The story behind the project
Gerhard Richter. "
When I first hit the streets a couple of years back, it certainly wasn't an overwhelming, deep-rooted fascination and admiration for all "human" which had placed me on that sidewalk that morning, looking out. If anything, my relationship with the mundane up to that point had been one of a feeling of slight resentment for it all at its best. The rebellious teenager that lived in me never did get his head around the heavy compromises we tend to make as humans, the more so there where it really matters, leading us unavoidably towards mediocracy, falling away of true greatness. All in the name of progress and, let's be honest, often just our own comfort. Change is not our best play.
My motivation then was of a far more pragmatic and selfish nature then that I'm afraid.
As a father of three, back then between 2 and 7 years old, and full time employed, I was in dire need of more time to shoot. Or so I thought. I had just taken up the idea of starting my own photography business and became increasingly aware that, if I were to make it work somehow, I had to shoot way more then I was doing. Amongst many other things.
The streets offered a great if not the next best alternative: always out there, ever available it required only a minimum of time or organisation to be out the door and with my subject.
As a self taught photographer I had no idea what I was getting into at that point. I had a vague idea of what "street photography" could "look like" from the endless stream of images on display on an equal number of social media accounts. But that was as far as my knowledge reached.
So at first my early endeavours resulted in the usual homeless persons' portraits (an attempt at social documentary photography which I hopelessly failed at, due to a lack of empathy I must add ), the minimalistic and geometrical color and/or shadow compositions (plenty of it out there already, many much better then my first dreadful attempts), the dreamy reflections, the "poppy" ones, the "exotic" and colourful far-away-places and Havana shots (plenty of those to go around as well! What is it about them anyway?).
It soon enough hit me that if the streets were to awaken a long lasting interest of mine, something I really needed them to if I were to get out and photograph them for much longer, they would need to have much more on offer then all of the above. I had to find a way of my own to go about shooting the streets.
© Les fidèles, Madrid 22 October, 2017.It was only after I shot the above image that it cleared to me.
Somewhere along the way I had done away with the freedom to enjoy making images. I was no purist! Never had been. Ever. But, in an attempt to "learn" street photography, I had nevertheless adhered to the rules of others.
But this image... . This image was different. With its' unusual hint of perspective. The seemingly disintegration of back- and foreground. How the omnipresent black deprives the different elements of their original context and leaves space for another, alternative story.
These were elements I could possibly work with.
Sincerely yours,
Flamenco Sketches.
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