Taking to the streets

Personal Relevance (2)


Smith Street, Durban, South Africa

It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was itching to take some photos. I wanted some street shots, perhaps even a city shot. Once again, though, I was held back by something – the South African paranoia about safety, and my belief that I couldn’t go out and take photos by myself. After much debate with myself, I picked up my keys and my camera, and I got in the car.

I’m just going to drive around Glenwood and then go home, I said to myself. Making deals, negotiating with myself, the usual attempt to get over the fear I was feeling. After a few minutes of shooting boring Glenwood, I headed down to town. Its Sunday afternoon, it has to be quiet enough for Durban not to be filled with hijackers, is what I was thinking.

I started with the buildings, shooting while I was driving, or when I was stopped at a traffic light. Then I started shooting the streets.

I spent six weeks in New York in 2001, walking that city silly, almost breaking my neck looking at the tall buildings. I envied the ease that New York city has for looking stylish and flashy, and oh so cosmopolitan. The streets and buildings always looked so statuesque, and all the photography books I’ve looked at capture this perfectly. With a sigh, I wished I could go back and see that city again!

This is what inspired me when I stared down Durban’s Smith Street that Sunday afternoon. The traffic light turned red, I was stationery at the pedestrian crossing. Quick, get the camera and take the shot, I said to myself. Its New York, in Durban! The slope of the street reminded me of the long avenues in New York. The buildings in Smith Street, although only a few stories high, were framing the street exactly like the images in my mind of New York. On processing the photo on Photoshop, I used a moody charcoal tint, and added in a gradient for the sky. I had my Durban version of a New York street.

But I also had my inspiration for getting photos in town, despite the danger. This was particularly relevant, because it was a turning point for me for taking photos in town. I have been back many times and captured the same street images again and again. Its fantastic. Liberating, scary, thrilling. Enough to get me out taking photos on my own.