safe haven for tiny formats

[rdenney]

Rick, a DSLR with a 50mm is very generic and normal in a touristy city. Especially after you take the gold d800 strap off and replace it with something less.

I'll take your word for it, but I travel by subway in a very touristy city quite frequently (Washington DC), and I rarely see a DSLR with a 50mm lens on it, at least in certain parts of town.

Rick "who has often held an SLR camera in the subway, and found that it attracted attention" Denney

[paulr]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Rick, I think I do annoy some people. Mostly just by being the guy with the camera who's all animated while everyone else is trying to take a few minutes to hide from the world. In most cases no one has any idea what I'm photographing, since the lens is pointed at a window where nothing discernible is happening. In some of the ones where I'm pointing directly at people in the next car I've gotten dirty looks, and one or two people have gotten up and moved out of sight. I try to be discreet so as not to make people uncomfortable. It's got to be creepy to see a camera pointed at you through a window. And in some cases I'll be pointed at the same scene or person for several minutes as they change poses, expressions, orientations, etc..

It's a strange project from this point of view. On one hand the subway is public space, so you're free to photograph whatever. On the other hand, this series seems to be about the little moments and spaces of privacy people create while surrounded by others. So by necessity this work involves violating that privacy. I justify it with the attitude that I'm honoring this privacy with a respectful stance. I can't even count how many pictures had to be rejected because of fingers up noses.

Jonathan, yes, digital cameras do some wonderful things. I got this one for urban landscape work, but it was so good in low light that it seduced me into playing underground. Many of these pictures are at iso 3200 or above, and I'm planning to print 20x30. I don't know if this would have been possible with film at all. I'm also about a week away from the camera having paid for itself, considering what film and processing would cost for this work.

[austin granger]

I just put images online from my first wee camera project in years. All from the last two months, since the camera showed up.
The rest is here.



]

This is just fantastic work. Dreamlike, almost hallucinatory, and yet perfectly straight and unaffected. In boxes and cages and their own interior spaces, everyone's all together, and everyone's all alone-the humanity! Here subway trains become mazes, aquariums, or a cathedral's stained glass windows, or well, subway trains! Wow. Everyone should go to Paul's site and carefully look at this project. It's exciting stuff.

[Peter De Smidt]

Well said, Austin.

[Jody_S]

2 carefully-made homeless beds, under bridges in Montreal (Griffintown). Camera: Kalimar A / Welmy.

[Roger Cole]

Paul, this seems less labored than the urban gardens series, and less socially pointed than the southwest landscapes that show man's initerruption of natural beauty.

I wonder if anyone who is an unwitting subject of your photos became aware of that lens pointing at them through the subway window panes and expressed annoyance. When I'm riding on mass transit, I turn within myself, but I think if some guy was photographing me closely enough to see what I was reading, I might get a little peeved. Others might be more willing to express that than I am, however. I'm not sure I can run fast enough. And the fact of that thought running through my mind would probably be as apparent as a neon sign.

I like the use of reflections to create visual confusion that demands further study.

Rick "who might consider some little Panasonic digicam for this wort of work" Denney

Personally, if someone photographs me showing what I'm reading in public I don't give a rat's ass. Nor do I see why most other people would, unless you were reading something pretty controversial.

I clicked through every one on the site and I saw, I think five people reading and in not one could I tell what they were reading anyway, except that one was a newspaper and one was a Kindle.

I can't imagine why any of the people in any of those photos would care one bit.

I agree with Austin's appraisal of it. Very good work.

[Roger Cole]

In fairness though I should point out that I grew up rural, never rode mass transit in my life until age 40 when I moved to the Atlanta suburbs for the second time when I routinely drove to the nearest station and took the train into town, was never really comfortable doing it, and now live suburban and never do it except on the rare occasions I fly commercially for work when I park at a northern transit station and take the train to the airport on the south side and back. My wife, however, lived in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and a few months in France and is much more familiar and comfortable with mass transit. I showed her the photos and she loved them and just said "oh, COOL!" repeatedly. I agree with her.

[paulr]

Thank you so much, Austin.

Roger, in fairness, at full resolution you can read a lot of these people's books and kindles. One woman is reading a novel by Michael Ondaatje that looks so good I ordered it. Another is reading a fantastic page of trashy romance that looks a bit like Konan the Barbarian meets Twilight.

I doubt many people would object to being photographed based on the final product ... it's the experience of being photographed by a stranger, for god-knows-what purpose, that feels intrusive. It's a one-way transaction, with all the power on one side. There really is a sense of something being taken. Bruce Davidson negotiated this issue by negotiating. He asked permission, and sent people prints. He also had to do this; his strobes made it impossible to work unintrusively. My project would of course be completely different if I interacted directly. People can't retreat into their private worlds and pose at the same time.

[Corran]

Love the idea Paul, especially the photo you posted on this thread, it's excellent!

Today my mentor and I went to an abandoned mill to start a documentary photo project in remembrance of this historical building that was built in 1899. It is being torn down soon because no one was willing to invest in renovating it and making it into something worthwhile and preserving it. Anyway, here's a digital proof shot that I did before shooting a 4x5 sheet. Shot a total of 9 sheets today, lots of work to do tonight in the darkroom, and we will be going back many times in the next few weeks.

D700, 16mm f/3.5 AIS fisheye, f/8, 20s, two SB-800's manually blasted at full power all over the place:

[jcoldslabs]

Bryan--can't wait to see the LF images. I wish I had access to a place like that.

Here's a shot of my uncle watching TV. (Sometimes the only way I can get through family gatherings is to witness it all through a viewfinder.)

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 160 NC




Jonathan