I took another photo walk today, and I didn’t get one block before my camera card was full, and my batteries were dead. After my recent brush with subjects that are impossible to photograph, it was refreshing to learn that my neighbors like nothing more than to be in a photo.

^The local restaurant.

^Party central

^General store



^This man was explaining to be that is I photographed the onions, I had to photograph the tomatoes too. Apparently, it’s like a rule.




^This is what the average house on this street looks like.

^When I bumped into these kids, I had no idea how much trouble I’d just gotten myself into.

^Because after that last photo, they followed me everywhere I went, just behind the camera

^Ready to jump in front of the camera at any moment. Also: Before learning that STD is a phone service, it’s a little disorienting to learn that you can get it from a booth.

^And then, the kids’ friends showed up. They also wanted to be photographed.

I was always nervous about going to these neighborhoods to take photos, because it seemed rude to invade and photograph people’s everyday life. But they demanded it. I was pulled by the arm and quickly learned that everyone wanted to be on camera.

^They staged group shots,

^Took me to photograph their families,

^And found friends to embarass.

^The entourage got bigger and bigger, and everyone demanded photos taken. Girls disappeared into their homes, only to emerge a few seconds later with their hair done, to stand in a flattering pose waiting until I pointed the camera their way so they could mock being camera shy.

^But every time the button was clicked, everyone would charge in front of the camera, and I’d get something like this.


Eventually, I faked a dead battery to make my escape, and after a full 15 minutes of hand shakes and high fives, made my way out to photograph more. I’m thinking of maybe going there another time, taking individual photos, and developing them for them?






And with that, my card was full, batteries dead. I’ll take more, that was just the first block! Oh, and I took a little video of the conditions under which I was shooting.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 24th, 2005 at 4:18 am and is filed under Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.