Storytelling Versus Technical Correctness: the One-frame Compressed Movie of Street Photography

There is an increasing interest in taking pictures with all types of digital gizmos. The days of film photography seem to be increasingly cherished in portraiture where the tonal range of digital photography still lacks that je ne sais quoi.

Indeed, our reality is now intricately related with taking pictures of everything, all day long. Of places, signs, computer screens, food plates, dogs, cats, and of course when all creativity takes respite, of ourselves! Taking selfies may not be a new behavior, but it is now part of how we communicate by posting our own pictures on social media sites. I found this delightful archival photo (no copywrite specified) of a historical selfie:

So, is it ok to tell a story without excessive concern about the technical correctness of composing, focusing and light characteristics? Of course the last two technical characteristics of a photograph are today mostly left to the microchips in our disposable cameras. But for people like me who still use film, repair their own 50 or 70 year old mechanical cameras, do not own a digital picture-taker, and spend time in a darkroom they cherish, the focusing is the most critical activity. Indeed, a story in street behavior of people is elusive – in a split second all changes (light, composition, and the behavior itself) so if one takes a couple of seconds to focus, then there may be no story left to tell.

Except in the photographer’s memory of the moment he/she did not capture.

So, here are a couple of illustrations through photos I have taken.

A.      Focusing. I took this photo on Bilbao, Spain with a 1969 Nikon F sporting a same age 20 cm Nikkor-Q telephoto. The street telephones were on each side of a magazine cover advertisement, and I saw a woman put a few coins in the phone while the man was already chatting. I wanted to capture the moment of both phone users being on the sides of that poster and did not trust that taking my time to focus perfectly would have allowed for the action in this otherwise static composition.

B.      Framing. This is a moment from Times Square, New York. It was a rainy day and I wanted to contrast the folks holding umbrellas with the “Steam Heat” mural advertisement of Ann Reinking and Bebe Neuwirth in Fosse. A couple walked into the frame composition without holding umbrellas but to capture their passage I had to sacrifice the better composition of the mural advertisements.

C.      Light. I took this photo in Ferrara, Italy. I had my 50mm Nikkor lens wide open to 1.4 as it was almost evening with practically no light. This man walked passed me and I noticed his face being painted like a clown’s. The moment I put the Nikon F to my face he looked into the mirror of a parked motorcycle to touch up his facial painting. The shallow depth of field testifies to the aperture and the blurred profile of a woman in the background provides a sense of movement.

So, do these photos tell a story? They are not photojournalistic as there is no unfolding story behind that one frame. They surely are not technically perfect, in part due to the tool I used – 1960s mechanical film camera and manual focus lenses.

With all the criticism one can justify having of such photos, still when I see the white photographic paper metamorphose into a photo in the tray under a red light, I feel good that I did not worry about the technical correctness and just took the photo!

April 10, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

Blood Moon

A week ago, many parts of the world had an astronomical trifecta -- the sun, moon and our green planet were aligned on the same axis for the year's first -- and only -- total lunar eclipse, also referred to as the "super wolf blood moon." 

The bloody colour was clearly spectacular at night, but given the film cameras I use, I decided to capture a few moments from the “morning after”.

Here is the moon descending behind the mountain range at sunrise:

And here it is just when it touched the top of the Butte:

I took this shot from my street to show the size scale of the city lights compared to the moon.

January 26, 2019

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

Ziggy Stardust

A few days ago the moon was perfectly round and very large. At night one could read poetry.

I wanted to capture the sky early in the morning when the moon “descends” behind the mountain range line. I also wanted to do it with a 1969 Nikon F and a same year Nikkor-Q  180mm telephoto lens wide open at f4 with a shutter speed of 1/15^th second.

The moonlight was so strong that I wanted to avoid all belief that this was a daytime photo using a red filter or so. Therefore, I made sure to capture the house light on the side of the mountain at the bottom of the frame.

…And I could not recall the words by David Bowie  in his 1972 song "Moonage Daydream" from the album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.  

The lyrics are:

 “keep your ‘lectric eye on me babe / put your ray gun to my head / press your space face close to mine, love / freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah.”

January 5, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

From Degas to Michelangelo – the Grace of an Unexpected Moment

I was walking my dog downtown. A young couple had come out of the City Hall as wife and husband. I was watching the hopefulness of youth when the bride sat at the public bench to take her formal sandals off and put on demi bottes. I immediately clicked with no time to focus.

With some cropping, I was delighted at the gracefulness of the moment. And her friend’s hand just added a composition I did not have time to make.

It is a soft and most sensual photo. All the best to the young couple!

November 17, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018

Inter-tribal Native American Pow Wow

Native American cultural gatherings, called Pow Wow, are educational to all those who attend. There is history, a spiritual context, dances, singing and art displays. I am a novice in the ceremonial traditions of such inter-tribal gatherings, but over the past 5 years have attended a few Pow Wows and actively pursued a self-education of their historical context.

