I had a rather defining moment a couple of weeks ago that has gotten me to thinking about my stages as a street photographer. It coincides with the twelfth anniversary of me becoming a street photographer. I was kind of late to the game in this endeavor.

It happened when I was leaving the parking garage that I have used for the last three years when I go into the city on the weekends. I have come to be acquainted with the elderly gentleman who collects the parking fees. On this particular day, he observed to me that I had not stayed out very long. He was absolutely right. What he did not know is that a good part of that stay was spent eating lunch and not doing what I had come to do, take street photography. Maybe the hot weather is contributing to the problem, but I get tired after being out for more than a couple of hours. This is a new reality for me. It is yet another sign of how this stage of street photography differs from my first stage. I will digress here for a moment to reminisce on the way that it was.

From the ages of about 63 until about 72, I was in the invisible stage. Being invisible as you age is most definitely a woman thing. It went went far beyond photography, of course. It is something I probably hoped for all of my life. But as my mother famously said, “Be careful what you pray for, you might get it.” My Olympus 4/3rds camera helped me out in being an invisible street photographer with its tilt lens. Truly, people rarely understood I was taking their picture even at close range. As it turns out, being invisible as a street photographer is pretty handy, which became really obvious as I entered Stage 2.

During this first stage, I had a pretty good ability to be out for long periods of time. Since public transportation was daunting, in NYC, for example, I walked to wherever I wanted to go. I essentially started from the NYU area and walked to Brooklyn, to Rockefeller Center, to Wall Street, Times Square and to the Oculus. You name it, I walked to it. Some of the time there was a lot of walking and not so much photography. When I get too tired, then, as now, photography falls by the wayside.

At about 72, I let my hair go white. Perhaps not coincidentally, I became the opposite of invisible. I guess my white hair is the point of greatest contrast when I am in a scene that people are looking at. To make matters worse, I switched to a tiny Ricoh GR iii. You would think a smaller camera would be stealthier, but if you have to hold a camera up, you are not going to fool anyone, no matter how small it is. The first hallmark of my second stage was a total inability to be a stealthy street photographer.

In Nashville these days it is pretty common for the people I photograph to call out to me as Grandma and then insist they take a picture of us together using my camera. Phone, okay. Camera, absolutely not. In NYC, they tend to just register being irritated with me. I got so that I was not getting close enough when I was taking pictures. That is a terrible strategy, by the way, because people still noticed me and had time to give me their look of contempt. If I had waited until they were close, I would have gotten a better picture and never even seen their reaction because I would be past them. However, it does feel a little Bruce Gilden-ish to do that.

In the face of necessity, I have learned another way to be a stealthier street photographer. By keeping your camera at eye level after you take your picture it will appear as though you are still looking for something to photograph. It is fascinating how well that works.

The other issue of being in, shall we say, the sunset stage of street photography is a mobility issue. It is not so easy to get up and down. In general, I like to shoot from a low position. For the first time in my life, there is an advantage to being short. But actually getting down low is not likely to be a choice I will make. One work around to that problem is to hold the camera as low as possible and angle it up just a little.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago in that parking garage, I officially came to accept that now about 2 to 3 hours is my limit when I am out. I guess I saw it coming. The last couple of visits to NYC I have embraced public transportation. I cannot use up my energy just getting some place. Technology came to my rescue. It is now easy for me to purchase a ticket with Apple Pay. That whole getting in the gate thing was the problem for me. Well, and then catching the right train. Please do not laugh.

So here I am, Stage 2. One thing that has not changed is the thrill that I experience taking street photography. I plan to keep on keeping on as long as I can.

Dedicated to Street

My Stages As a Street Photographer