Chinese New Year

in ,

The Chinese New Year Lion Dance Parade is something I always have fun shooting. It's loud and chaotic, but everyone's having a good time and there are always photos to be made...

German Privacy Laws

in

While visiting Berlin over New Years I was excited to embark on a project that I had had in mind for some time. The idea was to photograph people on the subway with my iPhone as I travelled across the city to show the change in demographics as one goes from west to east. Having grown up partially in Germany, I don't really think of it as a foreign country and didn't expect privacy laws to differ greatly from those in the U.S. However, I was surprised to encounter hostility and suspicion not only while taking photos on the subway but also when doing general street photography. I realized I needed to inform myself better about the local laws and also about the general mentality of the people regarding photography.

An internet search revealed that German privacy laws are much stricter than those in the U.S. Simply put, you are not allowed to publish a photo of anyone without their permission. Okay, but what about general street photography and photos taken with my phone not obviously intended for publication? In the U.S., when shooting for a newspaper, I've often had people ask me not to use photos I've taken of them, which I'm happy to accommodate, but why were people in Germany so concerned not only that I not use the images for anything but that I show them that I had deleted them from my memory card? After speaking with a few friends in the city I began to get a better idea of what was going on. 

Berlin is a city, which not all that long ago was located right in the middle of communist East Germany. If you lived in the east, you pretty much assumed you were under surveillance; your phone could easily be tapped. Many people in Germany today remember this all to well and are still very suspicious of being photographed. Another photographer I emailed also had this to add: "People in Germany seem especially sensitive right now about having their photos taken -- especially by an American -- since all of the NSA surveillance stuff and recent controversies about Google's unauthorized photos of peoples homes for Google Earth. I think they see it as even more than a civil rights issue; it smacks of colonialism, and as you have probably already noticed, American culture and language have already made big inroads here. Many people greatly resent this American invasion of their cultural space."

The problem I then faced was how to continue with my project while still being respectful. In the end decided that I would continue to take photos of people in the subway without their knowledge but that I would then let them know I had done so and ask whether that was ok with them. If not I would offer to delete the photo immediately. This way I could still get the candid images I was after while being respectful of people who didn't want to be photographed. This slowed me down somewhat but worked surprisingly well. Most people didn't mind having their picture used for my project and the few who did seemed happy enough when I offered to delete the images.

New England Cyclocross Championships

in

I'm not a huge fan of watching sports but shooting them is always fun. The New England Cyclocross Championships were especially interesting because it was a sport I was completely unfamiliar with.

Looking at new work

in ,

One of the best pieces of advice I received from a professor at BU was to always remember to keep looking at new work, to constantly be looking at work other people are creating as a means to inspire yourself. As I continue my career as a photographer this is a piece of advice I keep coming back to over and over and find that it always helps if I feel like I'm in a slump. There's nothing like looking at an amazing photograph or other work of art to inspire you to get out there and make your own. This past spring I took a trip to DC with my roommate and we spent the entire time wandering through art museums. It was incredibly refreshing and reminded me once again how important it is to take time for these things.

Subway Project

in

I started working on an iPhone subway project over the past couple months. I love people watching when I'm on the train and the iPhone makes it so much easier to capture moments unobtrusively.

Boston Marathon bombings

in

This past week has been incredibly intense with the explosions set off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, which killed three people and injured many others as well as the manhunt that followed, which brought the entire city to a standstill on Friday. I think I’m feeling like many of us are: I never imagined this would happen in Boston…