New Yorkers
New Yorkers
Walking out onto the streets, there is so much going on in our small yet bustling city of New York. Art is found everywhere New York: from the skyscrapers to the graffiti and engravings found on the streets and walls of our buildings.
But going out and finding a theme was harder than it seemed. I spent my first two days wandering around New York and taking pictures. After taking multiple shots, I finally decided that my theme would be about New Yorkers. I decided to choose people after I took snapshots in Times Square. It was a week after Halloween and yet I found someone dressed up in a Spiderman Costume. I took a picture of him and luckily he didn’t react negatively, in fact he posed as if he were the actual Spiderman. Others weren’t as kind.
I encountered my first problem right after my encounter with “Spidey”. There was a homeless man with a very unique sign. Homeless people typically try to use our emotions of pity in order to help them. This homeless person however wasn’t part of the norm. His sign read, “Please Help Me. I will use the money for drugs, liquor and alcohol. Hey, at least I’m not shitting with you”. My first attempt to get a picture of the sign was unsuccessful since he kept moving. On my second attempt, he noticed me. He responded by giving me the finger. I didn’t attempt to take another picture of his sign and quickly vacated the area not wanting to be attacked. I was determined however to stick to my theme of people. I guess I was a bit lucky that the homeless man didn’t do anything more dramatic but now I was alerted to the dangers of photographing people.
After that day, I have received more fingers from homeless men and normal civilians as well. It seems street photography isn’t as popular as it first seemed. Other people were a bit more respectable and asked me not to take pictures of them and others just blatantly responded with, “Get the fuck out of here, I don’t want to be photographed”. This first happened in Union Square. A group of teenagers were making odd gestures and seemed to be doing a very peculiar dance. I tried to take a picture but they instantly noticed me. They bellowed at me to get away and since I was outnumbered, I pretended that my initial intention was to photograph the statue of Washington in the background and soon quickly walked away.
Other than these mere incidents, the photography went quite smoothly. I didn’t use flash because I felt that a flash would give my position away and more people were likely to respond. I always tried to keep a good distance from my target in case I needed to make a quick escape. I targeted areas that were usually populated, Times Square, Union Square, Herald Square, Bryant Park, Madison Park and other places of interest. This popularity served to be both a blessing and a curse. These attractions were always heavily populated. I was able to act as if I were a tourist enjoying a look and taking pictures. I was always able to find interesting subjects to choose because it was such a large selection pool. But since it was so crowded, I had difficulty taking my picture since everyone was moving around. People always got in the way of my shots and the only way that I managed to get a good picture was by moving closer to them. Luckily I avoided any conflicts but I remained cautious of my surroundings.
The street photography project opened my eyes to New York. I felt as if I were a tourist that never noticed how much New York can be associated with the Arts. Wherever I looked, there were people who were “artistically dressed” or buildings with exception designs. New York is a city full of evens and occasions. People are always acting differently and similarly. My main objective was to try to get a feeling of New Yorkers through pictures. I was trying to show how odd yet intriguing New Yorkers can be. We walk to the very edge of our street and raise our hands, as though in school, to call upon a taxi. Our homeless people can afford to go onto subways and play musical instruments. New York is a very diverse and unique city, after taking pictures, I find that I appreciate more about New York than I used to. On a daily basis, I used to ignore these “mundane” events but now, I notice everything from the homeless man to the guy wearing a spiderman costume.