I spend a great deal of time on my photography. When I hit the streets I can walk for hours. My attention is continuously seized by interesting things flittering past me, colors and shapes, light and shadow, a person’s outfit or an expression in the moment, if I’m lucky enough and quick enough. I feel the streets when I have my camera in my hand, the pulsating sensation of urban life. The shutter, waiting patiently beneath my finger, sends a thrill through me each time I depress the button and capture a scene. Eventually the cold in the winter or the heat in the summer or my dogs waiting for me prompt my decision to go home.
I was walking along Chestnut Street in Philadelphia when through my peripheral vision I locked on to this woman and her colorful outfit.
The fun doesn’t end when my photo walk does, however. The walk is analogous to a delicious slice of moist chocolate cake, the next part is the icing…
I’m not sure if the women in the left of the frame was reacting to me or not, but either way, I think this makes for good street photography.
Once home I back up my memory card onto my external drive then I import my images to Lightroom. The excitement of the day’s captures is thrilling. I move through the images in postprocessing to see what I keep or what I delete, what I edit and what I store. With each photo I open I feel like a child surrounded by gifts, tearing off the wrapping paper to see what’s inside. The joy I have when I’m on the shutter side of my camera and the screen side of my computer spurs me along on this amazing journey of street photography. I simply love it. Then I get slapped with the thought, what on earth am I going to do with all these images?
This image was taken in a town along the Mekong River in Cambodia. We visited a school and I was drawn to this little boy working diligently at unwrapping his Chupa Chups lollipop while the little girl slipped something into her shirt pocket.
I’ve had the good fortune to sell some of my prints, which thrills me, motivates me and truly makes me feel honored. The thought of a complete stranger seeing my work and finding it valuable in its aesthetic, enough to hang it on their wall, is powerful. This is not a family member or a friend doing me any favors. It’s a person who genuinely appreciates my art, but there has to be a way to reach more people with the thousands (and I do mean thousands) of images that have been exiled to a hard drive. Then my art historian sister, who is the director of an art gallery in Rome, Italy, told me about a virtual platform where I could exhibit my work. What? Do you mean I can show my own photography? This prospect made me feel both excited and uncomfortable.
I love the idea of having control over my photography, but curating my own show felt somewhat egotistical. I struggled with this and then decided my ego could cope, so I had my first, then second, and now my third self-curated photography exhibit. I use a platform called Kunstmatrix. I begin by choosing a theme and giving it a working title. I select the space I want to use, how many rooms, how many images are allotted, the layout, and such. Then I go through my photos and select what my eye finds to be a match to the working title. I don’t believe it’s a cognitive decision but rather an impulse from my occipital lobe. It’s a gut feeling. Once I’ve selected my first round of images and they’ve been uploaded, sized and titled, I hang my virtual exhibit. I love to play around with the space, placing photos, moving them, resizing them, deleting some and adding others, until my eye is satisfied that I’ve put together a show that I believe has visual appeal. Please visit Urban Rainbow of Life and let me know what you think.
Thank you so much for reading my newsletter. Till next time… 👋
Great job!!!!!