TexasGirl Photography

I let circumstances keep me away from the kind of photography I love the most (street / documentary) for nearly four years. Lately, however, I have been feeling more comfortable again (and no, just to be clear, it doesn’t have anything to do with COVID, although that is part of the reason I stayed away, since people in masks just aren’t interesting to my photographic eye at all). I started looking through my collection of books, which were painful to me during my hiatus; I started realizing that the only thing keeping me from making the work I feel compelled to make is my own fear.

On September 11th, since it was a beautiful Saturday, we decided to visit Fredericksburg, TX. It had been a few years since our last visit, and we always love heading out into that part of the state. I was super excited to photograph, and also nervous. Part of what drove me away from documentary style photography had to do with my not feeling comfortable around strangers, and by not feeling comfortable I mean not feeling safe: not from germs, but from judgement and all kinds of other unpleasantness. It’s been a while since I felt like I could trust or believe in the basic goodness of humanity. Sometimes I feel like my daughter’s hermit crabs, easily startled back into my shell for extended periods.

That day in Fredericksburg was a watershed for me, a reawakening, a nothing-to-fear-but-fear-itself kind of realization. What dawned on me is that most people, at least around here, aren’t the monsters social media might lead you to believe. The people on the street are my brothers and sisters, the people I share a piece of ground with; even if that sharing is only for a moment, like Maya Angelou said “. . . . we are more alike . . . . than we are unalike.” Sadly, it was easy for me to forget that after years of seeing awful acts of unkindness unfold on the virtual stage, and on the stage of my own life.

So, I suppose the bottom line is: I’M BACK. I’m back out on the streets, I’m back with joy being surrounded by my fellow humans who are all so beautiful and interesting and sacred, each in their wonderful individual own particular ways. I’m back to feeling the love!

And, as a side note, I’m back to noticing that my Contax has some kind of parallax error that makes proper composition in portrait orientation nearly impossible. They all came out wonky. I guess that’s what Lightroom is for, correcting those things, but being an in-camera purist I find it very inconvenient. You’ll notice that in some of these I decided to leave the flaws for the sake of the image itself.

. . . . I’m back, but I’m also still mostly chicken . . . . resorting to a lot of hip shots that sometimes work and sometimes don’t, even with autofocus. In Fredericksburg I felt very conspicuous, like everyone was looking at me, so I ended up with a lot of blurry shots that make me face palm myself. One baby step at a time, I guess!

All photographs Contax G2 and Kodak Tri-x