The beauty of daily life is often overlooked. Candid portraits capture the raw, everyday details of people’s lives. For this reason, I was curious about photographing people in their element and with little camera awareness. By doing so, I hoped to use my photographs as a vessel in telling stranger’s stories and show that although each story is unique, we are all, at the most basic level, still human.
All my images were captured while roaming around random streets in various cities. This is where I feel my most interesting images are taken. For example, image 1 was taken during the Feast of San Gennaro, an annual festival held in Little Italy, New York. I wanted to use surrounding objects, the hanging peppers, to enhance the image as a whole and to tell more of his story. I really liked the way this image turned out, thus I attempted to continue to use foreround as a means in making my photographs more artistic. I believe I succeeded in doing so especially with image 11. The old lady is framed between bustling people in the foreground which exemplifies her slumped posture. All these details together emit a lonely quality to the photograph.
Portraits with little camera awareness produce a more raw, realistic image. For this reason In image 5, although it may seem posed, it is not. The ballerina is in her own world in the midst of a dance routine. Through this photograph I hope to foster a curiosity from viewers about what she may be thinking and the context of the image as a whole. Like this image, I tried to make all my photographs less stagnant and more of an experience. Thus, giving an audience a chance to appreciate the beauty in what most people consider dull and ordinary.