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*STREETPHOTOS
of the
WEEK
#41
to #50
April 17 to June 19, 2007
A
several-year private Email Exhibition by G.
Mark Smith -- now also available to the public at
WWW.StreetPhoto.Com...
*Streetphoto
of the Week #41a/The
Beach Boy and the Fisher Men/Buzios, Brazil
(2005)
Issued on April 17, 2007
* a back story to Streetphotos of the Week
#41a&b ...
I made this colorfully compelling streetphoto from my perch on a bench
in Buzios, Brazil one afternoon two years ago while chatting with a couple of
fishermen using a lone tree to mend their nets at the shoreline. The beach boy
pulled up in his red beach buggy, hopped out, and unintentionally posed himself
for me at the Telemar phone booth. And so there it was -- everything in one
picture that a modern Atlantic shoreline has to offer. The antiquity of the
surviving fishing trade mixed in with the land-loving flow of the modern
non-fishing world. The hard work of fisher men, the easy play of a beach boy
caught in their net, backed by a couple of coastal guest houses for the
tourists.
Anyway, the only thing missing from the composition was the shoreline itself. So
on the following morning I rose with the fishermen, went to the same bench where
I'd made Streetphoto of the Week #41a, turned my camera around 180-degrees
toward the ocean, and made Streetphoto of the Week #41b. And I thought you'd
enjoy seeing both perspectives -- the streets of Buzios and the streets of
Armação Bay from the same spot 14 hours later.
*Streetphoto
of the Week #41b/Morning Commute on Armação Bay/
off Buzios, Brazil/
(2005)
*Streetphoto
of the Week #42/
Ipanema Umbrella Clown Dance #1/A Portrait of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(2004)
Issued on April 24, 2007
*
Streetphoto.com is off to take a crack at the Streets of the Northern Andes
over the next five weeks. Brand new streetphotos from Ecuador will begin
appearing in this space thereafter.
Adios,
Streetphoto of the Week...
*Streetphoto
of the Week #43/
Ipanema Umbrella Clown Dance #2/A Portrait of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(2004)
Issued on April 24, 2007
*Streetphoto
of the Week #44/
Ipanema Umbrella Clown Dance #3/A Portrait of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(2004)
Issued on April 24, 2007
*Streetphoto
of the Week #45/
Ipanema Umbrella Clown Dance #4/A Portrait of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(2004)
Issued on April 24, 2007
*Streetphoto
of the Week #46/
Ipanema Umbrella Clown Dance #5/A Portrait of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(2004)
Issued on April 24, 2007
*Streetphoto
of the Week #47/Otavalo Marketeer #1/Otavalo, Ecuador/(last week)
Issued on May 29, 2007
* a back story to Streetphoto
of the Week #47 ...
For a month I'd been hunting and stalking the streets of Ecuador for the
must-have street photograph of an Andean woman carrying home greens from the
morning market on her back. Ecuadorians are hard workers, particularly the
women, and I needed that street photograph to properly express that important
trait in my portfolio.
The first week in Quito I had a chance or two, but both times were spoiled when
the women with the greenery on their backs headed indoors too soon to capture
them in the wild in all their glory. Then during the second week (under the
erupting Tungurahua volcano at Banos) the market women carrying greenery kept
appearing every confounding time a battery wore down or every confounding time a
photo card filled up.
During the third week while photographing the streets of impoverished mountain
villages extremely high up in the Andes, the women carrying greenery were a
curse to me -- either appearing and disappearing too quickly to properly
capture, or appearing while I was cooped up in a bus, or mysteriously appearing
one time just as the camera decided to break down for the day (it giving me an
error message to look up in the instruction manual instead of a suitable Woman
Carrying Greenery on Her Back photograph).
The last week wasn't going any better in this regard and I was crushed when the
best Woman Carrying Greenery on Her Back opportunity I'd had all month slipped
by me on Sunday evening while changing cards on the streets of Otavalo. I was so
desperate to get that particular shot that I even moaned my frustrations about
it aloud to my friends at the Hostal Dona Esther -- laying out the conspiracy
theory about the apparent curse and about my many failures over the past few
weeks. I only had two days left in Ecuador and I was leaving Otavalo on a bus
for Quito in an hour -- so I went out for one last try last Monday morning -- --
-- and low and behold -- -- -- I didn't just end up getting the best Woman
Carrying Greenery On Her Back photo of my Ecuador trip -- -- -- I got the best
darned Woman Carrying Greenery on Her Back (in a RED! sash) While Wearing Cool
Golden Jewelry and Toting an Iconic Chicken streetphoto I recon' I'll ever be
blessed to have the opportunity to get anywhere ...
*Streetphoto
of the Week #48/Guamote Marketeer #1/Guamote, Ecuador/(last month)
Issued on June 5, 2007
* a back story to Streetphoto of the Week
#48 ...
Ecuador is a very cool and exotic place to be, way up there in the
Andes. It's got perhaps the most colorful people I've ever photographed out on
the streets of the world, anywhere (see today's "Streetphoto of the Week"). Up
in the mountains it's fairly tranquil. Sure, there's some crime in Quito and
elsewhere (like in any other place), but rarely does it turn violent. Both the
men and women of most of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador dress out in bright
colors (sometimes astounding combinations of them) and both women and men are
partial to sporting a highly brushed and primped wide-brimmed hat with a feather
or two in it. And aside from being perhaps the most interestingly attired people
on Earth, they have great common sense -- even the non-indigenous of Ecuador
choosing to forgo the multiple cheek kissing fashions of the old county,
choosing instead to greet and part from one another with a single peck on one
cheek. They take mayonnaise on their french fries and prefer popcorn in their
soup instead of crackers. Ecuadorians are very friendly and polite and extremely
hard working. They use the American dollar in Ecuador and seem plenty capable of
managing a robust economy, although it's difficult for them to keep a president
-- having gone through about a dozen of them since the mid 1990s (it's hard to
keep count).
In my month in the Ecuadorian Andes I worked hard enough and was fortunate
enough to have captured a fairly thick portfolio of visually bold samples of
what one sees on the streets of the big city (Quito/15-day shoot), the small
city (Otavalo/5-day shoot), the volcano town (Banos/5-day shoot), and the
high-altitude Andes Mountain farming village (Jatari Campesino/ 5-day shoot). So
during the next couple of months Streetphoto of the Week will be dominated by
street photography from and a few stories about the streets of Ecuador. I hope
you'll enjoy looking at these photographs, checking out the people of these
places and trying to imagine their lives and the depths of their experiences.
Just like you do whenever you throw yourselves out on the streets of the world
to go people watching.
After awhile (around Autumn) I'll get back to the rest of the globe, but just
before I do, I'll end the Ecuador blitz with a month-long spate of NEW!1
ACCORDION STREETPHOTOS -- because I ran across a bunch of accordion players in
the old colonial section of Quito and I made it home with four or five wonderful
new accordion streetphotos.
I don't think Quito, Ecuador is the the 'Accordion Capital of the World' that I
was looking for -- but it could be ...
Adios.
*Streetphoto
of the Week #49/Guamote Wheel Man/Guamote, Ecuador/(last month)
Issued on June 12, 2007
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*Streetphoto
of the Week #50
Otavalo Marketeer #2/ A Woven Matt Vendor Heads to Market
Otavalo, Ecuador/(last month)
Issued on June 19, 2007
To The Next 10 SPotWeeks
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