I wanted to talk about something different for this week’s blog post, so I decided to share an experience with you that has stuck with me and paved the way in which I photograph.
Right so some of you may already know that I am a photography student, but I want to talk about how I started out with something fairly new to me in the genre of street photography. To set the scene – About a year ago, I was doing a foundation art course before heading to uni and this is where I discovered my fascination with people and photographing them. That sounds sort of creepy, but I mean, we all people watch in some form or another – whether you admit it or not. As an avid observer of those around me, I started to shoot street photography and document those who I’d come across whilst wondering the streets of the West Midlands.
The process of beginning to shoot people is a long story, (one for a future blog post perhaps) so I’m going to try and keep it concise and not waffle on for too long in fear of boring you all to tears.
I was out in central Birmingham working on my street photography project that I had not long started. I was completely new to this type of photography, but I loved it and I was so deeply inspired. It scared the absolute shit out of me, but I was hooked.
Anyway, the sort of street photography that I wanted to include in this project was a lot of environmentalist portraits, which is basically me getting all up and personal in your face with a camera and taking a portrait of you in a familiar environment or surroundings (as politely as possible of course). This meant approaching strangers and asking them if I was able to take a photograph of them. Naturally, I was terrified with everyone I approached. I mean, it’s completely bizarre to have a stranger come and have a chat while doing a mini shoot outside of Tesco, but alas, there was something special about it, a surreal and very different experience with whomever I was to meet.
Right, so back to the one I want to actually tell you about…
I was having a really unsuccessful shoot day (people just didn’t seem to want to be photographed that day) and I was just downright grumpy and miserable because of it. That was of course until I was spoke to a lady who was waiting on the corner of a quiet street mid-morning. Her name was Jeraldine and I learned that she was a betting agent. I came across her on a corner in the middle of Birmingham somewhere and we got chatting whilst she let me take some portraits.
I remember telling her that I was nervous to approach her at first, as well as other strangers I wanted to photograph, and she told me: “The worst you’ll get is a no, so don’t worry,” which stuck in my head (more-so, at the time, from a photographer’s perspective). The possibility of rejection was inevitable and going head to head with that, confronting it straight on seemed to help. All I had to do was move on. I’m realising now though that it’s a piece of advice I can carry with me through other things too. Like if I was to go on an interview for a job for example. If I was to get rejected, just take it on the chin and move on. I just thought it was such a simplistic piece of advice, but it had tremendous impact.
Another thing she told me whilst chatting was that she was transgender and proceeded to be very free spoken about it and about her sexuality, which was sort of refreshing as she shared with me her affairs and experiences.
I asked her about the process and how it was she came about knowing she was meant to be someone else and very generously shared with me her wisdom.
She told me, “Don’t worry about anyone but you. You’ll morph into your true self with time. Just be there. People watch! Learn things from strangers.”
This is a piece of advice that has stuck with me ever since that day, and probably always will. She may have told me this perhaps in a different context, but what I interpreted was that she was absolutely right however she meant it. I was so inspired by the essence of her whole character and how open-minded and how free she was within herself.
I find myself sometimes completely and utterly engrossed in people, and how they were so different. They never cease to amaze me. It sounds bloody cheesy I know, but honestly, I am so fascinated by people and like to go out and photograph them, and just talk to strangers. It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone and their life in just having a little chat. It’s actually more liberating than you’d think. I think that it’s more of a personal learning curve, I suppose is one way to describe it - to absorb those around me and learn from them, be more open to society as a whole.
Meeting Jeraldine was one of the better experiences I’ve had whilst shooting street photography. They haven’t all been as informative or as inspirational, believe me, but they are all ones I learn from and cherish, nonetheless. Granted some have been scarier than others, albeit a little risky (one in particular, but that’s a story for another day), but I love photographing strangers and getting to know fractions of their lives in such a small amount of time. It’s thrilling in a way. I feel like that this experience with Jeraldine, taking aboard her advice and wisdom helped me see that, and so I share this advice with you too. Be like Jeraldine, listen to her wise words and I swear to you, it may even change your life, or rather a part of it.
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