Slight Chance Of Pixels: 2011

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my family and friends in Italy (cari terroni e polentoni, sapete chi e dove siete), Germany (particularly München, Füssen, Dresden und Berlin), the U.S. (particularly L.A., San Francisco, Washington D.C., New York, Hartford), Uganda, Jordan, the U.K. India, Bangladesh, Bora Bora (because I want to go), and the rest of the whole wide world! From me and a beautiful little old lady, found at the Zattere, Venezia.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

"Would You Mind If I Took Your Picture?"

Zattere, Venezia, November 2011.

It takes a moment to muster up the courage to ask strangers on the street if they would mind having their picture taken, but people were for the most part very receptive. I would tell them (in Italian, or in English when they came from other countries) that I am a photographer doing spontaneous portraits in this area, and in some cases we struck up a conversation, but usually they just gave me 5 seconds of their time to do the shot, so if the exposure wasn't right, too bad. Thank you, digital raw photography, many many years ago I briefly did event photography in Munich, take the shot on negative print film, rush back to the lab, process and print, and drive back to sell the prints before the event was over! Now, things are so much easier. I love the intimacy of these photographic portraits (despite the fact that there is never a relationship established between photographer and subject -which keeps things objective and detached in an interesting way), and I will continue this series in different countries, and see how people react.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

This is the first of a series of spontaneous portraits I took during the last week of November in Venice, Italy. Most of the pictures that will follow were taken at the Zattere, one of my favorite neighborhoods in the Dorsoduro district in Venice. I would ask random people whether I could take their picture, expecting a mix of replies. The surprise was that everybody agreed, although a few with initial hesitance.
The silhouette above is actually not part of the series, but I liked it as an introductory image to a series that focuses on everyday people in a non-everyday place. It was taken on the Vaporetto from Burano to Venice, at sunset. It reminds me of my first impression of Venice, imprinted not by the Serenissima itself, but by Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, and Luchino Visconti's great film adaptation.