Photography has always been a solitary experience for me. I am
lucky enough to have a wife who loves photography too so we talk about
photography and art when we browse new photo books as they arrive in
our house and as we look at our own and the pictures of others.
However, even if I go out to make pictures with Patti or other
photo-buddies at some point it is just you and the camera and what you
see through the lens. When you get back home it is just you and a pile
of virtual pictures to sift through. When you process and post your
images to the interweb, more often than not, the result is a deafening
silence.
I am entirely self-taught apart from one afternoon lesson back
in the 80's from my uncle on how to use the dark room and one community
college class on the history of photography (due to outdated text
books, the history of photography apparently ends in the late 80's).
Everything else I learned initially from books borrowed from the
library and more recently from the web (for the technical stuff) and
from pouring through the photo monographs we collect and visiting
gallery shows trying to work out for myself what I like, why I like it
and how I can take that and apply it to my own work.
So, I've never really had a live critique or really worked
with a group of other photographers in a collaborative way rather that
just alongside them. I think it's understandable why I went into the Black
Boots Ink workshop / 'Wandering In The Company of Strangers'
project with a combination of excitement and anxiety. Would I measure
up? Would the instruction be over my head and lose me, or aimed too
low? What are the chances that the first workshop I ever attended would
be the perfect combination of pushing me to grow in a supportive
environment?
I hadn't heard of Black Boots Ink until the only photo podcast
I listen to religiously (The
Candid Frame) mentioned them. I thought the opportunity to
work with Ibarionex in my hometown was too
good to pass up and a visit to the Black
Boots Ink website just gave me a good vibe. Without really
knowing what the workshop would entail I signed both myself and my wife
up to participate. It was a chance that paid off.
We met up last Friday night in the banquet hall of an Indian
Restaurant to meet our instructors and peers. It was great to meet
Ibarionex in real life and he comes across just as he did in his
podcast; it was like meeting an old friend for the first time. Emilio, the co-leader of the
workshop and co-founder of Black Boots Ink, was a revelation who
immediately inspires confidence. It was also exciting to meet the other participants whose
websites I had been exploring for a couple of days prior. What the
websites
didn't impart was the diversity that the attendees would bring to the
table from young under-graduates from the Academy of Art to a
retiree traveling in from Ohio - in age at least, Patti and I fall
neatly between the two. Despite of our differences the group quickly
gelled through a couple of exercises, chatting and our common love of
photography.
After getting home and, upon Emilio's instructions, removing
the conspicuous Canon 'steal-me' straps from our cameras and using
electrical tape to cover the cameras logos, then packing all our gear
ready for the morning it was after 1:30am before I finally got to
sleep. The alarm went off way to early so that we could get to Pier 39
by 8am. We had been inundated with rain all the previous week but the
weathermen had been promising that Saturday would be fine; what do they
know? Amid showers we spent a couple of hours walking with Ibarionex
and Emilio and a few hearty locals and tourists at the wharf. The wharf
was a great place to start applying some street photography basics -
it's like street photography with training wheels; bright, lively and
non-threatening. Unfortunately the showers were keeping the crowds down
so we had to work some slim pickings and yet everyone seemed to find
something of interest. We returned to our Indian restaurant, back room
HQ to download our cameras, dry off and eat some lunch. Ibarionex then
reviewed some of the raw images we had taken and Emilio taught us some
of the finer points about street photography; particularly useful was
his descriptions of when to fish and when to hunt for images and the
fact that taking photos and making pictures is more than just a matter
of semantics.
By 2pm we were back on the streets. Patti and I had an
interesting excursion into the Tenderloin - I'm not sure why we
wouldn't think us middle class white folks carrying expensive looking
cameras would not stand out or be particularly welcome in that area.
With our tails between our legs we were rescued by a friendly cab
driver and safely delivered to Union Square. In less threatening
environment we split up and started trying to make pictures in that
area and down to Market Street. It's an interesting place to shoot as
it is where tourists mingle with wealthy shoppers and street
entertainers, preachers and panhandlers trying to make a buck or a
point. Looking through my photography you will see I am much more
comfortable shooting things rather than people but I tried to force
myself not to rely on my old architectural standbys but to at least try
to capture some of the life on the street. After several hours of
walking and shooting I can't say I was comfortable with shooting
strangers but I was getting a little more used to it but as the light
began to die we retreated back to our base to download our cameras
again.
The next day was a more civilized 10am start but I still had a
sleep hangover after staying up past 1am again, this time installing
Lightroom on Patti's Mac which had mysteriously uninstalled itself
after the Snow Leopard update. The theme for the day was learning how
to edit the wheat from the chaff of our images and what to do with
those images once you had distilled them down. In addition to Emilio
and Ibarionex we were lucky enough to have Ray from Hamburger Eyes show us work from
his publications and talk a little about his field. All this content
was great but it did seem like we went from having all day to one hour
to whittle down our harvested images to five edited images for
projection at that evening's show. Working in the software industry
with techies not creative types I assume deadlines are solid unless I'm
told otherwise so I hacked away to get five images ready for delivery.
I was a little surprised as the deadline loomed large to have
opportunity to sit down with both Emilio and then Ibarionex for a
goodly amount of time each going through my images, to talk about both
the photographic process and editing choices. This may have
been the most impactful time for me of the whole workshop. It
is easy to describe Emilio in one word: intense. Not that kind of
humorless intensity but a intensity that looks you right in the face
and lets you know you're in a no bull shit zone and that he knows what
you're trying to do, what you're doing that works and what falls flat.
Ibarionex's word would be 'supportive' but not the wishy-washy kind of
supportive you usually encounter. Ibarionex's supportiveness
is more focused and decisive and about helping you find and tell your
narrative. Both points of view were extremely valuable to me.
Somehow both teachers seemed to spend time with everyone and
everyone still managed to deliver images in time for the evening's
show. The tangle of extension cords, laptops and all their chaotic
power supplies and accessories were hastily stowed in time for friends
and supporters to arrive. As I drank a well deserved (I think) beer and
watched each of my class mates present their work I couldn't believe
we'd only been together for a weekend. We'd all been in the same place
but everyone had found their own story to tell in pictures as diverse
as the participants themselves. 'T' is a ways down the alphabetical
list but getting up to present my own shots I didn't feel the usual
nervousness I feel getting up in front of a room but just a cushion of
support. In my usual solitary photographic pursuits I upload my
pictures to the web in absolute quiet. To hear applause when your
pictures are seen and see people's faces as they are shown is a new
experience for me.
Exhausted, Patti and I crawled home after the show. I need a
weekend to recover from my weekend but I take away so much from this
experience. I'm not a street photographer but I still learned much that
I can take away and apply to my work. I'm not going to go away and try
to be a modern HCB or sell my DSLR to buy a 35mm rangefinder but
perhaps I'll try to include more people among my
buildings and something more human in my abstracts.
Patti and I are already working out what we can sell to make
it to India next year with Black Boots Ink; anyone want to buy a gently
used kidney?
