Jaime: Bushwick Vendor
I’ve never been the victim of someone randomly approaching me to solicit a portrait so when I’m the person asking, I like to situated myself in their shoes and formulate what my response would be to such request.
There will always be the perenniall “what’s it for?” question which you’ll get but once you’ve gotten over the hurdle of having a response ready and if you sound and look genuine enough, you’ll be surprised how accepting people can be to have their portrait taken even if they had already told you “no” at the starting point of the conversation. Such was the case with Jaime.
There’s been some neighborhoods which have been more challenging than others as far as getting a “yes” but Bushwick for some reason continues to be the neighborhood where people have a level of openness that one would never expect. I’ve realize that the key to success when approaching strangers is to drop your pride and expect people to reject you and think you’re insane for asking them for a portrait in the first place.
The worst thing about the entire process is actually the anxiety and tension we feel at the thought of approaching someone and not so much the actual rejection when it does happen. I’m not always successful at it but in a neighborhood such as Bushwick that’s predominantly Hispanic, it certainly helps being fluent in Spanish because people feel more at ease when a relation of languge has been established.
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Returning a Print
As a security guard, it’s fair to assume Ponce sees a large amount of people in one given day and so figured the only way he would recognize me when I walked into the store he works in was if I held the 8x10 print of him close to my chest that I had promised I would bring back.
His facial expression alone portrayed how surprised and incredulous he was of my promise. A lot of times when I take candid portraits of people on street and they’ve actually noticed me, I offer to email them a copy but Ponce was adamant and unashamed to admit he knew nothing about working a computer let alone sending emails. All he carried with him in his pocket was a pre-paid cell phone that he loaded twice a month to keep in contact with his wife and love ones. Despite his decline to fully embrace technology other than his cell phone, Ponce was really pleased with this portrait I had taken of him, so wanted to make sure I took the time to come back and hand him something that was rightfully his in the first place.
I don’t recall ever doing anything like this before mostly because I rarely took the time to interact with my subjects in the past. I’ve always adhered to the conventional act of “shooting and moving” as most street photographers do but just recently have I started to stop and engage more with the people that have been thoughtful enough to listen to me.
I doubt Ponce will ever come across this short post online because he doesn’t own a computer but even if he did, I made sure to personally thank him for his time and sharing the comical stories of what it’s like living and working in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
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Skater Boy
In the realm of photography, I’m well aware that the term “passionate” gets tossed around a lot very generously. I make use of it more than I would like to admit myself but when it comes to documenting people who for the lack of a better word are “passionately” involved in doing something they love, that’s one of the finest feelings.
Whether you have the opportunity to spend a long period of time with that person or simply a brief moment, the likelihood that in either occasion you’ll catch a vivid glimpse of that person’s personality is pretty high. I’m absolutely terrible with recalling names so I’m ashamed to say that I can’t properly attribute this photograph with who’s in it but I can tell you that I captured a side of him that will always remind me what he loves doing.
If I tried hard enough to obtain his name, I’m don’t think that’ll be a problem since I think stumbling across him at Maria Hernandez park in Bushwick is where I would mostly likely find him again.
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Parked
I might have casually mentioned it in passing although I don’t necessarily expect Vanessa to vividly recall the comment but I always thought that having a scooter as an alternative means of transportation for getting around Brooklyn would be neat.
Her argument has always been that they’re slow, unsafe and you can hardly transport as much as you would want but quite frankly, all things considered, I can’t tell you how convenient one could potentially be on those summer days when I’m in no mood to drive or take the train to get to wherever it is I’ve chosen to go photograph.
One of the most unique and exciting ways to explore a city as picturesque as Paris, Barcelona or Rome is on a vintage-styled Vespa scooter, despite how hectic, chaotic and unruly traffic may seem at first to a visitor. Navigating through Brooklyn is nothing compared to that, especially around neighborhoods like Williamsburg or Dumbo where you’re likely to see a lot more of them parked and driven around than anywhere else. This red one being a perfect example.
