I’ve always admired people who are good at street photography. I absolutely do not count myself as one of those people. I think it takes a certain kind of bravery, an ability to be in a singular world where you are an observer totally unaware of the way people are in turn observing you. For better or worse, when I take a camera out in public, I can feel eyes looking at me. The reality is, most, if not all, people really aren’t, and even if they are it shouldn’t matter. But I can’t help feeling a tad bit of discomfort about it every single time. The best street photographers probably don’t get this feeling. Or if they do, they turn that energy into great photographs. I haven’t quite figured out how to do that.
I’m sure it takes practice and perhaps part of my problem is I haven’t invested the time to get good at it. Very few things in this world come naturally after all.
Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford HP5 120 film.
It’s because of all of this that my personal street photography tends to not be about people. Buildings, plants, flowers, random animals, old cars, that sort of thing are more my speed.
For this image I noticed a random cat just chilling out on the sidewalk. It wasn’t until I trained my camera on him that I noticed he was completely blind. It didn’t seem to bother him. He was friendly, purring on the warm concrete, only a few steps away from a porch with a cat door. Clearly he was well cared for so the scene didn’t make me sad. In fact, I envied the little guy. He seemed quite relaxed when I made a little portrait of him.