Rejected Pictures But Not Moments

It has been a very cold January on the East Coast of the United States. My old cameras cannot freeze and thaw without damage, nor can the 60 year old lenses. So, I have not taken many pictures this month especially since there are very few people in the streets and they are all bundled up!

But I keep on getting feedback from around the world, which is wonderful.  Among the messages I got last there was one question that I found challenging. It read, in part: “…and, if you were to describe a picture of daily life, without photographic glamour, how would it look?”

Hmm. While I do not think that there is glamour in my photography, I do indeed choose pictures that are technically with minimal faults and perhaps this selection bias does not truly represent what I had seen and taken pictures of. It is a fair question.

However, the reason why there is selection bias is often not a thematic bias but a choice by necessity.  Indeed, I have miles of developed negative strips that have either been damaged by chemicals during development, or where the pictures did not come out as I hoped they would. I do not usually print them, although I do have some “defective” negatives that I have printed because they remind me of a special moment and place.

So, the question I got made me wonder if I could make a collage out of these rejected pictures to show what I saw and why I took the picture, even if the quality of the shots ended up being poor. So here are a few of those.

The first one is from São Paulo. I saw the man walk toward old-fashion public phones and I could readily compose an anachronistic picture in my mind- a picture which could have been taken 50 years ago. What I needed was for him to make the call by turning sideways.  But it was not what he had in mind. Still it is the type of waiting a street photographer often does: I had a picture in mind but all the pieces did not come together.

The second one is from Paris. A very chique Japanese tourist caught my eye. I wanted the contrast between her impeccably coordinated attire and shoulder bag with the old buildings, a tourist with his suitcase, and taxi drivers. Just before I clicked she got something stuck to her shoe and she did a very “common” act of checking it. Not only it spoiled the picture, but I also got an uneven gradation from my lens right over her bag. Nevertheless, it is a moment from everyone’s daily life, even if they do not have the style of this young woman.

The third one is from Madrid. A street band in traditional attire was playing and I wanted to get an angle to the violin by focusing on it and blurring the background. Well, the player moved incessantly as he was in his “zone” while playing. And I did not get that steady moment for the shot I had planned.

The fourth one is from Vienna. A Turkish belly-dancer was performing in the street and she was quite photogenic. Still, I needed more than the dancer. So, I placed myself in front of her to include the crowd as the backdrop. She did not like it, and gave me a bad look… I caught that look but not the composition I wanted...

Finally, there are moments when a human is not needed for street photography. I was on an island in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Croatia, and the scenery was quite monotonous. Sure, the ocean was great, but I am not a landscape photographer. At times I felt that the ocean was like a fence… And then I saw this donkey that looked at me in a way that I could almost understand! Yes, the fence, the ocean, the lonesome tree in the back….

January 29, 2014

© Vahé Kazandjian, 2014

Boston, Massachusetts

There seems to always be one in a crowd who does not care what others would think about his act. This was a Sunday noon, near the ocean and the Fort. It had rained in the morning and the puddle of water was just right for this man to take an auto portrait. 

While the ladies ignored this act of neo-narcissism, the older gentleman holding his fishing gear seems to wonder if Narcissus of Thespiai looked just like this (except for the digital camera...) when he fell in love with his own image in a pool of water and pined away becoming the flower Narcissus poeticus.

Hmm...

Had just a quick second to click on my Ukrainian FED-2 sporting a Jupiter-3, 1.5 lens, while thinking if today's cell phone self-portraits were accepted and encouraged forms of narcissism.

January 8, 2014
©Vahé Kazandjian, 2014

Dodging and Burning

I took this one in Vienna, on a cold and rainy May afternoon. The entire front of the building was covered with this poster announcing the opening of "Palmers" store. The size of the poster itself, compared to the street lamp, was impressive.

At first sight, I wanted to use the man selling postcards as the story, since the poster is just a poster. But it was a cold day, the man was all bundled up in his coat, and the contrast with the woman in a bikini seemed promising. I had my Ukrainian Salyut C medium format camera with me, with a 90mm lens. But the man was just cold and had turned his back to the poster.

I waited a few minutes in the increasing rain, hoping for something to change. And when the man turned around deciding to cover his postcards with a plastic sheet as the rain was getting stronger, I took a second shot.

When I printed the picture, there was nothing special about it. The writing on the poster was distracting and made it obvious that it was a poster. Yet, the street lamp, its relative size and the man now turned toward the poster were intriguing me. So I decided to print the second picture again, this time with simple dodging and burning during the printing. No Photoshop in my shop! Just old-fashion over and under exposure of select areas by covering the photographic paper with my thumb's shade under the enlarger's light.

