Street Portraits in Moscow

Young woman on the Arpatskaya. Gesturing for money for her picture.

 In March, 1990, just a few months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Louise and I toured six eastern European countries that were just beginning to emerge from the darkness of Communism. Our purpose was to gather photographs, video footage, and information so that we could tell the story of how the prayers of believing Christians in those lands had helped precipitate the fall of the Communist empire.

We spent several days in Moscow, where we toured the Kremlin, met with Christian leaders, and attended a meeting of the "Underground Church." 

One afternoon, when I had a few hours break from our schedule, I took my cameras and went for a walk along the Arpatskaya, a pedestrian avenue where artists and street vendors displayed their wares.

One of the vendors -- an artist whose prints are hanging in the background.

 I found these two young women in the Arpatskaya. They were together and obviously friends. One looked as if she had just flown in from Paris; the other had a very Slavic face and was dressed in what I suppose could be called Communist Worker Chic.

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This older lady was preaching to the crowd. I gathered that she may have been a seventh-Day Adventist. After a while, the police came by and shut her down, although not unkindly.

About the equipment: As best I remember, these photos were made with an Olympus OM2n film camera and Fujichrome 100D film. I also took a Leica M3 on this trip, but don't remember if I carried it with me that day. I used a Tokina 100-400mm f4 zoom lens extensively on this trip and probably made all but the last of these photos with it.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel     Eastern Europe    street photography     street portraits    Russia     Moscow     The Arpatskaya     Fujichrome 100D film     Olympus OM2n film camera     Tokina 100-400mm f4 lens     Leica M3

Street Portraits

 

Canal bargeman, Bruges, Belgium.

For a number of years I worked as a photojournalist and producer, creating magazine features and audio-visual programs to help religious and humanitarian agencies communicate their missions. I was always looking for opportunities to make portraits. Strong photographs of people added power to the message I wanted to communicate, because people are interested in people. That's why we call it "human interest." When someone from another culture is portrayed in all of his or her humanity, dignity, and individuality, both the subject and those who view the photograph are served. As the great Edward Steichen, creator of the landmark "Family of Man" exhibit said, "The function of photography is to explain man to man."

Photography bypasses the logical centers of the brain and communicates directly to the heart. When the subject is someone from another culture, an incisive portrait can arouse in the viewer a deep awareness that this also is a person, a member of my species. Different from me, yes, but part of my family. More than 50 years have passed, but I still remember the first time a photograph connected with me in this way. It was an Emil Schultheiss portrait of an African girl in the old Modern Photography magazine. Her face plastered with ceremonial paint, she peeked at the camera from the corners of her eyes. I looked into her soul and was hooked for good.

(The above paragraphs were adapted from my article Foreign Faces, which appeared in the August, 1999 issue of Rangefinder Magazine.)

Putting it all more simply, I still love to make casual portraits of people wherever I find them. Here are a few.

Old man with a hat.

I found this gentleman hanging out on the courthouse lawn in Dayton, Tennessee and asked him if I could make his picture.

Eating barbeque at the Strut.

A very southern-looking couple eating barbeque at the Strut in Chattanooga's historically black 9th Street neighborhood, part of the Riverbend Festival. She looked at me and said "Don't take our picture!" But she wasn't being serious. So I did.

Young soccer player, Nigeria.

About the equipment: All the photos were made with Olympus OM film cameras and various Olympus Zuiko lenses, except for the gentleman with the hat, whose portrait was made with a Canon EOS A2 film camera and the Canon EF 28-105mm lens. Fujichrome 100 film was used for all photos.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel     street photography   Canon EOS A2 camera      Canon EF 28-104mm lens    Nigeria     street portraits    Bruges, Belgium     Dayton, Tennessee     Chattanooga, Tennessee     Fujichrome 100D film     Olympus OM film camera     Olympus Zuiko 85mm lens

Street Photograpphy in Other Lands

 Street scene in Ataca, El Salvador.

