First Love / New Love { Photography }

First Love / One of the very first photographers I became inspired by some 15 years ago when I started seeing the world through a lens was French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. After watching the documentary Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye over the weekend in my recent rave over street photography, I realized he really was one of the best street photographers to be marveled even today. The two images above are truly my favorite photos of his demonstrating his talent for capturing moments almost impossible to recreate. // Image 1 /2

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New Love / Carrying the torch from Henri, in some form, is current street photographer Yanidel capturing Paris so intimately it makes you feel like you've always lived there - as a Parisian. You can also read a great instructive interview with him here. *New Info ~ I asked Yanidel about his strategy for taking candid photos of strangers and his response was "As for strangers, the important thing is too shoot very quickly. They notice me most of the time but very often, the shot is already taken. Act normal, like if you were not going to take their photo than raise it to your eyes and trigger. Most of the time, they won't have time to adjust their behaviour to the camera." / Seeing Yanidel's daily photo blog posts make me wish there was a street photography of Memphis blog. I don't know if I could do it as frequently and consistently as he does. My best attempts shown below are from my trip to Cambodia several years ago. // Images above via Yanidel blog. Images below by Sophorn {more on flickr/design addict}.


I tried walking downtown a few weeks ago trying to capture shots of people as well as Henri or Yanidel but I found myself a bit uncomfortable pointing the lens at strangers as I walked and felt both too impatient and slow simultaneously. I'm sure it takes some practice and will try again, but Memphis, anyone up for the challenge?