I went for a walk through Riverside Park (NYC) today and took my little point and shoot camera. I walk through this park frequently, but take my camera along infrequently. The sun was low and there were many things to photograph — people, trees, flowers, oddities, the New Jersey skyline. I thought about the things we photograph and why. And then I remembered this photograph I had taken in Berlin when I was there with Tango Octogenario.
I took this photo because I had never seen urinals shaped like these before. If I were a Berliner, the chances are pretty good I would not have taken this photo. This led me to think about all the photos in NYC I do not take because I’m not a tourist here. Maybe something like this (which I did not take):
If I were visiting Amsterdam, I have no doubt I would take a photo similar to this one:
(I probably would have taken a close-up of the bike in the red rectangle, framed by some of the bricks.)
I have often tried to explain to people who think I should be editing A Life’s Work why I need to hire an editor. I think from now on I will tell them because, when it comes to the film, I no longer have tourist eyes.
Send me a photo of something in the place you live, taken with your tourist eyes, and I’ll put it on the blog [if you want], and I’ll send you an origami crane. You can attach it to an email:
d a v i d [ a t ] b l o o d o r a n g e f i l m s ( d o t ) c o m .