As a photographer in Tokyo, it is rare to get the chance to stage. Subjects are in motion and often unaware that they are part of a photograph's composition. Most shutter clicks are taken with my right pointer while my left hand's fingers are crossed in hope that the universe will give me an image worth sharing. Travel and street photography are about capturing seconds of time in a frame. Once those seconds have past, so is the opportunity to document it. Pictorialism is a different realm of photography. Staging an image is a humbling experience. As I have quickly learned, there is a massive difference between the skill set involved in taking a street shot and creating a photographic frame that time cannot disrupt. For the latter, you have to consider composition, ISO, aperture and shutter speed. You have to consider photography cliches. You have to think about lighting. But most importantly, you have to consider the person who is kind enough to sit for you. Chase Chisholm was an energetic and enthusiastic model this week (see above). Not many people would be willing to put on a yellow, patent leather merman suit so that a stranger could capture their take on primary colors. More important than his willingness was his level of patience. From this shoot with Chase, I have learned a personal lesson about the difference between documentary and pictorialist photography. Documentarians steal images from a subject to create art. Pictorialists collaborate with subjects to create.
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TABO PHOTO
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