Petah Tikva – Opening of Hope – the street life.
Thats exactly the meaning and translation of the name of the Petah Ticva city – Opening of Hope. And the city hall inaugurated the central square located near the city’s municipal building as a “Donald Trump Square”.
But this my post (as the whole blog) is not about politics. Today i continue my recently started series “Three cities triangle – from the busy streets”, but this time dedicated to only one of them – the new for me, where i started my walks with the camera recently, Opening of Hope city.
This visit was different in terms of the feeling of the city life and the local rules, that I felt with the whole my body. After 5 minutes after my arrival and of the stay in the square, some Russian guy ( Gastarbeiter, guest worker, tourist worker – call it whatever you want) come to me to ask some money. He was really insane or on a high or together, so I got nothing from this long speech but only the hints saying that if I have a camera (damn – my Ricoh is not looking like some expensive and fashionable camera), so I have to have money too. My answer was very long and a little bit grotesque – I tried to explain to him how deep his problem to get some cash these days when ppl don’t use cash anymore and everything is managing by the credit cards and i really can’t give him the one bcos I also need it. I think that he was too overwhelmed by my philosophical speech, so he just turned around and retired towards a group of seated friends.
Now a few words about photography and my endless thoughts about. This week I had a conversation with one of my co-workers, who had no clue what my hobby is about. During the conversation somehow I said that I walk with a camera and do candid photographs of the absolute strangers without to know them and without to ask their agreement.
She asked me – why you need this and what I have to do with these photographs. I mumbled something uncertain in response to her question, but I’m thinking about the real explain (should I explain?) already a few days and still don’t have any comprehensible explanation about why I’m enjoying this society documenting process, that no one asked me to concern. Her naive and honest question just discouraged me. I don’t think that I have any need to explain to anyone, but to myself. And now I don’t have any answer also for myself.
Hello Victor! Your co-worker’s question resonated very strongly in me, and made me look for my own answer.
Some more, others less, we are all stuck in our routines of life, trying to fill our gaps with things or activities that, in one way or another, give us pleasure. Frequently we find ourselves “doing” without a “why”. Sometimes we need a friend, a co-worker, or a friend’s co-worker to wake us up with the question: Why do we do what we do?
When I wondered why I do street photography, I realized that the answer was not so clear. The subject is complex and multifaceted. I can think at least of four dimensions: the rational, the value, the emotional, and the artistic.
On the rational level, documenting current times, people and places, is obviously intrinsic to the activity, and may be the goal for some specific projects, but, to me, in general it is a natural consequence of street photography practice. In addition, it allows me to know other places and meet people, to exercise, to improve my technical skills as a photographer, etc., but these are by-products, not my main motivation.
On an artistic level, street photography is an infinite world of opportunities to create images where form (composition, light and shadow, color) and content (storytelling, visual poetry, and message) merge. However, for me, street photography is one of many photography styles that I have explored and I would like to continue exploring as a creative expression.
On the value level, important questions have arisen: Which are the red lines that I do not want to cross? What kind of situations or people do I consciously avoid? Is there a message I want to convey? Obviously, the answer is very personal.
On the emotional level, whom are these images of unknown people for? Why do I share them with the world? The cliché is to say that we share our photography to provoke an emotional reaction, and a connection between the observer and the image. However, somehow, our photography in general is the mirror of oneself as a photographer, of our own psyche and subconscious. A reflection of our history, pains, joys and emotional needs. I think that especially in Street photography, when we shoot people and situations, we capture “things” that we do not consciously see in ourselves. To some extent, maybe it is an exhaust valve, or perhaps an unconscious self-therapy. Maybe that’s the reason why street photography attracts us intuitively and mysteriously. It is in this dimension that I believe we can find the answer to the original question.
Thanks Victor for making me think.
It;s in your DNA! I emphasize ,don’t stop!
Thank you Paula ! Great said about DNA ! i big shame that i started taking photos pretty late 🙂
Absolutely impressive series Victor. Emotionally took me into deep ..Why do you shots? It’s that because of love to capture it in your heart.
Thank you Victor I love your work.
Thank you for saying that Naomi !
these images feel so real and authentic, Victor… great observations and details captured so effortlessly…
I thought photographer was your job and it’s just your hobby? you obviously take photos with great love and that’s the only reason you’ll ever need 🙂
ps. thanks for visiting my blog, really appreciated…
Hey Alexandra ! thank you for the kind words ! Photography is not my job but my everyday hobby. I willed once to live from photography, right now its my plan B ;-).