BAGUIO | Photo Op & Street Photography : A Narrative of Art, Culture and Sophistication

How do you start a conversation with someone:

a stranger you’ve just met, a familiar soul you’ve known all your life,

or someone you’ve yet to meet, either by chance or choreographed encounter?

What are you supposed to feel?

What are the right words to say and where to find them?

Where do you start?

How do you start?

How do you tell a story?

STARTING A CONVERSATION |

Street Photography is comparable with how we interact with people, either we treat it familiarity or with reserve. The way we communicate and the technique we choose in conveying our say ultimately shapes either our emotional or logical imagery. The principle is almost always figured on a process: how an image is seen, the manner it is captured, the way it is transported into a domain, and how it affects our five outward senses: hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste.

But, the use of these senses is just a quarter of the whole story. Consequently, photo shooting on a casual avenue delivers us to a deeper connection, our inward wit: common, imagination, fantasy, estimation, and memory.

WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO FEEL |

While most street photographs emit profound emotions, it does not necessarily work like that. Often, I would look at a picture and find it beautiful without having any trance of emotion or connection. On some days, I would come across an image which I find interesting, only to be profoundly affected: heart and soul. Plainly, it is a take-it-or-leave-it game. It is either you feel everything: from the decisive moment that the image was taken and all way to the final moment it became an output, or nothing at all. You are entitled to feel everything or nothing, or both, you see? And, either choice is completely acceptable.

WHAT ARE THE RIGHT WORDS TO SAY |

No amount of words nor mathematical equation could ever suffice the content of an image - its quality and character just involve too many complexities to even put into words. Most  engaging optical samples are usually pleated in abstract forms, as there are others too that come clean and as honest as they could be. I am not sure if I'd ever be agreeable on this: An image does not need to be understood, so long that you lay it real, it is alright.

WHERE DO YOU START |

Where do you start? You asked. 

Where do conversations happen, I answered.

Everywhere, eh?

Now, move.

photo credit: Marvin

HOW DO YOU TELL A STORY | 

How do you even imagine it's possible to narrate a picture? More so, hope that people would embrace it. Way too complicated? Quite likely. But, here's what I realized. 

More than the the optical elements that make up a great photograph, are the smallest details, emotions and moments - all captured in a single shutter.

Many styles are overly used in storytelling, depending on level of comfort and experience. But, the one I genuinely believe that stand out from the rest is the one that is laid out flat: blemished but true, rugged yet refined, and straightforward but dramatic.

photo credit: Marvin
That feeling when as if all the angels in heaven,
all the horrors of hell, all the truth and all the lies
have connived within you;
and you see yourself ugly and beautiful, weak and strong,
sensitive and misunderstood all at the same time and in one single frame.
Like none of that matters, yet you know that is the only thing that is all about.