The result is below. Now, it looks like she is a chimeric model in this man's painting studio! I left the "P" of "Palmers" semi-apparent to keep the authenticity of the poster....

January 4, 2104
©Vahé Kazandjian, 2014

Streets and Their Backgrounds

This will be my last posting for 2013. I thought a few observations about the choice of a picture's background would be appropriate for end of year musing...

While in street photography one does not have the luxury to take time and frame a shot, it is often possible to find a background you want to have for your story. Then it is a question of patience, luck and quick clicking to freeze a story with that background. I have chosen a few shots from here and there to show what all this means for me.

This was a band in Paris, under the Tour Eiffel. There was enough movement among the players, and a background of steel, horizontal and vertical. I developed the picture at a slightly warmer temperature to give additional grain and fuzziness to the movement.

Atop the Table Mountain in Cape town, South Africa, a tourist was taking a picture of her travel companion. The clothing lines were smooth and appropriate for a B&W shot. But the background was just perfect for texture and contrast. The story would have been lost if they were facing the ocean. I still wonder, however, if she was smiling.

This one from Porto, Portugal. I liked the graffiti and the lines of the setting (horizontal, vertical, strait, curves, smooth, rough, etc). I stayed there for a long while waiting for someone to walk into the picture with a story. But that day no one walked by. So, I took a picture of the background to remind me that there was no story in that picture! It is said that a street photographer follows the same strategies as a hunter, and that often comes back home empty handed.

Sometimes simple lines capture a 3-D feeling most appropriately. This one from Prague, Czech Republic. I think the story would have been different if the priest had a straight posture like the soldier, as everything else is in cold squares, rectangles and vertical lines.

A simple gathering of teenage girls is most un-telling for a picture. But when they look at their shoes with different body languages, it makes it worthwhile to frame. A waist-level camera, in this case a Mamiya 645 1000s, can be very helpful for such quick shots. This one from Baltimore, Maryland.

I liked the brick wall, the arch and the columns as background to the art-deco shape of the bench. Yet, I needed a subject in front of them! This was in Taipei, at the National Taiwan University campus. I passed by that spot a few times, between classes during the afternoon, but could not get a picture. Just as I was about to leave for the day, this woman walked slowly toward the bench. It was a clear day but she had an umbrella- so I had to wait and see what she was up to. She took her shoes off, parked the umbrella just so, and assumed an visibly uncomfortable posture for a person in need of rest. I then realized that the bench had very short backs, and only on each side. The symmetrical lines of her posture were in perfect harmony with the background. Sometimes art-deco may not lead to comfort!

Finally a picture from Vienna, Austria. A night shot with a 1948 Canon B-II rangefinder and a 50mm 1.9 Serenar collapsible lens, wide open. One can guess what the man may be thinking, but the expression on the woman's face remains enigmatic. The wide-open lens gave the softness and very shallow depth-of-field to the background making it more fantasy-like.

December 24, 2013
©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Women in Arizona

I did not plan to take pictures of women during an Arizona trip, but the ones I chose ended up about women telling stories about Apache Junction,Tucson, Mesa and Flagstaff.

The first one was on the road from Tucson to Apache Junction. Deep gorges, cactus, desert, sun. This young woman was sitting at the edge of a deep valley and seemed lost in contemplation, smoking a "Camel"-- what can be better in the desert?

The second picture was at Mesa, at a horse farm where this woman rescued old horses. This one was her favorite and she agreed to a picture. There is a kindness that comes through.

The third is a true street picture, taken in a parking lot. As I was getting to my car I heard laughter, turned around and a second later wondered what I captured without having time to focus. I still do not know, but since the feather headpiece was on the car, where was big Chief?

The last one was at the University of Tucson. I liked the "Women's Plaza of Honor" but needed a story. After a few minutes of waiting, the man sat at the entrance and the women walked into my picture. Men stayed at the entrance of the Plaza, it seemed.

All pictures taken with a 1969 Nikon F. The first one with a Nikkor 200mm telephoto of the same era, and the other three with a Nikkor 50mm. The negatives have chemical damage and are scratched, but I thought still have a story to tell. After all who goes to Arizona and returns without pictures of cacti ?

