A bit of street photography

The art of street photography is zen and nerve wracking. Simultaneously. 

I like the anonymity of street photography. There's a rush of capturing truly unguarded moments in a person's life. You'll likely never meet but you're capturing something about them. I don't get up in their personal space. There's no forcing each other to interact. It just is. But it's nerve wracking because each person's reaction to a shutter's clickity clack will be different.

I made these a couple of weeks ago running errands in the district.

Abu in Bermel and an old interview randomly found

It's funny, I guess, when you run across an old interview you gave about your work. 

I'm applying for a workshop this summer and they asked for links to my past work. I did a quick google and rand across this interview by Lucy Steigerwald. It's been a crazy couple of years since that interview and it'd slipped my mind.

The money quote, emphasis mine: "But Faces of Battle, Afghanistan is not the expected high-intensity war photography. Half the shots are the real everyday of war: going on patrol, endless waiting. The other half are shoulder-level portraits of the soldiers of Abu Company: Mostly, they give tough stares; a few crack little smiles. Many look like they could use a nap." 

Love finding old gems like this one. Thanks for the opportunity, Lucy. 

"Effect" of war

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I wanted to share this here.

Lalage Snow has spent quite a bit of time in Afghanistan. In some really, really nutty places. But the work she brought out is great. It really captures the place, that vibe.

The BBC has a series of her portraits up on their site, and I'm quite taken with them. They're of British Army soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland shot before during and after the deployment to Helmand province, Afghanistan. To me, as someone who has been around the rodeo a bit, the effects of that place on these soldiers are quite pronounced. Simple photos of their faces. Not a lot of lighting. Just them in turns staring confidently and nervous, then tired and scared, then finally exhausted and relieved.

The effects of war is on people is something I've pursued the last few years. It started with the white-background portrait series on my Website, and continued in 2010 with my series on Abu Company shot on Kodachrome. I'll continue it for sometime, possibely the rest of my life. The effects of it all are probably more important than the actual event.

Good on ya, Lalage. First beer is on me.

"One of Us" by Chris Usher

David Holloway has a great video on his YouTube channel about Chris Usher's "One of Us" project.
Chris, a D.C.-based photog, just published a book about the people of affected by Hurricane Katrina. He went down to New Orleans for Time magazine originally to cover the storm. That assignment, as he talks about in the video, started as a three- or four-day trip, became a three-week journey and has now turned into a nearly four-year odyssey to document the people who lost virtually everything after that monster storm.

Here's the video or check David's YouTube: