Every single person who replied to my question last week, about the
frequency of drool posts, said that they like the good-old New-Post-
Each-And-Every-Sunday approach. That’s that.

Longtime drool reader Kate W. asked, at the end of her comment,
for specifics about how I approach the people I photograph, and
about my methods of working with them. She said that that’s the
kind of information you can’t get in books.

Some people I photographed in California

I think that there’s a good reason you can’t get that in books: it’s
so complicated, it has so much to do with ethereal, abstract stuff.
It’s not about numbers, it’s about personality…..your personality.

Approach (and what you do after the approach) is a comp-
licated question, one that raises all kinds of moral, aesthetic
and personal issues.  Over the next 2 weeks I’m going to try
to touch on what I think are the important aspects of these
issues. I may have more questions than answers. But mostly
I’m just going to tell you about a few images I took. In amongst
these stories are, I believe, bits and pieces of advise and mindset
that go towards answering Kate’s request.

Bear with me.

I’m going to restrict my comments to the shooting I do for
myself, personal projects.  I also want to add, right here at
the beginning, that what works for me may not (probably
won’t) work for you.  Here’s why:

As far as I’m concerned the most important thing about
approaching and photographing strangers is to be honest. 
And what’s honest for me probably isn’t honest for you.

I know that that sounds weird. After all, honest is honest,
right?  How many truths are there?

As far as I can tell, there are all kinds of truths.  There’s my
truth and your truth.  There is no absolute truth. So the first
thing you’ve gotta figure out is how you see the world and how
you see yourself in that world. To further complicate the issue,
you are probably going to be using your photography to figure
all that shit out.  So how can you be honest if you don’t know
whats going to happen?

That’s the beauty of it. It’s a difficult problem.

Anyway……..

APPROACH (1)

One of the first things I have to deal with is: Who do I want to shoot?

Case in point:

LaReese Walker, Stateline, Mississippi, 2004

We pulled into one of the 2 gas stations in Stateline, not because we were
running low, but because there were a bunch of folks hanging out. (You’ll
have a higher success rate if you go places where people are just passing
the time: barber shops, car washes, gas stations, laundromats, etc. It’s
often very difficult to get busy businessmen, to whom time is money, to
stop, chat and work with you.)

Anyway, got out, stretched, leaned against the car and just started soaking
up the gas-station-in-Stateline-Mississippi vibe. I often do this. Watch, make
eye contact and initiate conversations even though I may not want to photo-
graph that particular person. It’s like opening a door, seeing what comes thru
it. You never know.

(I might add, this gas station was the one where the black people seemed to
congregate. The other gas station there was just white people. So, there was
a tiny bit of weirdness in the air when we got out. I just shrug that off, keep
breathing and tell myself I’m here doing a job, that I’m a photographer and,
goddamnit, I’m going to take pictures.)

Anyway, after a bit of conversation with the folks hanging (They say: “You’re
from Canada? No shit. I heard pot was legal up there.”) I decide that there’s
really no one there I feel compelled to photograph. I don’t know, can’t describe,
what makes me drawn to one person over another. Something to do with their
energy, the shape of their skull, how their clothes hang on them, stuff like that.
Anyway, we’re just about to leave when LaReese comes wheeling in. He gets
out, leaves the car running and, still smoking, starts to pump gas.

Now this guy I’ve gotta shoot. So I go on over, start talking (which was easy
because I’d already established myself as an entity at that place) and LaReese
wants me to shoot him. He didn’t have much time because he was under house
arrest (that’s a house arrest bracelet on his left wrist, not a watch. He had a
curfew). So I sprung into action. “Stand here, take a drag. No, don’t look at
me, look over at your buddy there.” 3 or 4 frames. Done. Never hurts to have
a car that color in the shot, either.

So, everything I did at that gas station led up to that brief encounter. It’s
time and energy and emotion and work invested to yield one brief moment.
That’s the process. Like Annie Lebovitz said in that quote I quoted last week:

When I’m asked about my work, I try to explain that
there is no mystery involved. It is work. But things
happen all the time that are unexpected, uncontrolled,
unexplainable, even magical. The work prepares you for
that moment.

Then there’s this:

Northshore, California, 2003

In this case I was poking around the desert and this man and his child
just happened along. I was struck by the incongruity of a man and his
baby in the middle of nowhere. So I approached him, told him who I was,
what I was doing and asked if he’d mind if I took his picture. It was kind
of like I didn’t choose him, he chose me; or, maybe, the happenstance of
that moment was too perfect to ignore. I just had to suck it up, approach
the dude and get my job done. It’s what photographers do.

