Street Vendors
Amazing! That was what I was thinking when I was introduced to the world of photography this year. I became most interested in street photography when I saw the photos taken by Jeff Mermelstein. By taking photos, he captured a scene and made it timeless. While looking at his photos I realized how much goes unmissed in New York City and how important it is to have a camera at hand at all times. You never know when there will be a scene worthy of a picture.
After watching Jeff Mermelstein’s presentation, I was excited and motivated to get out there and take pictures for my street photography project. Nevertheless, what would I take a picture of? What would be my theme? I figured out the answer to that question after a certain incident. It happened very spontaneously actually. I was just walking to school one day with my head down when I almost walked straight into a street vendor’ cart. I looked up and realized there are so many street vendors. You cannot walk more than two blocks without noticing at least one street vendor. I decided to take pictures of the vast and different street vendors.
I began my photo-taking journey in the morning. I saw street vendors that were selling breakfast type food, which included bagels, eggs, and coffee. Then, later on during the day, the amount of vendors selling breakfast type food decreased and kabob and sandwich vendors increased. They would be selling late into the night. Throughout the day there were also many vendors selling fruit and many newsstand with newspapers and lots of candy and drinks. There were also vendors that would be selling books, movies, clothing, jewelry, and sports cards. These vendors were found on 32nd Street close to Penn Station at around 5 o’clock to 6 o’clock. There also be some stores that had extensive amounts of their products being sold on the street in front of their store. I happened to capture a clothing store with racks of pants, jackets, and t-shirts right outside its store. It just shows when there is a demand, there will be a supply.
Vendors had different carts with different products, but most vendors had some similarities. Most vendors had wheels on their carts in order to be mobile and travel to areas where there would be business. Also, street vendors will sell as much as they could, filling in every open space. With so many products, street vendors still had very organized carts that helped them act efficiently.
I decided to take a photo of a street vendor in front of a building. This picture was meant to depict the big market that exists in New York City. There are customers for both the big business, represented by the building, and the smaller street vendor. A similar picture is one in which there is a street vendor selling breakfast and a coffee shop in the back round. This photo was meant to reiterate the point that there is such a large market in New York City because there are customers for the restaurant and street vendors even though they are both selling the same products. Also, I took a photo of two vendors selling right next to each other (There were actually three vendors on the corner but I was unable to capture all three vendors well in a photo). They were selling different products, but were they competition for each other or did they each have their separate customers? Once again, it just goes to show that New York City is a big place with room for lots of business.
After all, this was the first time I took out a camera and took street photographs. It was in many ways an adventure and a pleasure. It was an adventure to have to find the right scenes to take a photo of and to be able to take the photo while dodging all the people walking in the way of your shots. You had to be quick and skillful with the camera and ready to shoot whenever. It was also difficult to have the courage to take photos. People would walk by and look at you thinking you are some sort of weirdo. Then, there were the street vendors who would become angered, yell, and even threaten you for taking pictures of their miniature stores. However, you cannot let criticism hold stop you or slow down. You have to be courageous and remember that the law allows you to take pictures of scenes in the public sphere. Nevertheless, there were times when I was too slow and timid when taking pictures. I refrain from using photoshop because I wanted to keep the natural photo that was taken. I did, however, crop a few of the images to get rid of parts of the photo that were not needed would only redirect the focus of the image.
Overall, this was an exciting project. I learned many things about photography, including the use of flash, lighting, focus, and zoom. I do wish I had a better camera with different types of photo taking capabilities like black and white photo taking. I will definitely look at photography differently now and with much greater appreciation. I hope to only take more photos and improve my photo taking skills.