Aside from the fact these photos were taken in the streets, they stray far from traditional street photography. Under the July sun in Albuquerque’s downtown, I began to look for people in the streets who seemed to have a particular look to their face, not quite grimy and gritty as Bruce Gilden’s portraiture – who partially inspired me along with McCurry – but softer, honest and almost innocent looking faces. Those who have been through struggle but keep moving forward with hope.

Given my common approach to street photography is usually the stereotypical wide angle and fast movement this was a struggle at first. Asking people for permission to take their portrait one has to get accustomed to being denied permission. However little sense it makes, one man scolded me saying “it’s a violation of my privacy!” even when I had asked to take it. I’d encourage anyone to try this even once, it puts you in a more “participating” role in the streets, to say the least.

Black and white film was the obvious choice, color film could not have given me the concentrated and bare feel that I was looking for. Tri-X 400 was what I had available at the time in my freezer and in order to keep the aperture relatively large under the intense sun, a three-stop ND Filter was necessary.

A wide-angle lens would not have given me the separation I wished to have between the subject to the background, neither would a 50mm. Given the shots were stopped down to f/4, there would have been far too much distracting background detail. Then came the coveted Nikon 105mm f/2.5 lens, close focus good enough to not have to raise my voice to direct the subject, but even at f/4 there was wonderful separation.

~ Gerson

Submit your 5 Frames… today

Get your own 5 Frames featured by submitting your article using this form or by sending an email via the contact link at the top of the page.

Share your knowledge, story or project

The transfer of knowledge across the film photography community is the heart of EMULSIVE. You can add your support by contributing your thoughts, work, experiences and ideas to inspire the hundreds of thousands of people who read these pages each month. Check out the submission guide here.

If you like what you’re reading you can also help this passion project by heading over to the EMULSIVE Patreon page and contributing as little as a dollar a month. There’s also print and apparel over at Society 6, currently showcasing over two dozen t-shirt designs and over a dozen unique photographs available for purchase.

Similar stuff on EMULSIVE

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from EMULSIVE

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Discover more from EMULSIVE

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading