It requires a certain degree of mindfulness to be able to make photographs. Until you tap into that meditative or flow state, you won’t be able to capture anything worth capturing. It’s a subtle dance – to be simultaneously aware of the effects of external stimuli and your responses to those stimuli.
Why did you choose to make a photograph of that man sitting alone as everyone walks past him? How did it make you feel? Did you identify with the peaceful solitude or did it show up as loneliness for you?
“How does it make you feel? ” – It is a very important question to ask yourself. Did you photograph love or disgust, familiarity or discomfort?
I’m not strictly a street photographer, I capture whatever fancies my eyes. Whatever elicits an emotional response in me. Yet, streets occupy a certain corner in my heart due to the sheer uncertainty it stores in itself. I need to be extra-attuned to my surroundings if I even want to stand of making a half-decent photograph. Yet I’m always haunted by the question: “Am I paying enough attention? “
Photographing another human being is a very intimate act, whether you know that person or not. It is actually seeing them, and catching them in an unguarded moment of vulnerability, that is what makes the photograph so pure. And yet, I’m always haunted by the question, “Am I being intimate enough? “
No, I am not. I can make a photograph of a stranger on the street and if I don’t look at that photograph ever again, I will not recognize that person the next time I meet them. Am I really being mindful enough?