2019.03.25-03.30
Post date: Mar 31, 2019 11:27:40 PM
I enjoy taking the pictures of the people looking at art — in the museums, in the galleries, in the studios. People being immersed in what they are doing, discretion comes easier. In any case, I like taking pictures of people without disclosing their identity, without intruding to their privacy. This is the reason why, I prefer silhouettes, pictures from behind — whenever possible. This week’s pictures had something special: the people in the pictures are students most likely doing homework for art classes they are taking. I thought they were paying close attention to the displays on the wall and taking their time. I wanted my pictures to reflect that.
Not that I think it is important to establish the genre of photography one is doing, but I notice that I do my own classification in my mind based on the type of photography gear I am using. The vast majority of the pictures I take are in urban settings: they can be said to be urban explorations, city life documentation, and maybe in a lenient sense street photography: some of them are in the city I live, some in the cities close by I travel too. When I use prime lenses, fixed or interchangeable, I tend to consider my picture to be closer to “street photography.” When I resort to the 18-55 mm wide-standard zoom lens, I am more inclined to call them “travel photography.” Two cameras, two zoom lenses 18-55 and 55-200 (mostly indoors) takes me to “event photography.” For “still life” and maybe “abstract” photography, I am opting for fast, manual focus, vintage or specialty lenses: Helios 44-2, Lensbaby Velvet 56 and a variety of Canon FD lenses are examples for this. And in the case of portraits, I relied on 18-55mm zoom for base short and video interviews, 35 mm prime for major shots, and I experimented with Lensbaby Velvet 56’s dreamy look to convey the transience of human existence.
With this subjective classifications, the pictures I share this week can be said to be of “travel” category — My camera was FUJIFILM X-T12 with the so-called kit lens of 18-55 mm. They were taken during my visits to the Williams College Museum of Art and Clark Art Institute.
You can see these pictures in the following albums - FLICKR album also contains my comments on individual pictures:
FLICKR album: https://www.flickr.com/gp/aonart/ufz829
GOOGLE photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4jJWF5zY7nhs5RK56
Other pictures I took during this trip — Williamstown, Northampton, Amherst, all in MA — are included in the following FLICKR albums:
Williamstown: https://www.flickr.com/gp/aonart/29G59S
Williamstown: https://www.flickr.com/gp/aonart/z744DY
Northampton: https://www.flickr.com/gp/aonart/FFf67F