waitingforlefty

"Strand shot this photo in an era when other photographers were taking "pretty" shots. No soft touches in 'Blind Woman.' During this period in his career, Strand photographed slums, drunks, and peddlers. 'I felt they were all people whom life had battered into some sort of extraordinary interest and, in a way, nobility' Strand said."
www.liveauctiontalk.com/free_a…

I love and am inspired by the photographs of author and photographer Eudora Welty. Her deeply felt photographs -- she called them "snapshots" -- of poor people, black and white, in the rural South in the 1930s-1950s are suffused with a sympathetic spirit and loving humanity.

For my birthday this year I received a book of Welty's photographs, and to my surprise it had been autographed in 1992 by Ms. Welty:

"Angela -- Your generous offer of the white kid gloves was so generous, but I am too old to accept them, and you are too young to give them up! Please accept my photographs in return. E. Welty."

I was always a "words" person, making my living with writing and editing. I thought of photography as something other people did. I took Instamatic pictures when I was young, but didn't have a camera for most of my adult life. I started doing photography as a way to keep up with my partner, who is obsessed with photography, so I wouldn't be bored and left in the car when he stopped to shoot pictures.

I practiced for about a year with a point-and-shoot Nikon, but the technical limitations of that camera restricted what I could do photographically. I got a Canon Rebel film SLR, on which I learned to use an SLR, but my photography took off after I got the Nikon D40. It's nothing spectacular by today's standards, but the ease and speed of it really matches my temperament.

I took seriously the dictum to always have a camera with you, wherever you go, and I shot everything -- to a fault, as my gallery indicates. It was a learning process, though. At first I didn't even know what constituted a valid picture subject; now, it's instinctive.

But what I didn't understand about photography is how it opens you up -- not just your eyes, which notice everything previously ignored -- but your heart. At least that's the way it has been for me, because my primary subject is human life, particularly among the lower-income people. I believe embracing these people with my camera -- which is always loving and humane -- has changed my heart.

Thanks for looking at my street photos!