According to Wikipedia, street photography is "photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places, usually with the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by careful framing and timing."

"Street" has always been an important genre of the art and has been done superbly by such monumental names as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Andre Kertesz, Fritz Henle, Robert Doisneau, and too many others to list. 

Street photography continues to be very popular, but honestly, I don't see much that impresses me. Most of the work seems to have no point to it. I believe street photography must reveal some aspect of life, of the human condition, as it says above, "capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment. . ." 

I don't say all this to claim expertise at street photography. I do fairly well in foreign environments, but in the U.S. I don't do well at all. I believe that this is partly because of lack of opportunity. In many cultures, people are out on the street much of the time and I have often found them to be open and welcoming. In this country people are usually found on the street only in large cities, and they often seem very closed. Since I spend very little time in large cities, my opportunities for good street work are limited. On the other hand, I do quite a bit of driving around looking for things to photograph, so perhaps I should call what I do "road" photography rather than "street." But I do enjoy doing street photography in other lands.

The Best Iron Works in Town

Orange Walk Town, Belize

 

By the way, the apparent subject of a photograph need not be a person or people at all. Inanimate objects can often convey a sense of human presence very effectively, as in the picture above.

Here are a few more street photographs from other countries.

 

Wading woman and birds, Madras, India.

 

Four women, Vernazza, Italy.

Puzzled woman, Ahuachapan, El Salvador.

 

About the equipment: The two pictures from El Salvador were photographed with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera with the Panasonic Lumix 14-140 zoom lens. The photos of the iron works in Belize and the wading woman in Madras, India were made with an Olympus OM2n film camera and (probably) the Olympus Zuiko 85mm lens. The film was Fujichrome 100D. For the four ladies in Vernazza, Italy, I used a Canon EOS 20D digital camera and the Canon EF 24-85mm lens.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel     street photography   Canon EOS 2D camera      Canon EF 24-85mm lens   digital photography      Ataca, El Salvador     Ahuachapan, El Salvador     Olympus E-M5 camera     Panasonic 14-140mm lens     Madras, India     Orange Walk Town, Belize     Vernazza, Italy     Fujichrome 100D film     Olympus OM2n film camera     Olympus Zuiko 85mm lens

Some Georgia Covered Bridges

 Watson's Mill Covered Bridge, Watson's Mill Bridge State Park, Madison County.

 I've long been fascinated by old things. As I wrote in the preamble to one of my books, I am a visual historian of an earlier America. . .old houses, old churches, old courthouses, old mills, covered bridges, and historic sites.

Some of my interest in bridges may have been kindled by the fact that I went to high school about a mile from the Williams Covered Bridge, at 402 feet the longest in Indiana. In those days, the bridge was in daily use on a well-traveled road.

The Watson's Mill Covered Bridge, by comparison, is only 229 feet long, but it's the longest one left in Georgia. (In years past, there were longer ones, including one that crossed the Chattahoochee River at Columbus.) Spanning the South Fork of the Broad River, it was built in 1885 by W.W. King, son of the freed slave and legendary bridge builder, Horace King. The bridge is in daily use by visitors to the Watson's Mill Bridge State Park.

Howard Covered Bridge, Chandler-Silver Road, Oglethorpe County.

Only six miles by road from Watson's Mill Bridge is the one I call "the bridge to nowhere."

Built in 1904 across Big Cloud Creek in a now-isolated part of Oglethorpe County, Howard's Covered Bridge is 164 feet long and of Town lattice truss design. The original builder was probably J. M. "Pink" Hunt. 

Walking across the bridge to the other end, I found. . .nothing! It is truly the bridge to nowhere, because whatever was at the other end has long since been obliterated.  

Cromer's Mill Covered Bridge, Franklin County.

 

Cromer's Mill Covered Bridge is much longer than this picture would seem to indicate, carrying Baker Road 110 feet over Nail's Creek. It was built in 1907, using the Town lattice truss design like the Howard bridge, and was also built by J. M. "Pink" Hunt, who seems to have been a busy man.