It’s unlikely I would actually splurge on a scooter but one can always conjure up these thoughts about what one would do if they owned one. Very often, a lot of my time is wasted searching for parking anywhere around New York and I could see a lot of that squandered time being spent on photographing if I had a scooter. Not a convincing reason to own one but it’s the justification I have for the moment.
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What I Wish For Series: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
One of the biggest takeaways from having carried out this What I Wish for Series is being conscious of how more willing you can potentially become for considering doing new things and all this happens the second you’ve chosen to stray from the comfort zone you’ve been reluctant to step out of.
For a lot of people, including myself, talking to strangers is a huge unnecessary stretch we don’t actually have to do with our photography but carrying a camera has been my excuse for meeting interesting people that I wouldn’t have approached otherwise.
As far as I’m concerned, strangers are perhaps just as important as the people we already count as acquaintances but the reason we rarely have this mentality is because from a young age, we’re taught to fear strangers and a lot of us carry that distress straight into adulthood where it’s likely to do more harm than good. It can instantly become a damper on the amount of people we can potentially meet.
This past weekend, I took the drive over to Williamsburg, Brooklyn and continued the drill of walking around the chosen neighborhood, approaching complete strangers, introducing myself and describing the purpose behind the project. A quick word of advice on interacting with strangers. If you ever want to talk to a strangers and you second guess yourself and don’t end up doing it, the next time you want to approach someone, it’ll be even more difficult.
The reality is that most people don’t understand why you would want to photograph them, especially since they may not be necessarily famous or related to you but the way I see it is that everyone you meet has something to offer even while you may not know what this is immediately.
Below are responses to the willing participants when I posed the question of “What’s something you wish for?”
At the moment, Vanessa and I don’t have any travel plans but when the time comes, I’d be more than willing to experiment doing this series whether it’s in bustlign city of San Francisco or the narrow streets of Cusco, Peru.
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What I Wish For Series: Bushwick, Brooklyn
The one associated element I acquired between having been a retail manager and spending time photographing on the streets was that I learned a lot more about human behavior than I would have anticipated. I’ll assume bartenders and waiters would attest to receiving similar unrequested interest but to me it eventually became the the type of curiosity that was difficult to ignore.
I’m a sociable guy or at least I like to think so and acknowledging that I am doesn’t end by saying that I enjoy being around people because when given the chance, I generally seek to dig deeper and express a genuine interest in a person as long as they’re willing to share a part of themselves.
I’ve traveled to a few countries with my wife, I lived in El Salvador for 5 years and I’ve misguided myself around New York more than I would like to admit and the one big fact that I can walk away from having these experiences and observing people is that if you were to ask a person the cliche question of “what would you wish for?” in all likelihood they would all give you a different response based on where they live.
If you live in the Hollywood Hills in California and I came across you on the street and asked you to write on a white board something that you would wish for, I would be surprised if you wrote down “I wish for a million dollars” because as stereotypical as it may be, I would assume you already have that amount of money in your bank account already or at least close to it based on the place you call home.
Armed with an erasable white board, my camera and the inquisitiveness to find out what residents of Bushwick, Brooklyn often find themselves wishing for, I spent roughly 2 hours walking around prominent streets such as Knickerbocker and Myrtle Ave to explore and see what tangible or non-materialistic things people routinely daydream about as residents of this neighborhood.
Below are the responses of a few of the willing participants:
95% of the people I interacted with were very supportive with the project and they had no reservations in playing a role in it when I took those 2-3 minutes describing what my intentions were.
What I found interesting was that when I asked the question of something “they wish for”, most of them had to take that extra time to think about their response and they often asked me for suggestions which I didn’t provided because I didn’t want to influence their decision.
What I intent to do next is to choose a completely different New York neighborhood where the average income level is relatively higher and examine how people’s responses might differ from that of Bushwick.
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