FAIR WITNESS

Street Photography for the 21st Century For reasons both within and beyond my control, I have lived more as a witness than a participant in my life: a voyeur. But I cannot photograph a loving couple without envy. I cannot photograph a beautiful person without longing. I wandered big city streets among people who have relaxed into the chaos, and they were mostly unaware of my presence. I looked specifically for humor, irony, pathos, unusual juxtapositions, curious faces, and real or imagined stories. Each of the photographs in FAIR WITNESS occurred in my path, unplanned, and would have evaporated within seconds, if I had not been ready with my camera. In this way, FAIR WITNESS has captured moments of quiet and profound symbolism. Essentially I have been a Symbolist with a camera. There are very few artists who create genres. Picasso and El Greco did. The vast majority of artists, even those who have a unique vision, work within an existing genre which for photographers and artists alike is their chosen visual language. The genre through which I ‘see’ is street photography.