I headed out on my photo walk on a beautiful, sunny day in Chicago. The temperature teased near 80 degrees, but, it’s Chicago, you never know. It could snow tomorrow. Today was Mother’s Day, and the streets were packed with children carrying flowers, sons and daughters looking to show a bit of their appreciation to their mothers with little blue boxes from Tiffany’s, and moms of faraway offspring wandering into Cartier and Coach to redeem their Mother’s Day gift cards. Outdoor cafes had finally come back to the streets, along with one very happy medium format street photographer, out to capture the holiday in all its colorful detail.
Mother’s Day is a good mood day in Chicago, and an especially good day to actually ask these happy celebrants if I could take their photo. A good street photographer needs to read the street. Mostly I try not to disturb what I observe. You get what’s out there and don’t add any ripples to the pond. And you must be careful about being too obvious. Maybe it’s a tiny bit more obvious with a medium format camera, but maybe not. People have their lives to live and not much attention left over. But what if you really want to take portraits?
I have two highly valued colleagues with two very different approaches to street portraits. One of them just sticks his camera in their faces and has gotten more than his share of hostile, even directly aggressive responses. He’s a really big guy, but I worry about him and his approach. The other colleague encouraged me to take a very different approach. Slow down. Have a conversation. Smile. Ask. Get to Yes. And most of the time, I do get to yes. People smile, let me take their photos with this big camera, that I take home, and find the detail, the complexity of their complexion, the fraying thread, that gold tooth! That medium format detail makes each portrait a kind of psychoanalytic archeology, digging up a personal life story in each portrait.
It’s a balancing act. Read the day, read the person. And if it’s the right moment, a medium format street portrait is the perfect moment for a street photograph.
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