I Wish I Was Invisible So I Could Take Photos In Peace.
“You don’t have to figure out a pose. I was actually going for a more natural candid approach. Just act like I’m not even here.”
Sometimes I am selfish. Most of the time when I bring my camera out it is because I am on a personal mission. I have a story I need to tell. Through my wants, I can shine a light on others. More than likely my stories are coming directly from my own community and experiences. Recently though I have done a few favors for my friends who needed photos & we were able to meet in the middle. They had a goal and they needed my help achieving it, and I was fine doing that. This was not that day.
People are extremely important. Their stories are also important, but because this piece is a part of a greater story that does focus on someone, I wanted to take this specific component in a different direction.
Campaign season is well underway and I am currently in a photojournalism class. I am in the middle of working on my extended assignment and capturing the Meet The Candidates rally was a component that I felt was very vital to the story I am looking to tell. Since the beginning of the semester, my professor has stressed this idea of humanity and capturing people in our photos. Even in this photo set, you’ll see that some of my subjects are making direct eye contact with me. It is because:
When people see a girl walking around with a fat ass camera with a long-ass lens attached to it their first thought is to pose.
The people are important.
After all, this event was held so that people could meet other people. Students vying to serve on our Student Government Association Executive Board for the upcoming year were given this space to directly connect with voters. But when I had made up my mind that I was going to shoot this event, I wasn’t that interested in the people. I wanted to dive more into the physical ambiance.
When this campaign season is over and the winners are announced, they will serve their positions and then a new set of students will come in and do the same thing.
It’s a tradition.
And yes people make traditions, but the physical objects will hold those memories for generations to come.
I think another part of me wanting to be a fly on the wall has to do with my anxiety. I get so nervous that people are going to hijack my project and turn it into their personal photoshoot. And being the no-backbone having heaux I am, it’s quite easy to deter me from my original goal.
Shot with my Canon 5DS, I wanted to dive into the physical objects that help us to tell our stories and connect with other people.
Intertwined within moving bodies at the rally, here are some of the objects I found.
And the people who brought those objects.