This afternoon I was continuing my exploration of Sigma's exciting color profiles. I'm stuck on "cinema" right now but might be moving on soon. My current favorite place to shoot is in a ten or fifteen block chunk of downtown Austin. I headed there with the idea of getting a latté, checking out the arriving Formula One tourists, and snapping away with the Sigma fp and the old (but really nice) Canon FD 50mm f1.4 lens.
I shot some frames of my favorite mannequins and some shiny buildings. I shot a shadow selfie with resilient plants in the frame. And I photographed a guy chilling out on the Astro-Turf at the Seaholm Shopping center about to be ambushed by a bird.
Then I stopped into a little coffee shop on Congress Ave. got a latté. I took the coffee to go and headed north toward the Capitol. There is a nice marble bench in front of yet another coffee shop that's outside and comfortable. I thought I'd sit for a spell (that coffee shop closes early and was shuttered when I got there) and enjoy the brisk 69° air.
Many years ago our downtown merchants and office buildings created the "Downtown Austin Alliance" and part of their play to make downtown safer and cleaner is their team of (unarmed) street ambassadors who pick up trash, calm down people who are off their meds, liaison with the police, and also check in with the homeless population when the weather gets bad. It's bad PR to have people die of hypothermia on the doorsteps of a downtown bank building.... They have a basic uniform and when it gets colder the Downtown Austin Alliance "ambassadors" all have red windbreaker jackets with the DAA logo on them. I guess it was "cold" today because they all had their jackets and matching hats on this afternoon.
Anyway, I was sitting on the marble bench out on the sidewalk sipping my coffee and just soaking in the ambiance, camera in my lap, when an "ambassador" walked by. He stopped and very nicely asked me, "Are you doing okay?" In that tone that's both helpful and welcoming but also reserved. I smiled and said that I was. Then he asked, "Are you staying warm enough?" And I realized that he was operating under the assumption that I was one of the homeless population. I was touched by his concern and at the same time embarrassed that I could pass for....a down on my luck, homeless person. But then I reframed the whole episode and thought that I had finally achieved that which every street photographer works toward: Almost perfect anonymity. Of a sort.
I guess I just had that weathered, tired and displaced look today. I headed back to my car, drove back to my neighborhood and re-entered my normal life. It was an eye-opener for me today though. But I guess in some strange way it speaks to my ability to shape shift in order to get the photos I want. It will make a good story down the road.
Also met and talked with a younger photographer who was working the streets today as well. He was sporting a vintage Leica M6 with a 35mm on it. He asked me what I was shooting with and I told him. He was a nice enough guy and he saw that I was floundering (not "foundering") at street photography. He suggested that I try reading a blog he'd recently come across that actually inspired him to come downtown to shoot... yeah. I read it.
Watch out for that old 'homeless' photographer...
10 comments:
Reminds me of a time about 10 years ago in my early 60's when I was driving a protoype electric car from San Jose to Morro Bay, Ca. Had to stop to charge in Salinas at 6am. I plug in and walk across the street to a 24 hour market to get coffee. I had a backpack on my back with $10K of photo gear. After browsing the high fat sugar treats, I settle for just a coffee. When I try to pay for it, the clerk tells me it's free as the carpenter who just walked out the door had bought it for me. We're all in this together, acceptance, kindness and generosity count.
I'm starting to get a little nervous for you about your seeming infatuation with Mannequins...
Kirk "Fly on the Wall" Tuck!
Modern day urban camoflage master
bt1138, just channeling my hero, WeeGee.
Nice work. I think the Sigma/Canon 50 combo really suits your style for cityscapes.
I can't help but mention the Swiss photographer René Robert, who fell to the street in Paris one night last winter. No one came to his aid until a couple of homeless people saw him at 5:30 in the morning and called police. Too late; he died in the hospital of hypothermia. M. Robert moved to Paris in the 1960s and became known for his photographs of flamenco performers. He was 85 years old.
I think the DAA Ambassador saw your crusty Canon FD lens and just made an assumption ;-)
Karmagroovy, I vote for this comment as the "comment of the day." Nicely done.
Greg, That's such a sad story. Reminds me of the Joel Meyerowitz image of a man who had fallen or fainted onto a street in Paris and people walked around him, even stepping over him without stopping to see what was wrong. Just a sad part of humanity. Here.....we ask.
I wonder if space aliens tune into your mannequin pics, get creeped out and leave orbit, the way I'm nervous about walking down some streets.
A few years ago a store in a local mall was going out of business and was selling their mannequins. I looked at them a bit, wondered if I could use them to make a creepy vulgar stop-motion video. But I wasn't sure that I could fit them in my car and was worried about what the neighbours would think when I threw them out in trash, so the moment passed.
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