7/100 - Alice

Today was finally a day we could call a lovely April one - sunshine, clear sky and around 10°C. I was knackered after my week at work, but decided to take a stroll in Camden Town and look for some boots since my trusty old ones have now given up service... I didn't end up with any boots, but did get to talk to Alice and her boyfriend Ian (behind her), and take a few pictures.

I saw them sitting on a kerb chilling out and I was at first a bit wary of asking them, half expecting them to tell me to bugger off, but I loved their look so couldn't resist. They were thankfully very cool about it! I'm not supportive of stereotypes, but where I come from there is a fine line between nice punks and skinhead types, so it's better to be safe than sorry... anyway, I'm glad they were the nice types :) Ian was sipping his beer and Alice sat next to him. I took Ian's photo but the light was way too harsh and I didn't want to bother him by asking him to move so I left it at that. I could however ask Alice to turn towards me, away from the light, resulting in this portrait. I'm not happy with the skin tone - it looks a bit flat, but that's what you get with such bad light. Despite that I still really like this picture, with Alice's friendly smile and amazing eyes! She is a very pretty girl, and I like how Ian's profile can be seen behind her. If I heard correctly, she and Ian both work in Camden, and were just taking a break. He's a drummer in a band, and she loves music as well; if she could travel anywhere in the world she would go to America on a road trip, or do a tour if she had her own band. Alice was a real pleasure to chat to, thank you for your time! Here's hoping you get to America some time!

Of Women and Men

Pardon the unoriginal wordplay on the famous novel title... :)

I've noticed a (worrying?) trend in my stangers project. I realised that I mainly notice and photograph women. Granted, I'm not far in, but there's only one male in the series so far, and he only came about because I photographed a girl he was with first. I don't often notice men whose photos I'd be interested in taking, to be honest... actually, never in my life have I really noticed men on the street, or the looks of men in general. Sure, I've had a couple of celebrity crushes over the years, who hasn't (Heath Ledger is still my knight in shining armour, well, he could be any time he wanted anyway) but apart from that I've never cared much about looks, muscles and what have you that other women apparently do. Men don't tend to be interested in fashion either, so that doesn't leave a lot of things that could get a guy noticed by me in the street. There are exceptions of course, but most of the time I see many more women who look interesting than men. I'm not especially fashionable myself because I prefer to blend in with the crowd instead of standing out, even if in a good way, but that's not to say I don't notice and appreciate others' efforts. Quite the contrary - I've actually been thinking, what if I moulded this project a bit into something different - a street fashion series perhaps, because I simply love seeing stylish people out and about. After some consideration I decided I didn't want to place constraints on myself regarding the type of person I can photograph for it, so I rejected that idea, but my instincts tell me there will be many more stylish ladies in this series than men. 

I'm a bit wary of approaching men anyway, I don't want them to think I'm hitting on them, with the additional potential embarrassment of a male when it comes to photos. For some reason, in my observation, it can be considered 'gay' for men to pose for photos, or God forbid be complimented on their style... I don't think I'll ever get my head around this, but guys don't like taking photos that much, and I don't want to burden myself with rejection. Maybe when I'm well into the project I'll change my mind and develop a 'what the hell' mentality, but not just yet.

5&6/100 - Radina and Mithi

I'm terribly behind with this blog, had a very busy week - but the reason it exists is for me to collect my thoughts about the project and keep me on track, so here I am again. The above two photos were taken last weekend, at Trafalgar Square where I spotted the girls (their style stood out among the blandly dressed tourists) on my way to the gallery. It was cold - my hands were trembling as I fished out my cards to give to them, so as much as I'd have like to talk to them more, I hurried into the gallery without much thought after exchanging a few words and taking their pictures, even though they seemed like interesting people. So I was very happy when I received emails from them later; it turns out that Radina speaks Japanese and Korean and is into that culture, and Mithi is an art student. With Mithi we talked about many random things, she seems like a lovely person! This is when I really feel what the project is about - to get to know more interesting people. I've always been more of a listener than a talker (except among my closest friends, but I could count them on one hand) in the sense that I prefer to hear about other people instead of talking about myself. That doesn't mean I'm a pushover, it's just curiosity - people fascinate me, in the best sense of the word.