Sunday, June 08, 2008

Hot and bothered...

This weekend was a blazer and I headed upstate to do some sketch pad/brain storm/visual try outs. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm out of my element when I step into places that are unfamiliar and my hands/brain/camera lock up... or if it's just that I'm out of practice.. better yet, just too damn shy. After all these years I still freeze up when it comes to approaching strangers to make their portrait on the spot.

My style is usually to approach people I want to shoot, talk to them for a bit, hand them my card, get into touch with them and set up a shoot. That way there has been a dialogue, a limbo process, time to feel it out.

Two days away with amazing potential and I just sat back and watched. On the train home I thought... maybe my work isn't about that immediate and impulsive space between strangers. Maybe it's not about being somewhere that feels more like home to the people I want to shoot than it does to me. Maybe I need to be places where I feel at home to make good work. Or maybe I just need to force myself to try doing this a little more often. Guess I'll have to work these things out.


© Rineke Dijkstra

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember a girl with no front teeth and one who liked to wear goofy clothes that didn't match. Are you still out there??? Life has taken you to so many places, when you begin to remember and think back, the vision for now comes. It's all about love, no matter how you look at it.

Brady said...

oh how i hate appproaching strangers!

"Two days away with amazing potential and I just sat back and watched."

I do that a lot. go somewhere intendin to shoot and don't even though i see amazing things/people....it's driven by fear on some level...at least for myself.