Photography & Ordinary Things
Monday, April 27th, 2009
The MBA has chewed a lot of time that I’d have otherwise loved to spend exploring my interest in photography. It’s said more than once that I take pictures of quite ordinary things, and I do. The object of what that ordinary thing is about has everything to do with my 15 years looking out at objects everyone feels familiar with and which, in my world, may appear a little more interesting.
I love street photography. The ordinary things ordinary people do are called culture. The faces and circumstances of the street invoke passions and revulsions in me, and memories of other places and times, that I could spend an awful lot of time caught up in capturing it through the lens. The work of German born Australian photographer Mark Strizic, for example, is incredibly interesting. His current exhibition at Gallery 101 in Melbourne called Melbourne – A City in Transition has some great work that I’d love to hop over and see in person. The exhibition is open until May 2nd, 2009.
But street photography seems to have become a lot more difficult, more clandestine, less pure… because of the World Wide Web. Where people might have been flattered or even enjoy having their photograph taken a few decades ago it’s far less likely they would feel the same today. Visit a market as a middle aged man with an SLR and you’re going to rake the interest of parents, young women and public officials thinking about terrorism. The world is different in some way.
