People - you, me, anyone - look a bit dorky when photographed on the street. We're lost in thought; our eyes may be closed; we have bad posture; we're not as graceful or as well-dressed as we like to think we are. If the photographer startles us, and uses a flashgun, we'll look even worse.
Yes, it take 'balls' to be quite so confrontational. But, really, the message of the pix is pretty constant: ie we're not the gorgeous, airbrushed creatures you see in the magazines... catch us off-guard and we look ridiculous. I can't imagine doing this for a quarter of a century, as Bruce Gilden has done, but, hey, we're all different.
I shoot landscape and location pix... often with people in them ('cos that's what my clients want: people enjoying themselves in the great outdoors). So I can be quite direct, too, in photographing people. The main difference is that I don't want to make people look ridiculous, and I often chat with people about what I'm doing... and why.
Most people like the idea, and I feel comfortable with what I'm doing. OK, my pix don't say much about the 'human condition'... but then I'm not sure that Bruce Gilden's pix do either...
