The Photographer's Dilemma II

Everything has been photographed, so the challenge for the photographer is to bring his or her unique vision to that subject matter.

Annie Griffiths Belt

Making photographs of unusual things – exotic places or people, novel subjects – is the low-hanging fruit in photography.

David du Chemin

Some photographers talk about taking pictures while other photographers talk of “making images.” I have to confess that the second description sounds pretentious to my ear. The problem is that creating a good, strong image takes quite a lot of thought, technique, and often work. The idea of “taking a picture” makes it sound as if the picture just happened and the photographer’s contribution was to merely stand there and push the shutter button. The image above provides, I think, an example of what I’m talking about.

I like to travel and I have had the chance to see and photograph a wide range of visually and culturally exciting places. One is Cuzco, Peru where the above photo was taken. Every year Cuzco has a festival, Inti Rami, which predates the arrival of the Europeans in the New World. The festival goes on for five days and is organized around daily parades. Everybody gets in on the act. Kids parade in their school uniforms. Soldiers, police and firemen march. Doctors and nurses in their uniforms. Many of the marchers belong to troupes who wear costumes representing different parts of Peru and different parts of its history. Vaqueros, amazon rain forest dwellers some carrying snakes and other with bows and arrows, many traditional Andean outfits. If you want exotic, Inti Rami has it. The question is, as the quotes suggest, how do you get an image that captures something distinctive or essential about the event as opposed to simply another parade snapshot.

To get this particular image, I followed the parade route to find the places where it began and ended, where the marchers were not choreographed. This shot was taken at the end of the route, the young men in the picture had just finished their two mile trek. Many different groups were milling around and I plunged into the middle of them. I was shooting with a short focal length lens, the way I prefer to photograph people in their environment when I can. This is hard. You don’t want to be intrusive. You don’t want to be pushing your camera in people’s faces. You want to be respectful. In other words, you don’t want to be a jerk. And, by the way, you are in the middle of people whose customs and behavioral norms you probably understand in only a simple way.

If you look closely you will notice that I am shooting at a slight upward angle. I shot this from a knee, deliberately. The angle both simplified the background, emphasizing the bold graphic elements, bright hats, brown faces, white walls, as well as creating a sense of intimacy. If you are very observant you will also notice that this group is at the corner of a building. I saw the direction they were headed in and managed to place myself to avoid distracting background elements. Those were the things I was thinking about and trying to accomplish when I shot this. And, oh yes, I pushed the shutter button. I took the picture.

To be honest, this turned out much better than I hoped when I shot it. For me it works graphically, the repeating patterns of color and faces. It works as a group portrait. It works, for me, in another way. If you weren’t there the hats and faces give you clues that this was taken in the Andes. Beyond that, it leaves you wondering. Who are these guys? Why are they all dressed alike? What are they up to? To hit you with one more quote, John Lennon said, “Real life leaves a lot to the imagination.” So does a good photograph.