Street Photography #5. Re-visit your old photos.

 

OK, this could be a tip, or you could view it as a challenge. I have recently joined my third cohort with the Arcanum and am working with Glenn Guy, a travel photography guru. See his website HERE. Thus far I have taken to shooting most of my work for this group using 35mm film, however, after trudging again to the camera mall to have my shots developed, I remind myself why digital is so much easier. Anyway, a recent ‘Arcanum’ challenge was to post some photos I could never delete.

Bunderbans (15)

Snacks sold alongside a bus.

Is there a time in your life that was filled with photography, yet you did not really see yourself as a photographer? Maybe you were starting out and still a rookie, or were loaned a camera for a week or two. I lived for a year in Bangladesh, placed in a nightmare apartment squeezed between a construction site and a demolition site, imagine trying to live at a Nine Inch Nails gig. I went crazy! Leaving the apartment was not much better;  Dhaka is a colourful and vibrant place, yet riddled with poverty and sickness. Strangely it is here where I have captured the most wonderful smiles on the planet. At the time I had a cheap Panasonic point and shoot (although my EXIF is telling me it was a Samsung?). Is it wrong to think ‘I wish’? If not, then I wish I had owned a better camera, wish I new then what I new now and wish I had taken more photographs! These pictures were not re-edited to a great extent, generally the contrast and clarity were tweaked in Lightroom, with a little vignette added if appropriate.

Bunderbans (3)

Two girls who lived in Dhaka Train Station.

SAM_0559

Dhaka lacks solid rock, so women break up bricks for use in construction.

When you look at your old photos, you will see how much you have improved. I certainly wonder what I was thinking by keeping some of the photos on my hard drive, along with some worrying reminders that I am getting older. Who knows, maybe I have got wiser too…

Enjoy the pics, keep clicking,

 

Chris

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5 Comments on “Street Photography #5. Re-visit your old photos.”

  1. A great post illustrated with lovely images Chris. There’s so much life and experience invested in a photograph. The life and experience of the subject, the viewer and of the photographer. This 3-way interaction is at the very heart of photography and why it’s such a powerful communicative medium.

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    • Thanks Glenn, it’s funny – we get a buzz out of the initial posting and ‘likes’, but the real satisfaction comes from looking at the photos, sometimes years later.

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  2. Nice photos and interesting reflections! I think that your photos in this post show that interaction between the photographer and the situation (as well as composition and light of course) can be more important than the choice of camera.

    I can relate to what you write. Got tons of photos in the hardrive that are not worth preserving. And most of the ones that I don’t want to delete are of people and memories that feels worthwhile to remember.

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    • Thanks Jesper, we all love our camera choosing sagas, but most of our subjects couldn’t care less.
      I have regular hard drive sweeps and try to get rid of the junk photos (post your best and hide the rest!). You know after a few months which ones have an effect on you.

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