It has been a while since I have posted anything. Actually, I planned on writing this post January of 2020. I procrastinated in writing it for a while. Something I am very Pro at. Then I got busy at work, then the pandemic started and I got very busy and very tired. I work in the bicycle industry and when we got locked down, all the shops went crazy with business. It also changed the scene downtown where I normally go to photograph.
Protests in Canada
Climbing up to be seen and see.
Once you could go back outside, many of the offices were either closed or people were working from home. Streets were empty. It looked like the weekend downtown every day. It was hard to go and photograph when your routine could not happen the same way. Initially it was hard to go out as it was much more difficult to get the images you were used to getting. It also didn’t feel like you were getting the same type of images. I heard similar things from people that have much larger cities to photograph in. Some people felt like it wasn’t worth going out and some changed how they worked and what they captured.
Alone in the fog.
I thought that things would return to normal quickly and this was just temporary. That was not the case. Things got quiet, then there were protests, even up here in Canada. People eventually returned to some form of habit but it wasn’t the same. I wondered if there was really a point to going out and photographing the street. What I found was things that were altered because of the lack of people. Scenes that changed. Bridges that were turned into bike paths as they closed the street to car traffic, places you could normally be and images that you wouldn’t be able to capture without the closure. The light was still there so you can still capture the scene.
Not very busy in Chinatown.
Empty restaurant.
Another empty restaurant.
While street photography for most is how people interact with a scene, the street photography of this time is the scene with very few people to interact with it. This is recording what this time is really like. Something that there might be of interest in the future. It may not be of importance now but it may be in the future. This I think is the reason for street photography. It is to show how society was at any given point in time. As the photographer we decide what we show or omit. How we perceive the scene and what we want to say. You have to take advantage of the moment. Maybe you can stand in the middle of the street a little longer or shoot with a different lens.
Empty business space and empty streets.
Empty downtown parking lot on a weekday.
I think that the reason for street photography is still important. It might be different now, but still important. Maybe people just like the pretty images on your Instagram account or they live vicariously through the images you make. Keep creating work, even if it’s not the same.
Only one bike in the bike rack.
One person in the crosswalk.
View from the lower deck of the centre street bridge with a fish eye lens.
Empty bus stop.
Still only one bike in the bike rack a year later.