 

In 1845 the Cromer family built a woolen mill on the creek and operated it until the Civil War. Later the site became, successively, a cotton gin, grist mill, and saw mill. 

 

All these bridges are listed on Google Maps if you would like to visit them.

 

About the equipment: The Watson's Mill bridge and the Cromer's Mill bridge were photographed with a Canon EOS 5D Classic and a Canon EF 24-85mm lens. An Olympus E-M5 with a Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm lens was used for the Howard bridge.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel     Georgia   Canon EOS 5D camera      Canon EF 24-85mm lens   digital photography      covered bridges    Olympus E-M5 camera     Panasonic 14-140mm lens

Georgia Small Towns: Cuthbert

 Old Main: The administration building of Andrew College.

Cuthbert, a small city in southwest Georgia, has, to me, a cosmopolitan atmosphere that belies its population of only about 3,500. Perhaps it's because Cuthbert has been a college town since 1852. In any case, the only Georgia small town where I felt a similar atmosphere was Milledgeville, which boasts two colleges and was once a state capital.

Founded in 1854, Andrew Female College was the second college in the US to grant degrees, rather than certificates, to women. In 1956, Andrew became a co-ed institution granting Associate degrees. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

The classic 1885 Dutch Romanesque Randolph County Courthouse.

 

 The town water tower. In the middle of a highway.

The water tower, erected in 1895, stands in the center of U.S. Highways 82 and 27. It has the distinction of being the only water tower in the entire United States in the middle of a U.S. highway.

Cuthbert also has a number of really fine old mansions.

The John McKenzie Gunn House.

Gunn, the eighth son of Scottish immigrants of the Clan Gunn, came to Cuthbert as a young man and established a successful general merchandise business. He built the house for his bride in 1853 and their descendants lived in it until 1940. 

The handsome, six-columned Greek Revival mansion named "Boxwood" was built in 1846 by Judge William Taylor, first judge of the Southwestern Circuit of Georgia. 

The Greek Revival-style Dormitory of the (defunct)Baptist Female College.

The Baptist Female College of Southwest Georgia was founded in 1852. The school eventually died in the 1870s, but left as evidence of its existence the Greek Revival college dormitory, with six square columns across the front, built the same year the school was founded. Since the college's demise, the building, known locally as the Muse-Dews-Gay-Martin-Blaskow House, has been a private residence. It is currently unoccupied and, while still beautiful, could use some maintenance. 

Janes Hall is a Greek Revival mansion built in 1840 by plantation owner William Janes, who was one of the original trustees of the Baptist Female College. The windows, moldings, heart pine floors, and hand-planed doors are all original.

Cuthbert is a fascinating old town with many more points of interest than I can cover here . If you should happen to come this way, stop by the Chamber of Commerce at 51 Court Street and pick up a driving tour brochure. 

About the pictures: Old Main, the courthouse, the Gunn House, and Janes Hall were photographed with a Canon EOS 6D digital camera with the EF 28-105mm lens. For the water tower and the Baptist Female College dorm I used a Fuji X-H1 digital camera and a Fujicron XC 16-50mm lens.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   Dave Jenkins     photography     digital photography      Canon EOS 6D digital camera     Canon EF 28-105mm lens   Georgia     Fuji X-H1 digital camera    travel photography     Cuthbert, Georgia      Fujicron XC 16-50mm lens    Andrew College     Randolph County, Georgia

Enjoy Your Labor Day

 

Louise, Kim, and grandson Devlin on our pond, Labor Day, 2003.

 

Labor Day and the Fourth of July were big family occasions when we had our little farm in McLemore Cove. Those were good times and we keenly miss them.

 

Enjoy your Labor Day! I'm taking the day off from blogging, except for this short post.

 

Deepest sympathies to long-time friend and regular blog reader Roy Gadd in the passing of his wife Cathy.

 

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.