Iyende

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There are two weather conditions that make for great street portrait light: 1) overcast days when the sun's harsh light is scattered by clouds and 2) Sunset/sunrise when the sun's light is warm and directional but not too harsh as it is partially diffused by the oblique path it travels through the earth's atmosphere.

...Because I don't want to seem pervy [2 of 2 in the Redbull House of Art series]

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As I wandered the Redbull House of Art grand opening searching for pretty girls to take pictures of, the words of the attractive, remarkably similar looking, slightly older woman mentioned in the first part of this series echoed in my soul:

"Where IS this going, Noah?"

If I was to theoretically fill The People of Detroit solely with pictures of attractive women sure it would be awesome, but what would that mean the project was? Would I have to re-write the Mission Statement? Change the name to "The Pretty Girls of Detroit"? How pervy would that be?

I snapped to consciousness and realized I was standing in the middle of the crowded exhibition hall, Camera in hand. Shivering. Lightly-misted in a clammy, cold-sweat of shame. 


I had to rectify my errant ways.

A Wintry Encounter

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I was unlocking my baby the other day, when I was approached by a man named "Les." "Les" properly identified the make of my bike. He intimated that his son was also an avid biker.

He asked about my profession.  I told him that I take pictures and write about people for a living.

He then intimated that he also was a photographer. "Les" spent several years as the staff photographer for a local news station. "Les" engaged me in a discussion about our photographic philosophies. Surprisingly, they meshed rather well.

This, friends, is what we in the industry (I am a registered ninja) call an "affinity con."  That's when a clandestine inquisitor feigns common interests. Their goal is to siphon as much information out of you as they can.

No need for your polar spy tactics, "Les." I think we both know what you really wanted to ask:

I've been naughty.

But then, you already knew that, didn't you?

Happy Holidays to you and yours, dear reader. Hope to see you again in the new year.  

- Noah 

A Cup of Stoicism

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I'm starting a People of Detroit mini-series dedicated to Detroiters in coffeeshops. I've read enough artist statements in museums and spoken with enough people who attended art school to know I should explain the project  like this:

"Coffeeshop Cohorts examines coffeeshops, the alluvial fluid served therein, and the caffeinated pilgrams arrayed to consume it  - together yet alone in the frigidity of the modern American metropolis."

:|

Living in Detroit with Detroit Lives!

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Chief among my many personal failings is an inability to return phone, text, and email messages within a time framed deemed "socially acceptible." Its not necessarily because I don't want to communicate with the people who are trying to communicate with me. Its just that I'm often in private negotiation with my thoughts. My thoughts are are jealous succubi. They demand my exclusive attention for indefinite stretches of time. Even still, I do my best to escape their surly gravity and return an orphaned email every now and again.

I received one such email from the gentleman pictured above, Philip Lauri.  He intimated that he enjoyed what I was doing with The People of Detroit, wanted to feature it on the website for his social branding organization Detroit Lives!, and he suggested we meet to discuss doing something collaboratively.

Jacob and the Discovery Channel

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First, some housekeeping. Mac users: The default color space for the internet is sRBG. That is not the default color space for Macs for some inexplicable reason. To view the photos on my stream (and on the internet in general) with their proper colors, please go to System Preferences => Displays => Color => sRBG.


As you may have noticed, The People of Detroit has been on a bit of a hiatus. Those who follow my flickr stream [ http://flickr.com/noahstephens ], may have a hint as to why, but let me clue in the non-Flickr followers…

Dwele

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So, I was speaking recently with a couple of folks who have been following the photo project. They all liked the project (or at least had a good enough understanding of social graces to feign affection for it while I was standing there). But they did find one curious deficiency in the demographics of the project subjects: an apparent dearth of young, male subjects.

Busted.

The Jones Family

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Natural Light

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This is the Jones Family. I ran into them at the Detroit International Jazz Festival. So much of this project is about looking for people whose appearance implies an interesting personality or occupation. I think my instincts were right on this one.