This morning I went to the annual Pow Wow in Prescott. After buying a Navajo cartouche pendent from a jeweler who works with copper, silver and turquoise stone, I attended the Grand Entry of the day. This is a large scale gathering where many dance, sing and promise their involvement in supporting tribal communities.

As a street photographer, any gathering with so many people is heaven to me! But I am always respectful of the norms or rules in photographing people and respecting their privacy. My goal is never to “photograph people” but to capture a human behavior or attitude that is generic and relevant across cultures.

And I will not show faces in this essay. BUT, there was one split second when a young girl walked into my camera’s field of view and I could not resist taking a non-identifying profile shot. And then she walked away.

Here is that photo:

What makes this shot intriguing is what was written on that blanket:

So, she was displaying the name and history of a soldier. She wanted all at the Pow Wow to learn about CPL Eddie C. Begaye. Therefore I feel that my posting a profile of her and the name of the soldier is doing what she wanted to do, but hopefully to a much larger audience among the readers of my blogs.

During the Grand Entry, I focused on the traditional attires, the chanting rhythm, and the sacred paraphernalia used during the dance to the beat of the drum.

I like the sacred representation of feathers, the rattle of metal beads, and the elegance of turquoise stones:

Also the dance movement captured on a two-dimensional plane:

 And perhaps the rapprochement between the Southwest, the west and native cultures:

… As I often try, I stayed away from taking photos of portrayers of Native American warriors on horses, tribal leaders in feather or buffalo skin head covers, and children wearing deerskin moccasins.

My goal is to tell a story. A story people own but sometimes do not know they are telling it.

September 23, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018

Annual Highland Games in Prescott, AZ

The Highland Games are an annual tradition in Prescott, Arizona. Scottish pipe playing, whiskey tasting, clan colours and accoutrements, and of course games of “throwing things.”

I like being there as the eclectic and eccentric nature of the crowd allows for photographic experimentation.

As I was walking around, a photographer carrying a tripod and two cameras with lenses more expensive than my car looked at my 1970s mechanical camera hanging from my neck and said:

                          “Will you be able to catch any action with that lightbox?”

And as she smiled at her comment, I decided to capture what my trusty Nikon F and Illford 100 ASA film could freeze in time, rather than capturing the events per se.

So, I decided to focus on body postures among the throwers.

But first, I was attracted by the intricate tattoos among many of the athletes and wanted to report on one aspect of the body posture featuring the tattoos.  That is why I started this post with my favorite contextual photograph.

Ok, so my goal was to capture the different stages of upright weight throwers. The idea behind this competition is to stay under a giant H- frame and try to get the weight over the middle bar of the H. This bar is elevated during the competition till no one can get the weight over it.

It is like an Olympic high jump where the “jumper” is the weight thrown by the athlete.

For most athletes, the first posture seems to be

Which is followed by a movement to build momentum

Then the final swing 

And the vertical release of the weight

I also took a couple of photos of swirling horizontal throw movements of the hammer throw equivalent. The subjects were the exquisitely tattooed man and woman which I thing gives the highland games a historic and anachronistic context.

First the preparation

Then the rotation

… So, did I capture the games? No, but I tried to capture a dimension that indirectly addresses human body posture, movement and perhaps the spirit of these historic games.

 P.S/ … During the scanning of the printed photos I played with some of the scanning settings which gave the film shot a totally digital flavor. But also many of the shots now had their background blurred and the focused person in the forefront more actively.

So, I left these settings on during the scan function.

September 19, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018

Leica IIIF: A Camera That Would Make Watchmakers Blush

Like any street photographer, the fundamental influence of Henri Cartier-Bresson has remained over the many decades when I carried a mechanical camera around the world.

While every camera I have used and use is “my favorite” at that moment, every time I load my 1953 Leica IIIF and use it I am amazed how easily it becomes part of my hands, my eyes, and in some way my identity.

Of course that was also the camera Cartier-Bresson made famous.

So, I took my Leica to town for a few shots.

But first, here is the camera:

What is historically attractive to my Leica is that it is one of only 2,000 cameras that were assembled in Canada (the serial number attests to that). In that sense, it is a collector’s dream.

I like experimenting with 1940’s Russian/Ukrainian Leica-clone lenses. This one has a distinct character in the contrast it gives to B&W photos. Note that I always build lens shades by salvaging parts of old and broken lenses…

Ok, so there were artists on the town square and a lot of people walking around. Wanted to maximize the capacity of the lens, so chose a few frames specifically for that purpose.

This photo was taken with a lens opening of 5.6 and a speed of 1/75^th second using ASA 100 Croatian Efke 35mm film. My goal was to capture as much detail as indirect light could allow the 60 year old lens to capture. Of course I loved the face of the donkey materializing in front of my eyes!

I also wanted to show how, with a slight and purposeful off-focus setup, this lens can give a floating feeling in full sun/direct light. I took this one with the lens closed to 11 and a speed of 1/100 second.

… It is amazing that after more than 30 years of using this camera I still think of it a watchmaker’s marvel. I have NEVER had this camera serviced during these decades and as hundreds of miles of film have gone through it.

It still sounds like the first day I used it.

July 25, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018