Auszeit: The project continues
Working on a project like ‘Auszeit’ requires a lot of patience. You can’t just go out there, take a random photo of a person and that’s it. It needs a little more precision and time, as I have been trying to capture my subjects killing time. Whilst working on this project, I noticed that it was definitely harder than I had previously imagined. After a few walks through the city, I was able to capture two moments that seemed to fit my initial intentions. The reason for this is that there aren’t many people taking a break from their everyday lives, especially in a public location. You could argue that there are a lot of people sitting around while doing nothing, but the problem is that most of them have their phone or something else to entertain themselves. From my perspective - and how I intend to capture these unique moments – using your phone or any other entertainment device is not the understanding of taking a break. It’s basically the complete opposite. And the reason why I do this project. So, it somehow becomes very difficult to find a suitable location with a human killing time and not using their phone or anything else. It’s almost impossible these days. But that’s the challenge that drives me to go out and find these moments, no matter how rare they might be.
To date, I have been able to capture two unique moments and I’d like to share the story of one of them with you.
After I had been out in the city for about two hours I decided to go home and try my luck on another day. So, I walked down the high street of Southampton which was totally packed with people at this time of the day. When you do a lot of street photography like me, you are always looking around trying to find an aesthetically pleasing frame or a moment that is worth photographing.
After I had been out in the city for about two hours I decided to go home and try my luck on another day. So, I walked down the high street of Southampton which was totally packed with people at this time of the day. When you do a lot of street photography like me, you are always looking around trying to find an aesthetically pleasing frame or a moment that is worth photographing.
From a distance I noticed this man sitting on a bench and since I came from behind him, I couldn’t see if he had something in his hands. So, I passed him and turned around to figure out if this could be one of the moments I’m looking for. And yes, it was! He was just starring straight down the street while doing absolutely nothing! In this case you need to react fast, since you don’t know for how long this moment will last.
I quickly switched to the other side of the street, positioned myself to get the best frame, took my camera up, focused manually on this man while also tilting it with the Tilt-Shift-Lens and then I took the photo! I immediately knew that this was a great moment. What made it even better was when I noticed that there was another young man in the background on the right, that was also taking a break, just as the one man I initially intend to capture. Two men in the middle of street full of people, doing nothing. The perfect moment.
Finding such a unique moment and being able to capture it in the right split of a second is what fills my heart as a photographer. It is the reason I go out there and always keep going, no matter how long it takes or how frustrating it becomes when things don’t go as planned. Always remember:
“We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.” - Katie Thurmes
