Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/04/07

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Subject: [Leica] paw - week...whatever.
From: Lee Bacchus <lbacchus@home.com>
Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 19:07:33 -0700

A pair of contrasting portraits from my almost completed project (to form
part of a small group gallery show) on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
(http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation.tcl?presentation_id=52810). The
first is of a woman in Chinatown (which is contained within this desperately
troubled and impoverished community) who makes her living on the street
knitting hats. The other is of Rebecca, who ‹ ahem ‹ makes her living on the
streets as well. 
When I first encountered the knitting lady, I vainly and naively imagined
myself to be one of the few to shoot her. After I fired off a dozen or so
shots of this woman who spoke not a word of English, she reached back behind
her, pulled out a dog-eared and timeworn piece of cardboard on which was
scrawled, "May I please sometime have a copy of your picture, please."
If I was going to offer some pre-emptive self-criticism, it would mainly be
that the knitlady's hands should be more in focus. Alas, I was only carrying
Delta 100 and couldn't stretch the DOF amid her shadowy corner. I also
wonder whether the shot is too tight, and that it would work better with her
array of knitted hats as a background. Conversely, I wonder if Rebecca's
portrait might work better in tight. But then I wanted to display part of
Pigeon Square, a famous (and infamous) hangout in the neighborhood.
Other comments gratefully accepted,
Lee Bacchus
Vancouver.

Replies: Reply from "Mike Durling" <durling@widomaker.com> (Re: [Leica] paw - week...whatever.)
Reply from Nathan Wajsman <wajsman@webshuttle.ch> (Re: [Leica] paw - week...whatever.)