When I approach someone, ask to take their picture, I usually just
walk up and start right in. I’m polite and, maybe, a bit weird, myself.
But mostly matter-of-fact. I ask if they’ve got a bit of time, then say
something along the lines of: “You see, I’m a photographer, out
shooting a project. I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing, kinda
just working with people, seeing what happens.”

Often the “subject” will hesitate a bit at this point, so I whip out a
portfolio that shows the type of work I do. This will often (usually)
catch their attention. Most folks can sense from the work that I’m
actually trying to do something. Maybe even something serious.

It’s at this point that the conversation can get very open and wide-
ranging. They have questions, I have questions, all kinds of stuff
comes up. It feels a lot like making contact.

Anyway, in this case the dude was willing. Then I had to get him to
move into a position where the composition made sense. That took a
bit of me hollering (because I was a ways away from him): “Move back
a bit. No! That’s too much. A bit forward. Perfect! Don’t look into the
camera.”

Two frames, we’re done. I go over, we talk some more. I get a release
signed, get his address so I can send him a copy. There you go.

Sometimes a person I end up shooting talks to me first:

View into car, Borrego Springs, California, 2002

Once again, I was just hanging……this time at a small strip mall. Leaning up
against a window, soaking up vibe. (There’s a lot of soaking up vibe in what
I do. I like to be open, to allow my instinct to move forward when I’m shooting
personal projects.) The dude, sitting in his Camero down the parking lot, calls
out to me. I didn’t catch what he said, so I go over to his car and say: “What
did you say?”.

What he’d said was” “Do you wanna smoke some weed?”

I looked down and there he is, rolling a joint. I tell him I’m not interested right
now but, boy, would I ever like to take his picture. (Check out those eyes, that
bad-boy haircut, the villain-in-the-movies looks.) He says sure. Who’d a thunk
it? A dude looking for a smoking buddy who then lets a stranger take his picture.
Unfortunately, in this case, I had to meet someone in a few minutes. I’m pretty
sure that, if I had asked, I could have spent the afternoon shooting this guy.
Something tells me we would have ended up back at his place with him showing
me his gun collection, or something. You never know.

So…..

As you can see from these 3 examples, who I choose can be the result of
luck or the result of choice. There are tons of people I see who I have no
interest in photographing. There are some I’m just plain drawn to. In the
end, it comes down to some kind of instinct, to being open to the moment
and to putting in the hours. And, of course, there always has to be the desire.
In the end it’s all about that. Desire.

Okay…….

I’m never scared when approaching strangers. I can be in a rough part
of town but I always act like I’m there for a reason. That’s because I am
there for a reason. That reason is to make contact with people, to work
with them to create something and then to photograph that thing we’ve
created. It’s what I do. Why be scared?

It can make me uncomfortable, though, this thing I do. For all kinds of
reasons. And that, too, is partly why I do it, to get out of my comfort
zone. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it here: I believe many (not all)
of us are just too comfortable. Comfort hardly never equals progress,
and what’s the point of living, being alive, if you’re not at least trying
to move forward? The problem with risk, with trying, is you might fail.
But look at it the other way, maybe you’ll succeed. And, to me, the
chance of success is worth taking the risk.

And, anyway, my job is being a photographer. Photographers take
photographs so my only options are to persevere or to not be a
photographer. I like being a photographer way too much to quit.

That’s enough of this nonsense for now. Next week I’m going to
go into a little more detail on how I work with the people I shoot.
Send in comments or questions about this and I’ll try to fit in any
answers I might have.

Yeah, sure: answers.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Allan Rock photographed for Tabaret magazine

MY CLIENT’S BOOTS

Did the first 2 days of a 5 day shoot for a government client this week. My
minder, who is also the lead on my bit of this project, showed up one of the
days wearing these boots. I just had to shoot ‘em.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE ARKANSAS STATE PRISON 1915-1937

I came across this web site….archival photos from The Arkansas State Prison.
The images were found and printed by Bruce Jackson. Check it out— powerful,
amazing documents. Link.

EVERYONE’S A WINNER, BABY

Yes.

But the big winner is Magida. Names were thrown in a hat and her name
was picked. Who sez you can’t win if you’re in with the first comment?

A shiny new print, suitable for framing, of The Brooklyn Bridge is getting
made just for her.

Thanks to all who took the time and effort to reply to my question.

Yes.

Everyone’s a winner, baby.