December 21, 2013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Unplanned Shots

Every photographer has stories about what happened just as he/she was clicking. Unplanned shots are especially frequent in street or candid photography since we try to capture the moment as it happens not as we plan to frame it like in landscape or architectural photography.  Everything is moving in our subjects and we have only that critical instant to freeze it into a picture. Most unplanned shots are “non-keepers”- the story we were hoping to capture is not there anymore, or aesthetically it is no more appealing.  Everyday examples include people walking into the frame, the subject seeing you and looking at you, a dog, a car, a bird or even uninvited shading suddenly hiding all or part of the subject.

Over 40 years of photography I have learned to celebrate rather than lament about the outcomes of many an unplanned shot. Indeed, sometimes the outcome (both as a story and as aesthetics) is better than what I had aimed for! So, as a curious student of experience, I have seen three types of unplanned shots worth celebrating:

1.       Your story, as you wanted to tell, disappears but a new one takes shape that is even better;

2.       A technical “mishap” tells the story better;

3.       You capture your story but find out a pleasant surprise about it after the shot.

Please note that I use mechanical film cameras only, so I have to adjust speed, aperture, focus, shading from light, and minimize camera vibration at slow speed, and manually rewind the film between shots. Some of those “cave man photography” issues may not be as prominent with today’s digital-all miracle light boxes!

I have chosen three pictures to illustrate my points.

I took the first photo at the Night Market in Taipei. I saw the lady with attractive legs and in the background focal plane of two mannequins. Immediately I thought of “Three Mannequins” and clicked. Then I entered the store to tell her that I took a picture and that I appreciate it. When I came close, the lady turned and smiled: HE had a goatee!!! When I developed the film and printed the frame, there was enough evidence of male anatomy to support my story when my friends were incredulous about the details… This is an example of the category #1 above.

The second picture is an oldie: we were visiting a bat cave in Pennsylvania and my son and daughter were as excited as any 7 years old twins can be at the sight of bats flying all around at the mouth of the cave. My son was imitating bats by flapping his arms and there was just enough light for a fast lens, at full aperture, to take a picture.  When I developed the film, I realized that the very slow speed I had used on my Nikon F had also captured the movement in the shape of true wings! The technical “mishap”—the very slow speed, while aesthetically resulted in a blurry and bad contrast picture making it difficult to scan without distorted pixels , made it a new story.

The third picture is a typical street shot, taken in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I saw this man in a park with a cat perched atop his dog. They were “at peace” and I thought his message was one of co-existence and harmony. I immediately took a shot and was quite proud of capturing the very second I wanted. However, when I took my eye off the viewfinder, I saw a mouse atop the cat! It had turned around the cat’s neck just as I was clicking, and the folding of the camera mirror had obscured my view for a split of a second. By now the dog had moved a bit, the cat was looking at me, and the story had disappeared. I was disappointed for not being able to take a picture with the mouse in the frame which was the true message of co-existence the man was displaying in public. To my surprise, when I developed the film, the mouse was there and it was looking at me!

I suppose one has to remain accommodating for all the unplanned events which may be worth celebrating.

December 4, 2013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Taichung and Bone China

Somehow tea tastes better in Fine Bone China cups. Apart from the ceremony of preparing tea, the delicate rims of these cups give way to the almost imperceptible passage of the tea from cup to lip. I am most attracted to porcelain and Bone China cups where the cobalt blue dominates. It is a mini-vacation to hold these cups and sip on aromatic, bold, dark or green teas.

When in Taiwan, I have learned to appreciate the porcelain cups made in Yingge. Actually it is through such artwork made in Yingge that I learned about the shades of cobalt blue.

I was visiting a hospital in Taichung and on the way there mentioned to my colleague my interest in porcelain and Bone China. I was told that Taichung had small, artisanal factories where unique Bone China is made. I immediately asked for a visit!

After 2 hours of touring the smallest workshop in Taichung I learned about the cattle bones they use to make Bone China. Indeed, these low-iron bones are pulverized and mixed with the porcelain product. Every shop seems to have its own recipe and formula. The bones, the fineness and amount of the pulverized ash, the mixing and firing process all define the clarity and strength of the Bone China. Some cups are so thin-lipped that are translucid!

But, the process produces a lot of fine particle dust from the bone ash and the mixing of the porcelain ingredients. Large factories have well organized ventilation and vacuuming systems to minimize workers’ inhalation of the airborne particles. Not in this small, artisanal workshop. The lady polishing the first-phase porcelain vases was wearing a nuisance mask and had only a fan next to her and another one behind her to expel the dust out of the room. I was in that room for 15 minutes, took a couple of pictures, and learned about the process. When out of the room, the glass of my camera lens was covered in a fine film of white powder.

Picture taken with a Nikon F and Nikkor 50mm 1.4 lens.

December 3, 2013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013