I was waiting at a bus stop the other day, and was drawn in by the dramatic lighting coming from the NY Police Department’s mobile floodlights. They are a product of the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety. They also keep people up at night. Be that as it may, it was an opportunity to take advantage of the dramatic lighting. A cross of theatre and cranked up street lights.
I usually don’t take an active roll photographing people, and feel better about a stealthier approach to capturing them in their world. A less invasive approach makes for an interesting story. And anyway, I’m not a big fan of unsolicited confrontation because someone got bothered by my photographing them. That may be an old school attitude in an era of constant imagery and surveillance, but then again, I’m trying to tell a story. I just want to find the poetry in the moments.
