Wednesday: June 4, 2008

For some reason my blog clock is off by 4 hours so it says I’m posting this at 2 30 am on Thursday? Not that it really matters but jut to be clear I’m always posting on the day the entry title is!

Anyway, on Friday we went to Harlem. It was definitely an experience. It was hard for me to take what I see as a good picture because the people who were around were not interested in having their picture taken. I got yelled at a few times to “get permission” and “not take anymore pictures”. Even though it was intimidating, it was a good experience for me. Not everyone is comfortable having his or her picture taken, and this taught me how to walk away and keep my cool. Take a look at what I did get though!

This was a construction worker who I met just before we all left Harlem. He was really friendly, and even drove up to me in some crazy machine for lifting things and asked me to take his picture. He then proceeded to get out and come talk to me for a while and was completely fine with me taking his picture after I asked. He had a nice personality and joked with me that I had a thing for him and loved taking his picture. He even offered for me to take pictures of all of his friends a block or so away, but I decided not to. It was nice to find a friendly face in Harlem, even though it took me until the end of the trip. I like this portrait because you can really see how animated he is. It captured his personality (well, what I know of it) well!

Well at least the buildings didn’t yell at me for taking their picture! I like this one because of how angular it is. It’s divided into three obvious sections of different colors, all of which lead your eye to the point where both buildings and the sky meet.

I took this shot on impulse. I saw the subject walking down the street and initially noticed his hat. As he walked by, I decided to take a quick shot of him without thinking too much about it. I’m glad I did! The look on his face is great. As I said before, a lot of the people in Harlem had serious attitudes, and this look on the subject’s face in this picture really shows that. I don’t think he looks angry, just sortof like… “what are you doing!? who are you and why do you have a camera?”, which is the vibe I got from most people the whole afternoon. I also like that the picture is zoomed out enough to include the sidewalk in the background framed by the scaffolding, again leading your eye all the way back into the photo, past the subject.

This is the only other person in Harlem who agreed to let me take his picture when I asked. He saw that I had a camera and initially tried to get a co-worker of his to let me take a picture of her, but she was too shy or uncomfortable and didn’t want me to. So, I asked him if he would let me take a picture of him and he said okay! Even though he agreed to it, when I started to take pictures he got a little bit shy and uncomfortable, but still seemed flattered I was taking his picture. I’ve found that even when my friends take portraits of me I get a little nervous (even though I do it to people, too!), so his reaction was very human to me. It’s also funny to look at the subject of this picture versus the subject of first picture I posted (the construction worker) and see how differently the two subjects respond to the camera, the former being self-assured and confident and the latter being more reserved. In the first picture, the subject has light falling directly on him while in this picture the subject is almost a silhouette, which makes sense in terms of their personalities.

This picture is very Harlem to me. A man on the street was trying really hard to sell something to Colin and chased us down about a half a block before giving up.

Some more buildings in Harlem! I like the colors and angles in this one.

This woman was going up and down the street reading from the Bible and preaching about something, I’m not entirely sure what. To me, she looks really passionate in this picture. Because of the aperture settings I was using, everyone in the background is just sortof fading away but she is clearly in focus. I also like the sunlight falling directly on her head. I’m trying to decide if I prefer it in color or in black and white, so if you have any thoughts let me know?

Another one of just Harlem. What I like most about this picture is all of the direction lines. The paint on the street, the street itself, the sides of the buildings, and the cars all lead your eye ALL the way back into the picture. All of the lines work to make me notice not only the foreground of the picture, but also and perhaps even more so the background of it (if you look closely you can even see the buildings at the very very back of the picture).

Being in Harlem and dealing with the negative reactions of its inhabitants made me think further about some things I’ve been considering about New York City since living here. I’m stealing this from a comment I left for Jae on her blog earlier today, but I think it sums up how I’m feeling right now.

“Last night I was thinking about how I consider New York City to be one of the loneliest places in the world. So many people surround me when I’m here, but I feel more alone at times than I ever have. None of these people knows me, thinks about me, cares about me, etc. New Yorkers have to desperately try to stand out, be an individual, and not get lost in the crowd as I sometimes feel I do when I’m in New York. But your photos don’t let them do that. In the darkness, everything and everyone blends together and some of the individuality that the subjects of your pictures and even of New York City itself strive for is lost. I love these pictures because they tell the truth, but I hate these pictures because they tell the truth. To be clear, I don’t actually hate these pictures at all, I think they’re lovely, I just hate they way they make me feel. Regardless of any of your personal intentions behind these photos, for me, when I look at them I am forced to see New York in the way I hate to: huge, empty, and a little bit lonely.”

This is not to say I don’t love New York! I really do! Just something to think about.

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