Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in your neighborhood?
The people that you meet each day…
Well, they’re the people that you meet
When you’re walking down the street
They’re the people that you meet each day
Sesame Street, People In Your Neighborhood
© Universal Music Publishing Group
Roaming DTLA is always an adventure, I never really know who I’m going to encounter. Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker…ya never know. One thing is for sure though. The people in the neighborhoods that make up DTLA are not the “people in your neighborhood” that the muppets sang so merrily about. I’d say these people are a bit more…complex.
This “complexity” is one of the reasons that I truly enjoy photographing the people I see in downtown LA. The diversity is simply astounding. Of course, when asked, we all will admit that no two people are the same. Unfortunately, we don’t always treat each other as unique individuals. We often slot people into neat little groups based on our beliefs, perceptions and biases. When I’m in street photographer mode in DTLA, I’m faced with the challenge of creating images of individuals who vary in age, nationality, race, socio-economic standing, gender identity…the list goes on & on. With each click of my shutter, I hope to capture something unique about the person I’ve pointed my camera towards.
This is the case, even when photographing a group. It’s not unusual to think the members have some superficial, maybe easily identifiable, thing in common. But, look a bit more closely at the resulting images. As you scan the members of the group, you can see that each has a different story to tell, because, well…no two people are the same.
Butcher, Baker, or Candlestick Maker…everyone is unique. Right?
When I look at any given selection of my street photos, I often ask whether the resulting images are purely a consequence of availability/chance encounters or a reflection of my own beliefs, perceptions, & biases? Well…the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I do hope that, at the end of the day, my images reflect a balanced depiction of what I’ve seen.
Eh…Just maybe, beyond great images, that’s the most that a documentary/street style photographer can hope to achieve. Yeah…Maybe. 😉
So, please, take a look at the images of these individuals. If you’d like… let me know your thoughts by leaving a message in the comments section below. As always, I hope you enjoy viewing the images as much as I enjoyed making them.
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–Reggie–
Equipment Used
- Fuji X Pro3
- Fuji 23 f2.0
© 2014-2020 Reginald Foster, All Rights Reserved. All Photos and text are the property of Reginald Foster and PhotoFerret1.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Reginald Foster is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Reginald Foster and PhotoFerret1.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
