Street views - Chinatown

The other day I was in Los Angeles's Chinatown, enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon exploring.

I like to do that....explore. The nooks and crannies of a city, a place, especially one like this are endless. An adventure down every street, if you keep your eyes open.

That afternoon something caught my eye...

It wasn't a particular place, or a particular thing, it was about a certain kind f balance...a really weird one. The first one, admittedly was a bit accidental. I was walking along and looked across the street. There was this crazy mixed energy between the linear composition of the buildings, and the life that the people exuded, so I took a second to make sure it was what I wanted to shoot, and pulled out my camera.

It's a practice I've been, well, trying to practice. Seeing before shooting instead of shooting before really seeing. With digital cameras it's gotten way to easy to see something that might be cool, snap a couple pics, check, and go from there. Yeah, you might be able to get some good shots, but if you really want to create, have a vision, it's not about that at all. There are complex exceptions for chimping (shoot, look, shoot, look), usually to make sure you're stuff is on point for a client, but when you're on your own...though sometimes you just gotta go with your gut because some moments you gotta capture fast.

After that first shot I started looking for similar compositions.

I liked how they came out and wanted to see if I could capture more. To some they might look pointless, and to a degree I agree. Most mundane shots like this are mundane, until they become a part of a greater piece of work. They need context. Which I have in my head, but need to shoot more so that no words are necessary and the work will speak for itself. Lots of people give up before they have enough to really give people an idea of what sparked everything. Like showing people a couple polaroids they snapped at a party vs an entire year with the same group of friends. Make sense?

So, for now there are these three. But, over time there will be more. Hopefully this series will become a part of a larger series, which is part of an even greater project, hehe. Think big, that's what they told me when I was a kid. So, here I am, thinking big :)

Michael