I hopped on a train late yesterday and went downtown to see if I could find Christmas. I was going to take the boys with me, but I wanted to be thoughtful about it. Lots of things can happen with a nine-year-old and a six-year-old boy but being thoughtful with your camera takes a hit even on their best days. This was a self assignment. I really wanted to see if I could get some fleeting little moments or glances near Philadelphia’s City Hall Christmas decorations. Deep in my heart I knew it was a little bit silly—I mean, what was I really going to find?—but you never know. That’s one thing about photography you can state with certainty. You never know. I worked on a book several years ago with a couple of hundred other photographers called Christmas in America. It was a large format coffee-table book full of lots of well-executed but predictable photographs. I shot several of them. I’m proud of the work that I did there, but yesterday I was looking for something a little more under the surface. Whether or not I was successful is debatable. Success for me was that I went out and tried. I didn’t know what I was looking for and I’m not really sure that I found it. But I have learned in 40 years of taking pictures that sometimes it’s the little tiny, unpredictable, storytelling moments that make me continue to go back out on a cold, wet night and look for the mysterious. I’ll put a caption on each of these photographs for you as you scroll through them. I’m just sharing my thoughts. I don’t know if you’ll gain anything from looking at my photographs, but consider this: Self assign something to yourself that makes you step into a slightly uncomfortable, but inspiring place. I tried to find it with Christmas and I will continue to do that for the rest of the month. Obviously, at this joyous season, it’s out there. Whether or not I find it with my camera time will tell. Probably the best Christmas moment I experienced yesterday didn’t get photographed. I tried to open a door for a woman as she tried to open it for me. We fumbled around and did a little dance and laughed at each other. She didn’t say Merry Christmas, but she didn’t have to. I think I saw it in her eyes and I think she saw it in mine.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 02:00:00 +0000