[Leica] interacting with strangers -- a very important element of photography

["kyle cassidy" <kcassidy@asc.upenn.edu>]

steve sed:

>Along the way I was saying to Guy how I really envied Kyle and his ability
>to interact with strangers, for example within 15 minutes of arriving in
>Bucharest he was in a sewer shooting street kids (an exaggeration Kyle, but
>you know what I mean),

i feel compelled to point out that i don't have any innate ability to chat
people up, it's an entirely learned/forced skill that i've only very
recently dabbled with. i'm actually a dreadfully shy person (believe it or
not) and walking up to strangers makes me wither. however. there are some
times when you just have to grit your teeth and charge the cannon. (so to
speak). the resulting photo will last for years and years, but the initial
discomfort of walking up to someone and asking only lasts a few seconds.  i
learned this in a mary ellen mark class a couple of years back -- as you all
know, that woman can talk anybody into letting her photograph them. she made
me realize that, at least for certian styles of photography, being able to
walk up to someone and fire up a conversation is 1000 times more important
than the camera you're shooting with. especially if you're shooting in a new
and unfamiliar place. meeting one person can provide you with an instant
network of connections.

i recommend reading "the vault guide to schmoozing" -- which is about $14
from amazon. it's basically a book about how to strike up conversations with
strangers, largely written for business people, but it all carries over into
photography. one great suggestion it gives is to always have a followup
question. you start with "do you come here often" they say "yes" and unless
you're prepared, the conversation dies there. so you ask "i've never heard
of any of these beers before, do you know anything about them?" and your
off.

another key point that i learned from mary ellen is that with a few
exceptions, everybody wants to be photographed. case in point. about five
years ago, back in my wild days, i had purple hair about four feet long
(http://elvis.rowan.edu/~cassidy/goth/k&n.gif) and was in new york with
linda and a couple of our more, um, dramatic looking friends
(http://elvis.rowan.edu/~cassidy/goth/can.gif). we were visiting the
metropolitian museum of art and on the front steps these two people ran up
to us and said "oh my god, we're from kansas, can we get our picture taken
with you pretending that you know us?" because we were the punks on the
subway that everybody was afraid of and you know what? it made our day. we
were all tickled pink to be in photos with these two people from kansas.
flip it around. what would you say if someone asked you? the key when asking
someone if you can photograph them is to have a viable reason "can i take
your picture" isn't necessarily the best opening line, "i'm doing a photo
essay on this park and i'm wondering if it would be alright if i took your
photograph" is better. (mary ellen says "never lie" but joan lupton says
"oh, i lie all the time." it's a judgement call -- i stick with the truth
myself.)

better still if you have a couple of your images on your person. i recommend
getting some postcards made from www.modernpostcard.com ($99 for 500) then
you have something to hand out, people know what your work is like and they
know you're not some random pervert. rather, you are a specific pervert with
a post card.

kc



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