Turns out the Jones are a family of artists. As a matter of fact, they will have a booth at this weekend's  Dally in the Alley street art festival. Pay them a visit and tell them you saw their photo here.

p.s.: I love how the baby is starring off into the distance like, " DAAAAAAAMMMMMNNNNNN, shorty got a PHAT ass." No. I'm sure he was thinking innocent baby thoughts, but telling myself otherwise amuses me.

[View the ongoing project and meet more of: The People of Detroit ]

At the DIA

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Available Light

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The Detroit Institute of Arts is one of my favorite places in the city. It is a repository for work by some of the world's most noteworthy artists. They even have a couple of names an art history ignoramus such as by myself would recognize like Picasso, and shit.

So, I went there on Wednesday with the intention of capturing some art lovers. I also was looking for a part of the museum that would lend itself to a nice portrait.

Painter | Writer

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Available Light

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What's happening good people. I went to the People's Art Festival today. A lot of cool art and most importantly a lot of cool, artistic people.

One such person is Pryncess of Pullup Studios. She had some of her art on display at the festival. I also noticed something else she had on display,

Brandi Loves Detroit

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Available Light

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Brandi Keeler, a graphic artist and graduate of the acclaimed Center for Creative Studies, submitted the winning video in the first annual I Love Detroit contest.

The contest was sponsored by Garden Court Condominiums and Miss Keeler's award for the winning submission was a rent-free year in a Garden Court condo.

You can follow Brandi's year in the Garden Court and check out her interview with our local Fox news affiliate  here.

Stylist | Make-Up Artist

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Available Light
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So, I went by 1515 Broadway coffeehouse to left Crystal know I posted her photo.

There were a couple of folks in there. One young lady was in the city from L.A. I asked her name.

"Vignette"

"Like a smaller part of a larger story?"

Music Teacher

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4L | Available Light
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Alright. As I mentioned in the Filmmaker | Musician post, I'm doing a four photo mini-series on that group of friends.

Here's the second portrait from that meeting.

This is Christen. According to the Info section of her Facebook page, she's a piano and saxophone instructor. She says she can teach both the musically inclined and those with little inclination for music.

Mobile Photographer

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4L | Available Light
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This photo was taken during the weekend of the the Motown Hoedown. I was on my way home when I saw this camera-laden young man.

"That's quite the impressive kit. What are you taking pictures of?'

"Nothing, now!"

He went on to explain that he was down on the riverfront charging Motown Hoedown festival goers to take their picture. He had a photo printer in tow tucked away in a picnic cooler. He'd print the photo up, collect his fee and be on his way.

Or so he thought.

Apparently, you can't charge to take pictures on the street, unless you have a vendor's license. The police asked him to leave and offered the consolatory caveat that he was free to charge for photos in the neighborhoods.

"Ain't downtown a neighborhood?"

Chasing the Dream

 

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Available Light

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This is a emcee named Troubel. I'm not sure if I'm spelling that right, although I should know on account of I have his CD. Somewhere.

A couple of months before I took this photograph, I stopped by the Starbucks on Woodward and Mack. As I approached the counter to order a small coffee (I always ask for a "small", not a "tall" because I refuse to use Starbuck's cup size cult nomenclature) the young man pictured above called out from the de facto CD market he tended on a tabletop directly across from store's cash register.

"Yo. You support Detroit hip hop?"

Sigh.

Graphic Artist

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Available Light

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You know how people - well, I was going to attempt to be gender neutral, but I have honestly never heard a man say this - you know how women say,

"I don't dress for anyone but myself!"

Bull ish. I've always held that everyone dresses for other people, because everyone understands that clothing is a form of non-verbal communication. This project has gone a long way to confirm my hypothesis.

Honorary Detroiter

Canon 7D | 35mm 1.4 | Natural Light

Maegan Gindi is NOT from Detroit. Which is the exact reason why I included her in this project.

See, Maegan is a graduate of the highly regarded Rochester Institute of Photography and a native of Brooklyn, New York. She traveled to Detroit this week on her own dime to begin the first phase of a portraiture project focused on the people of Detroit.

I met Maegan while I was in a antique store in Detroit's Eastern Market. I had my camera slung over my shoulder, and was oblivious to the young woman who approached me from behind...

"24-70?"

