This past summer, most of my Saturday mornings were spent at the park up the street. Had given myself the task of figuring out how to build community with a camera, so when I stumbled upon the South End Community Market in Iroquois Park, it seemed the perfect place to start.
For four hours each Saturday, local farmers, bakers, artists, and craftspeople set up in the park and hawked their wares as the community filtered through. Part farmer's market and part craft show, it also seemed to serve as the neighborhood social event of the week.
Was rather fuzzy on the 'how' of building community with a camera when I started following the market. Can safely say that after months of following it, I'm still a bit fuzzy on it, but it is starting to come into focus. One thing that quickly became clear to me is that you have to talk to people.
While that may seem rather obvious, it goes against the grain of how I've traditionally approached street photography. The city isn't exactly a place where striking up conversations with strangers is encouraged, and I've always been quite okay with that, so it was a bit of an adjustment for me.
A curious thing happened once I started talking to people; my photos got better. Getting to know people, and they me, made it so much easier to simultaneously get closer and fade into the background. As Robert Capa said, "If your photos aren't good enough, you're not close enough."
More importantly though, the people I met ceased to be strangers, and became friends and neighbors. At the end of the day, isn't that what building community is about?
