WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge:
A Face in the Crowd
This week’s challenge are faces “in the crowd,” or what we used to call in the newspaper biz, nameless faces. There are two really great things about it. The first is that it’s a way to make a statement about “people” without talking about a specific “person.”
Boston, Night
Downtown, night
Strangers in a night
The other is that unidentifiable people don’t need to give you a release to use the pictures. I often intentionally shoot from slightly behind or sideways so faces are harder to identify.
Another stranger
Of course, if you know that person — really know them — you could probably pick them out anyway, but you would have to be that person or know him or her pretty well.
Downtown, late afternoon
Theater district, before the show
I also like this theme very well in black and white. It give a shape to, for example, city streets to have humans on it. You can gauge the size of the sidewalks and the height of building and trees and steps by the relative size of people walking by.
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Categories: #black-&-white-photography, #Photography, Boston, night, Urban Landscape, WordPress
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Reblogged this on KCJones.
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I would like to try that one day. Thanks for the inspiration!
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It’s fun. It also takes a certain amount of courage. Garry is a lot braver than I am.
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Somebody’s gotta do it.
Gotta clean the streets…all those crooks, thugs and mugs.
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Great pictures, Marilyn!
I usually try to avoid people in my photos, but I’ll give it a try this week. I’m not sure if I’ll come up with any good shots…
I have a friend who’s a painter and spends hours in shopping malls watching and sketching people who never know…
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The trick is to shoot from behind or off from the side, or make sure faces are small enough to not be the central image. But you know, Garry was a news reporter (TV) for his whole adult life and he doesn’t care. He just shoots. He spent all those years on the street with a photographer shooting everything. I think he still thinks he’s doing the news. Basically, he doesn’t care. When i process them, I try to make them a little less identifiable .. but he just shoots.
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Never know when you’ll catch a perp with a BOLO.
Call Gibbs.
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I do try to be mindful of people’s privacy but pictures with people, especiallly city pictures are more interesting I think.
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It looks like a city with people. Otherwise, it looks like the final frame of “On The Beach” in the empty NY with vacant streets.
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Yes, a disturbing thought. I read the book, liked it but didn’t like it if you know what I mean. Much of it was set in Melbourne so I could visualise it too well.
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I thought it was one of the MOST depressing books EVER and I watched the movie — once. Since they, if Garry insists, I leave the room. That final shot in the empty streets of NY is a killer.
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Are they singing “Waltzing Matilda?” ….
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Photos with people are always interesting. Sometimes I do it, but always feel a bit guilty
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Garry thinks he’s still on TV so he just shoots. i don’t think he’s EVER asked anyone for permission. All those years shooting on the streets, he acts like a news photographer. I think he is yearning to start using video.
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Gonna reboot “The Street With No Name” in Uxbridge. Need noir thugs and broads.
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Each photo is a vignette, a story.
Leslie
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It looked like an old “noir” movie from the 40s. Or sort of. A bit.
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“Kiss of Death” (’47/Fox) Victor Mature, Richard Widmark, Brian Donlevy, Colleen Gray. Dir: Henry Hathaway.
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Nice collection but I like the first image best
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Thank you! I liked the whole series. It had an old “noir” film look to it … shadows and light and people who you couldn’t quite see.
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“Where The Sidwalk Ends” (’49/Fox) Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Richard Conte.
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Every picture you post whether you’ve used it or not, managed to take on a different light, take, nuance and is just as interesting in a different way. Love it.
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Thank you. My going back and redoing pictures has been a surprising gift. I knew some of these pictures were better than they looked, but I didn’t really know how to “fix” them. I’m getting better and really enjoying it. It almost makes up for not having taken much new material.
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That is really wonderful. I love that! It is exciting. Expectancy outdone as in who knows what you will come up with. I think it’s a brilliant idea tbh.
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I like the B&W noir style pics.
“A Face In The Crowd” (’57/WB) Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal. Dir: Elia Kazan.
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