Thursday, August 5, 2010

Observation The Greatest Tool Of Street Photography

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In all humility without trying to over reach my singular aspiration of making Marziya a good photographer I have shown her life as I would see it through a camera lens.

And because Marziya is an observant child with great creativity of mind it is a pleasure and an an added learning experience playing the role of her Guru.

Even child needs a Guru , Marziya is stuck at two and a half years old and in November will hit 3.

We walk the roads she watches everything, she is not afraid and I took her to the butchers shop to see her reaction it was beyond her she has been to the fish market and already seen fish being cut and cleaned.

I have of course kept her away from the actual butchering that takes place of the live goat during Bakra Idd.

Because I make her shoot what I would be shooting , she realizes situations that we call street photography.,

Street photography according to me is creativity at its highest level shooting the soul of mans surroundings documenting his moves and his street emotions.

His laughter his yawn his sleep his tears all form part of this huge tableau of humanity.

Here Marziya is observing the local cobbler at his work, repairing soles is creativity too , however mundane the task my sound, a stitch in time saves nine.


And I dont overdo it , first I was excited not anymore we both are pros and we go about it as clinically as possible.

And how can you shoot what your inner soul never saw the difference between a picture and hurriedly clicked snap shot....though some of my pictures are hurriedly clicked snap shoots ..because you read them differently they become poems shot as visuals.

Basic knowledge of photography is important but than the human soul and practice takes care of the ensuing nitty gritty of street photography.

And here I shall shock all of you I would like my grand daughter not to shoot like me but like Roland Luthi, Randy Der Joel Tom Andrews Akbar Simonese Jeff Lamb some of the photographers who have influenced in one way or the other.

I dare not ask her to shoot like Glenn Losack MD it is an impossible uphill task and she is far too young to reach such a stature due to her diminutive size.

And not just photography from photographers I would want her to learn Humanity from Benn Bell Anthony Posey Fred Miller Linda Schaefer Sukhi Hontu and many others friends bloggers photographers on Facebook and Flickr.

But I also know because she loves Art and creativity she might end up like Drunken Gekko, Jean Marc Gargantiel.

I would not want her to shoot Hijras Rafaees or the hardcore pictures I shoot , I would want her to shoot the Muslim beggar woman in a hijab, two children and her eyes searching for hope beyond the horizon of humanity.

Yes I would want Marziya to shoot a drop of tear as it rolls down a cheek into the gutters of despair.

What Marziya would want to shoot you will have to wait and watch, but if you see a girl in hijab covered from head to toe you know that she is carrying the inheritance of her grandfather the barefeet blogger of Mumbai..Photographer No1.

I am too embarrassed to write my own name here ...

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