civlized ku # 1121 ~ the stare

Bus kiosk ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggenThe vernacular of the picturing making genre street photography dictates that those people depicted in a scene should be, or appear to be, unaware of the picture making happening in their midst. While this notion is not necessarily a hard and fast rule, most often street photography pictures subscribe to this practice.

That said, I am becoming somewhat enamored of making street pictures wherein 1 person in the scene is in fact looking directly at the camera. What I have discovered relative to this approach is that the person doing so is most often looking at the camera/me with more than a bit of suspicion or at least with a look of hesitancy or distrust.

There could be a variety of reasons why that person has adopted that kind of look but I find, in this day of Home Security and the terrorist threat, it is not uncommon for picture makers who are out on the street making pictures to be viewed as somewhat suspect. IMO, this is more than a little paranoid but those are, right or wrong, the times in which we live.

I need an idea for yet another body of work like I need a hole in my head. However, whenever possible, I am going to pursue this picture making MO.