Tomorrow afternoon, I will be standing in front of a group of Street Photographers from VANSPC (the Vancouver Street Photography Collective), an organization with whom I have been a member since October, 2022. Three images that I submitted will be projected up on a screen and I will be speaking to them. I have never done this before.

Understand, this group of talented photographers are the most amazingly supportive and accepting people. Everyone, from shutter-duffers like me to those who have published, had gallery shows, written books… is greeted with respect for what they do and how they go about doing it.

I am scared legless…

There was a time when I would confidently perform live music in various venues, upon various stages in various cities and towns on a regular basis. On or around April of 2014, something snapped and uttering even a laundry list in a public situation stutters my speech, ties my tongue and has me looking for the nearest exit from the room.

Tomorrow’s gig has me a) speaking publicly and, b) speaking about my art; things I created with a camera. So, I’m going to rehearse a wee bit, here. All 3 photographs were taken in the city of Querétaro, Mexico and I have looked up all the technical data for each one (ISO, fstop, shutter speed) like a professional. I am not, in the least, technical. What matters in my photography is the story and the context and the places an image takes my imagination…

The Photographs:

1. As we exited our accommodation onto the street, the woman in red was striding, purposefully, towards us on the opposite side. My camera was zipped in my bag. I frantically extricated it, turned it on, removed the lens cap and looked up across Calle Vergara to see that she was now immediately across from me and I was shooting from the hip between parked vehicles… one frame was all I got. And, what I got was a full profile, in full-stride, the deep red of her clothing, a cigarette pinched in her right hand and she was smack-dab between the two iron-grated windows.

2. I had gone to photograph the façade/storefront of a bakery we frequent on Calle 16 de Septiembre called Panfilia because I wanted to do an Ink/Watercolour of it. On my return, as I approached the Church of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, the street gentleman in the Cabela’s (Cinnamon’s) hoodie appeared immediately in front of a large luxury car. Social juxtaposition such as this is street photography’s bread & butter.

3. We attended a large fair outside of Querétaro where we accompanied my granddaughter and friends so that they could thrill themselves on the many rides. While temperatures during the day hovered in the mid-20s Celsius, the night had turned cold and there was a wind-chill dropping the mercury down to about 3 degrees. There was a large stage at one end of the fair grounds with a Norteño band and, among the crowd, were this couple who I circled until I got this shot. He has Mexican flag patches on both his jacket and his baseball hat. She is holding her sombrero so they can tuck in close and, because it is cold, is wearing a pair of Spiderman gloves.

Into it… Tomorrow. Egads.

18/01/25