Process
For this project, I want to explore the ethics of street photography, mainly the ethics of taking portraits. When I started to get into photography, street was the main genre I wanted to explore. I love taking photos of everyday life, seeing and noticing the special aspects of the mundane and how different people interact with their surroundings. It was a struggle trying to figure out what was okay and not with different people, especially taking candid photos of them, where I try to take photos of the subject in their day-to-day life. My process for this theme is to take candid street portraits of different people, and after I print them out, I will sensor their faces with different methods. (April, 2024)
For my process, I want to use the idea of “destroying” the print. I am going to use differentmaterials to “blur” people's faces or add materials to the prints to hide or obscure them. Iremember in primary school where the parents didn’t want to give consent to keep their kids inthe photo, and the school would have to blur their faces but would still upload the photos withthe blurred faces. I am curious to see people’s reactions to a portrait where the main subject isobscured or blurred. For this process, I want to pair the blurring idea with physically changingthe print. I used sandpaper, iron scrubs, and paper cut from an exacto knife to hold punches andstrips of paper to glue onto the face of the subject. For each piece, I chose different processesthat I felt would fit with the subject.
I want to shoot in a place special to me, Chinatown; this is where I first started shooting streetphotography. I feel at home when I am in this area. Usually, when I shoot, I become veryanxious about what and how I look when I shoot photos on the street. I don’t want to be toointrusive or a nuisance to those around me when I’m trying to capture people’s everyday lives.But I find that taking photos in Chinatown is a very calming experience.
