions that have allowed for these images to be made.
To each of the faces below, I say thank-you.
More to follow,
k
Photography can be exploitative. It can be dangerously manipulative and unrepresentative – especially when we’re photographing people. I often wonder, “who am I to photograph these people and tell the visual story of the way I perceive them to be?”
And yet, with all the complexity of ethical matters at hand, I still feel compelled to photograph strangers. I love photographing people and the moments they create in ordinary life, in simply being human. I love using my camera to engage with people I may not otherwise have the opportunity to engage with. So how to do this then? I’ve found I create the best photographs when I have an encounter with the subject and can communicate my appreciation for them, and my curiosity about them as people.
I’ve experimented with new ways of using my camera to engage people at home in Vancouver over the past year – and have found it to be a life-giving way to interact with strangers. I’ve had powerful conversations with people in downtown Vancouver who I didn’t know an hour previous to photographing them.
In preparation for my recent trip I wanted to carry a similar concept forward - and at the same time was particularly conscience of the challenges present in doing this abroad. I’m currently in Africa. Sure I can study regions and countries and cities, culture, history, political landscapes, but I don’t know the culture. I most often can’t speak the language. I’m an outsider. An outsider with a camera that wants to photograph people and places. Sure, there are a dozen people an hour willing to allow you to take their picture for $1 – but that transaction feels gross to me. It makes a commodity of human interaction – the complete antithesis to what I hope to capture and communicate in a portrait – which is connection, not some kind of monetary transaction void of either person’s humanity.
So how do we do that? I’m not exactly sure. But I’ve been inspired in recent years by the work of photographers making use of Polaroid cameras and felt they may be appropriate here to attempt a more genuine photographic exchange. So far it's been offering a way to interact with people and leave them with something – not a dollar, but a portrait.
These are the beginnings of my Polaroid portrait project. It is my hope that the subjects below have received at least a portion of the joy I have been given in the interactions that have allowed for these images to be made.
To each of the faces below, I say thank-you.
More to follow,
k