An inspired street photographer 1

I start a new column on this blog: when I feel I have a photo that I really like, I will share it here accompanied by some notes.

It is the entrance of the popular Guerrero neighborhood to inspire me a photo. Overflows into the historic center. A small, modest tianguis (market) has been catching my attention for a while and I've already taken several photos there.

It strikes me a lot how in the historic center you can breathe the air of the barrio. There is a different vibe and the photos are simply…different. Also my approach changes. I photograph in the barrios everyday, but every time the experience changes, especially when you don't usually take pictures in certain places.

In the first instance the place attracts my attention for how the urbanism is arranged: sheet metal constructions that overlook the original building, in particular. And then all the windows that are mouths or eyes for my photographic contemplation. I can see many rectangles, geometric figures that influence me in wanting to give me a rigorous composition.

My gaze flies down to where the human condition is, where the crowded situation makes everything very interesting. My eye sets the subjects in spaces inside the frame, in rectangles and perimeters that highlight and divide, like so many small snapshots, a sort of human puzzle that leads to my framing and shooting. It's just a shot I take. I just can't do more and I know I have to play it well. I observe, I lift the camera and shoot only when everything coincides at best, where there are no overlaps, where the gaze can go all the way, where even the observer will be able to appreciate the many, different situations, photographic moments each with a own story, arrived in a single shot.

Here it is, my human landscape.