Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Trailer trash

There is sometimes a fine line between street photography and onanism. A few months back I explored that theme by using a film changing bag in public settings. I'm happy to say I now have video footage of myself doing just that at W 10th and Burnside in Portland. This is a corner that gets a fair amount of pedestrian traffic, and indeed many people walked by this scene avoiding eye contact, but unfortunately they weren't captured on camera. You'll just have to imagine their scowls.

This clip is actually just the short trailer for a longer street photography video which I've been working on. The full version should be ready by summer. In the meantime here's the preview. Camerawork by George Kelly. Music by Modest Mouse.

8 comments:

  1. Surprised you weren't arrested really...

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  2. Actually this stunt comes with perfect cover. If anyone asks what you're doing you just show the film roll and the situation is defused. "What? You thought I was doing what?"

    To get arrested nowadays you've got to take it up a notch. You've got to do something totally wacko like photograph strangers without their permission. No perfect cover for that act.

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  3. Onanism:

    withdrawal of the penis in sexual intercourse so that ejaculation takes place outside the vagina; coitus interruptus.

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  4. Which Modest Mouse song is that?

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  5. @Anonymous, I was practicing the film roll withdrawal method.

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  6. I laughed my ass off, and the music is perfect. Looking forward to the 'full version!'

    I like your comment Blake. Considering the sheer number of cameras around, it almost seems strange that photographing people you don't know still instigates such suspicion.

    Wait a second, the video! Shouldn't street shooters be trying to combat the perv stigma?

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  7. @Anonymous: I'm practicing the film roll withdrawal method.

    The song is the horn intro to Good News for People Who Love Bad News segueing into some unknown song buried somewhere in my iTunes.

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