Please Wait....

Photographing people in the street is, in my mind, a combined act of serving as an audience member in a theater and a predatorial animal seeking prey. 

The late zoologist Desmond Morris states in his book The Human Animal “A puny primate, with no natural weapons - no venom, no sharp spines, no fangs or claws - its success story is remarkable. The most extraordinary thing we do, as animals….is walking”. In the first chapter of On Photography by Sontag, she references Samuel Butler's remarks “there is a photographer in every bush, going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”

Undeniably, these innate behaviors are inherent to the spontaneous act of photographing strangers in public without their knowledge or permission. This act is not malevolent, cruel, or even aggressive, but is a mode of creative survival for some, and for me, most certainly.  

I begin as an audience member, then a director through keen observation of human kinesis, light, backdrop, and costume. I observe, marvel, target, respond. And sometimes, I approach my captured (in camera) prey and ask if I can continue to photograph them long-term and the predator in me rescinds, and a different relationship to photographing unfolds.