In early January, I went on a family holiday to Malaysia. Thankfully, we arrived, and left, before the Coronavirus affected the country. As I received the paperless version of the module beforehand, I was able to quickly read through it to see what would be involved. I had no intention of doing any course work whilst I was away, as, I never do when on vacation. However, whilst I was there, a family friend invited our daughter to her son’s birthday party. I remembered back to this particular exercise, and thought this would be a great opportunity to execute it due the nature of the event being held. As this was a children’s party, I asked our friend in advance if it would be ok that I take photographs, and, if the other parents – who I didn’t know – would mind. The answer was no, which wasn’t a surprise, as Asians are fairly reserved when it comes to others taking photographs of them. I told our friend not to tell the other guests’, as I wanted them to be unaware of what I would be doing, but, was prepared in the event of having to stop due to a disgruntled parent.
Due to the nature of the party and some of the subjects’ who would be attending, I had to carefully think about how I was going to approach this process. From the research I had done into the photographer’s discussed, I felt most comfortable using Lukas Kuzma’s technique, which, for all intents and purposes, is taking images of subject’s whilst in plain sight, but in a unobtrusive way, where people know you are there but don’t necessarily realise they are being photographed. From the video ‘Click’ – about Lukas Kuzma – it appears that he uses a relatively small camera with a 35mm prime lens, making his actions ‘non-aggressive’. Ideally, I would have liked to have used my DSLR, but coupled with my rather large and obvious 18-35mm lens, I would have stuck out like a sore thumb. Luckily, I also brought with me my Canon compact camera. Though, optically not as strong, I felt it was best suited in a situation where I was trying to go unnoticed.
I kept the camera on and in my hand at all times. When I felt there was an opportunity to take a strong image, I quickly did so, then returned my camera by my side without checking to see if I had got the shot, so to speak. Unlike Kuzma, I wasn’t purposely waiting for someone to do something interesting in order for me to take a photograph, but was more fascinated in photographing random interactions between people and discovering later on what expressions and responses I captured. I feel my final selection of images best show this and couldn’t have been achieved if my methodology and intended meaning behind the series was done differently.
References
YouTube. (2015). ‘Short film CLICK – IP production and Lukáš Kuzma’ [Online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=78&v=IjxkYtJlOsA
Iain Barbour - BA (Hons) Photography 