I can distinctly remember one of my professors from Loyalist telling us to “get in front of people and show faces. It makes for a more interesting photo.” While I can understand the merits of always being in front and how faces add a certain connectivity to a photo, I cannot help but be drawn to the allure of shooting people behind.
Admittedly it’s easier and less invasive (intrusive?) than encountering some dude pointing a camera at you while walking backwards, but the anonymity of the subjects is what I find most interesting. It’s what everyday people see in their daily lives. No one really seems connect with strangers on their commute and certainly no one walks backwards just to study the faces of people heading in the same direction. This is what I see and I feel that my photography is a replication of just that.
So here we have my “professional teaching” telling me to work harder, interact and get in front, yet my personal aesthetic is telling me I’m doing just fine. This has been making for an interesting combination in the year or so it has been since I graduated college. Maybe I will once again muster the will to start shooting from in front. Until then, I think I’m doing just fine.