"Naw, 35mm 1.4"

"Oh yea? Nice!"

For the non-photo nerds "24-70" refers to the focal length in millimeters of one of Canon's L series zoom  lenses. 35mm refers to the focal length of the lens I use. It's called a prime lens because unlike a zoom lens there is no way to increase or decrease the field of view except by moving your feet.

What prime lenses sacrifice in convenience they repay in image quality. Because the lens only has to be built to one specific focal length....

Bored as shit yet? Yea ya are! But from that coded exchange forward Maegan and I passionately discussed photography tech, theory, technique and most importantly, the city of Detroit. We hung out the next day with a non-photo nerd friend of hers and a non photo-nerd friend of mine at the Detroit Beer Company  - where we actually met Lamar from the Visual Artist post.

Maegan expressed an enthusiasm for the city that I seldom see in many of the people who live here. I suppose its hard to appreciate something you always have access to. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see the value in things you pass by everyday.

And Maegan made significant sacrifices to see those things. She works as a photo assistant in NYC, and had to forgo some lucrative gigs in pursuit of her Detroit portraiture project. But she's enthusiastic about this city and it's people.

And it is in recognition of that enthusiasm that by the power vested in me by my got damn self, I hereby declare Maegan Gindi an honorary Detroiter.

[Stop by Borders and/or Barnes and Noble and check out Maegan's photography in the latest edition of Tokion magazine]

[View the weekdaily blog and meet more of: The People of Detroit ]

Visual Artist

Canon 7D | 35mm 1.4 | Ambient Light

The best thing about a camera, is you can ask total strangers to take their picture and then they can come to your house on the night you are supposed to post their picture and they can distract the shit out of you while you are trying to meet your self-imposed deadline by blurting out stupid funny shit like:

"Chicken is the only animal you can eat, before that mutha fucka is even born."

...Camera Owner

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Available Light

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This is the companion photograph to Camera Holder...

For anyone unwilling or unable to view the first photo in the mini-series, I'll offer a brief recap:

I saw two young women. One young woman was holding a camera.  Since cameras are only third to babies and dogs on the scale of top excuses to talk to strangers, I took the opportunity to ask if she was a photographer.

Clothier | Artist

Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Available Light

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Phil is one of the owners of a hip hop clothing store called Freshman Clothing at 204 Grand River in the Harmony Park district of Detroit.

Which is the reason why I believe American school children should be obligated to take a Sex and Relationship Education course titled "Everything That Glitters isn't Gold, and Everything that's Wet Isn't Water."

What does that have to do with this photo. Nothing, really. The thought just occurred to me earlier today and I thought it was really, really funny. I wanted to take the nearest opportunity to immortalize it on the internet because I'm a egotistical bastard, the saying is sure to catch on and I want to be properly credited as its progenitor.

Ahem.

Back to my man Phil. I stopped through his store for the first time a couple of days ago.  I'd noticed it before, but had never taken the time to stop through.

Since I was primarily aware of the store as a clothier, I was surprised to walk in and see not t-shirts and jeans, but an impressive collection of art on the walls.

Phil explained that both he and his business partner were artists and they had decided to display some of their work in the store. Phil had just began experimenting with a new style of painting and wanted to give it a public debut.

That said, his new work almost made him pass on being photographed that day. He  wanted to have me come back on another day when he was "clean." His  attire at the time was splattered with paint from his new pieces.

"Phil, I look at those splatters like the wrinkles on a well-aged face: they are irrefutable marks of your development and experience. We should shoot with it on."

That's the movie script version of what I said. The real version had more awkward pauses and fewer words that made sense.

Nonetheless, he was convinced. Thankfully because I think it adds a lot to the portrait. Much in the same way that people like Phill add alot to the city.

See, Phil is the exact kinda person that that led me to start this photo project. Murderers, corrupt mayor(s) and semi-literate, super belligerent city council people grab headlines but they do not define Detroit. Ambitious, multi-talented folks like Phil are the heart of the city.

And much like a literal heart they tend to be obscured from view.

I'm doing my best Ben Carson...

[View the weekdaily blog and meet more of: The People of Detroit ]