Last August/September my wife and I did a little trip to California to visit a very good friend of ours, and it was one of the best decisions we could have made. At the time we were in the middle of re-arranging our life. Making our way off of Vancouver island, and eventually to end up back in Europe. We had booked a few jobs on Vancouver island for the summer but we were no longer living there, so we had to kind of go back and forth. Well two of the jobs were in the same city but one month apart, so we needed to figure out where to stay. Turns out short term rentals on the island are stupidly expensive, so much so that it was actually a bit cheaper to buy flights to Los Angeles and go on a road trip with our good friend for two weeks than it was to just rent a place in Victoria. So since we dont like being on the island anyway we said why not?
It was honestly one of my favourite trips ever. We got to spend a ton of time with some amazing people, experience California with locals, surf some world famous spots, and make new life long friends. I wouldn't trade that trip for the world.
Anyhow, the past year or so I've really been taking street photography more seriously so I did a bunch on this trip.
There are a lot of interesting things to think about when it comes to street photography, because your usually not really asking to take photos. In most places this is not really a legal issue, as the common view and interpretation is that if you're in a public place then you don't really have any reasonable expectation of privacy, but there are questions about exploitation among other things. I'm honestly not sure quite where I fall on that argument, it's more of a feeling for me, "like does it feel wrong to take this photo?"
This shot for example was a total fluke. I had my camera up to take a photo of the road sign. We were driving along a road going like 60mph and this guy just decides to bolt across four lanes of traffic. My friend driving slammed the brakes and the dude in red is lucky to be alive. It's a crazy photo if you know the context, and I think it's worth sharing.
This one is another crazy photo I took from a car. We were driving down to Big Sur to surf and stopped somewhere in LA at a light. This poor dude was just crashed out on the street and I couldn't help but see the crazy contradiction of him with the insanely expensive G Wagon and BMW just a few feet away. This was a real moment in time, when I travelled past a destitute and probably drug addicted man lying face down on the street while people drove up to buy coffee in cars that cost more than either of us can really comprehend. Weird.
This issue comes up especially when photographing people facing hard situations like living on the streets, or struggling with drug addiction. I think it's reasonable to document these types of things, but there are definitely lines.
This is one image that I thought was pretty intense. We ended up driving through the infamous skid row area on our way to another friend's house and it was very intense. It's hard to see people living this way, and it's very strange to see how normal it is for them. I was looking around and I just noticed this mattress on fire and was like "What's going on!!?? That building is gonna burn down!" Nobody on the street seemed particularly concerned, they guy crossing the road didn't even notice, my friend who is from LA didn't feel like it was anything out of the ordinary, he just said "Yeah stuff like that happens all the time." Crazy.
I got some pretty cool photos on the trip, and some depressing ones as well, but my philosophy with street photography is that these people exist, these things happened, they were there and so was I. We experienced a moment in time and I was able to capture it with both my memory and interpret it with my camera. I like to share those memories because, at least to me, they mean something.
Anyhow, it's not all philosophising and depressing stuff, there are just some fun street shots and some beautiful light in there too.
I just loved the light on this sign
More beautiful light on buildings
And some cool doorways and street scenes
If you made it this far, well, thanks! I hope you like the photos :) I'll be posting much more soon, I've got a ton of photos to put up from travels and such.