Originally posted by zkarj "They are us."
Exactly.
Actually it's given me an idea that's quite relevant for a photography forum. I'm a big fan of Brandon Stanton's 'Humans of New York' series of portraits of people from all walks of life initially in New York, but eventually extending to other places.
I think maybe there's an opportunity to do something similar here in NZ.
I'm self-(un)employed, so I have some flexibility around my time although ideally being busy earning is preferable, the reality is I have periods without too much to do between projects. I've run a website about my region for 20 years now, and though I'm a bit shy about photographing people on the street, I'm thinking maybe I should start giving it a go.
What I appreciate about '
Humans of New York', is it shows people as they are, in their own words, without passing judgement.
One of the things about social media (even this forum), is that even though it's easy to post images ,it's so easy to remain faceless if people choose to.
I shot my first wedding a few weeks back, as someone I'd known since a toddler was getting married, and thought they couldn't afford to have photos, so my wife volunteered me. The thing is, quite a few of the people were not the kind I'd regularly associate with, and yet doing the photography, I realised that whatever quirks and vices people have, they're still people, and have moments of joy, sadness, stress, relaxation and so on regardless of who they are.
I think after Christchurch, it reminds me how much we need to be reminded of the humanity of each other regardless of political persuasion, religion, body art, growth rings
, and so on...