the accidental street photographer....

Having finished the street photography assignment; and with a couple of weeks before the portrait assignment was due I decided to just wonder about eth town and see what I managed to find, almost a street photography assignment but with no assignment attached.

I have got to know the local owner of the taxi cab firm at the bottom of my road, and I’m always invited in for a cai (tea), so on a sunny day I joined him for a cuppa and opportunity provided itself for me. The sun coming in at an angle through the window, the Bosphorous bridge to one side and ships sliding by in the background…..my internal challenge was to try and learn from some of the things I’ve heard; and from my tutorial feedback (“….the background Jonathan, the background”!). I also remembered the Cartier-Bresson tutorial; how he managed to squeeze objects, or signs, no matter how obscure into a photograph in order to provide visual references to the sitter….hence I was working hard to fit in bridges, boats, taxi signs, the Bosphorous and not forgetting my subject of course……I think I provided the days entertainment for all the cabbies as I squezed myself into corners and alcoves, at the top of the office, or down near the floor…..anyway, this is the result of my “environmental portrait”.

I then headed off to join friends to watch the Wales v Scotland rugby game – walking up a street I’ve been up a hundred times I notice the really sharp defined shadow across the alley to my left. Once again the Cartier0Bresson lecture came to mind and the photograph of the strip of land, with 3 boys standing on the edge of what was a shadow of a building, but for the photograph appeared to be a physical object in it’s own right……I tried to find a suitable angle and decided to bide my time (whilst watching the clock tick down to kick off!). I was hoping for someone to walk along the shadow, whilst the 3 cats ate food in the corner……. Instead a boy came out with a toy gun; wandering around like Clint Eastwood, firing plastic caps at the occasional cat and for the most party ignoring me as I had been there from the start……

My favourites – one with the boy; his foot almost touching the ground, but with the light there still underneath…….expectation. the cat leaping for safety, sensing danger

The old woman - an air of expectation. A western feel, a shoot out……but more importantly it just shows how used to “guns” the children are. How natural it is for them, and for the adults too.

This is after all one of the 38 United Nation “conflict” nations in the world.