Making the Most of What You've Got by Gavin Mannino
Making the Most of What You've Got
By: Gavin Mannino
02/21/2022 11:28:00 PM EST
After we left the Lycoming Art Gallery today, I decided to go out and take pictures of anything I could compose to be symmetrical or capture through a reflection of a store front window. As I was taking pictures, I noticed how people walking by would either stare or mind their own business. It was a little weird at first, but I got used to it because the foot traffic was not that heavy for a Monday morning in downtown Williamsport. I went along taking pictures of alleyways, tall buildings, stores, and sidewalks. I still felt a little out of place, crouching and leaning while taking pictures on the sidewalk, it felt awkward. Then I started doing my research on Lee Friedlander and I realized I had no room to talk. His photos he took in New York were absolutely insane if you consider them from his perspective. He would walk the streets of New York taking pictures of pedestrians without their acknowledgment, even going as far as walking up behind them and snapping a picture of their backsides which to me would be extremely awkward and weird. Nobody seemed safe or off limits in New York City when he was roaming the streets with his Leica 35mm camera. Although it seemed weird at first, if you viewed his images without the perspective of what he was doing to get his shots, they were amazing pictures. The photographs he took of what the regular, non-glamourous life was like in New York City serve are like individual time capsules. A lot of photographers would take pictures of the high rises, Central Park, and Time Square, but he took pictures of the people that walked by them. Friedlander captured images that are a lot like the photos we take for class. In a way, it is comforting and inspiring. We do not live in one of the biggest or fanciest cities with thousands of people wandering beneath architectural masterpieces and seeing all the great photographers' galleries filled with images of them can be intimidating to people like me starting out. That is why I think Lee Friedlander is very inspiring, his photos almost have an amateur feel to them because of what he takes photos of. I am not trying to insult Lee at all when I say that, I mean it in the nicest way possible. Of course, his work is amazing and held as so, but I feel he is a great photographer to look at when starting off. I know the next time I roam around Williamsport taking pictures, I will be a little more at ease knowing that I can take pictures of anything I feel is worth using up a roll of film on because you never know what those photos can turn out to be in 20 years from now. I'll have time capsules of my time at college and what the city was like when I lived there, and all I used was a Canon A-1.
Sources (Link):
space framed: Reflection on Photography (work by Robert Frank and Lee Friedlander)
what kind of camera did Lee friedlander use - Search (bing.com)
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