Yes, I am alright. Thank you very fucking much!

About a month ago I bought a shit load of vouchers for E6 (slide) processing at this lab out in Guernsey. Of course about a week after I got the vouchers they announced that they were closing down the E6 processing december 1st. No doubt I was pretty happy about that..

This, however, is the reason why I went to London today for no other reason than to shoot four rolls of 120 (medium format) slide film. I'm not very good at exposing my medium format slides, so doing it in a rush is undoubtedly not a good idea. Anyways I went to Canary Wharf, which is this huge collection of skyscrapers and generally new and trendy architecture. Pretty ambitious stuff. Very photogenic. I knew on beforehand that the whole place is actually a private estate and that it is prohibited to photograph there at all (without a permit that is. Wonder what I'd have to go through to get one of those..?). I was photographing with my hasselblad. This camera is of the same size as a semi professional video camera (which I believe is the reason why a lot of people seem to think I am filming with it) or a small machine pistol... well at least it's not very unobtrusive.

When you do street photography you tend to learn some things about people. For one, if the theory that you can know when someone's watching you is true (I very much believe so), then I have a further theory that it is roughly ten times easier for people to feel that you are pointing a camera at them (if not twenty). It's actually almost fascinating the way they seemingly always turns your way that millisecond before the shot. When they do realize that you are pointing a camera at them they react in one of these ways:

1. They jump out of the way, saying that they are terribly sorry (as if I owned the very area they were standing in and had every right to throw them away from there). Often they do the jumping away in a rather clumsy way, which tempts me to actually take the picture anyway. I almost never do.

2. They look at you in a menacing way, kinda saying 'I'll kill you if you take that shot' (or something along the lines of that). I usually just take the shot really quickly and either walk fast in another direction or look distantly past them, making it clear that I was indeed photographing something far behind them (I do this ALOT when I get busted for trying to take someone's picture). It's cool because it also implies that they are rather self centered and arrogant if they argue that I was indeed taking a picture of them (sorry sir, you're not that good looking...).

3. Every now and then someone looks at you and then after some seconds of eye-contact (mine through the lens/viewfinder, but still) they actually go back to what they were doing. In a way saying: 'I'm actually okay with that...'. They may act slightly unnatural, but this is still by far the best response to get. It doesn't happen a lot though. It happened once with a shoemaker in Croatia (he did the posing thing, but a rather handsome one) and it happened today. Some guy were standing in some very handsome light, carrying a several bags of flowers he'd bought in some (I'd guess, rather expensive) flower shop. He saw me, I did the looking past him thing, but he caught my eye and I was slightly at loss of anything to do, and then he just turned back and went back to doing what he was doing before (I imagined looking for the woman to give the load of flowers to). Bless him!

The Croatian Shoemaker

Anyways, back to my 'big camera'-situation (oh don't do that 'perverse association' thing..!). One guy approached me today, saying 'You know they make digital cameras now!' while pointing at my hassie. Apparently, this is, from what I've read on forums and stuff (flickr group threads) a very common thing for people to say when you're carrying an old camera. I've never got one before. I usually get the 'Is that a real Hasselblad?!' continuing with: 'My dad/uncle/brother/mom/granddad was/is a photographer and he used to have/has one of those'. Funny thing is, often they comment on the hasselblad in a 'wow, have you actually got one of those'-sort of way, while completely ignoring my Leica which by all means is worth a lot more. I don't really mind, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that I carry a rather expensive camera (expensive really only for being an analogue camera, dslrs usually cost more).

Second guy to notice my camera was one of the two rather large security guys (it seems I don't mix too well with security guys lately) who could indeed inform me that I was not allowed to take pictures in the building, or even on the whole of Canary Wharf area. Security reasons, they said. I'm sure terrorists carry around hasselblads and wear new era caps when they do their reconnaissance. Stupid stupid stupid... What is really the point in making loads of really cool and photogenic skyscrapers if no one is allowed to photograph them?

Anyways, I upped my scandinavian accent and informed them that I was really sorry and that I was unaware of the fact that it was prohibited to photograph in the area. I believe the fact that I moments earlier had been trying to open a door that was not being used (I accidentally missed the big poster stuck to it) did wonders to make my ignorant state more authentic.

Afterwards I went to an expensive burger place. One of the waitresses seemed fairly new in her job. She dropped a tray (an empty one, luckily) to the floor. And after the noise, startling nearly all of the people in the restaurant, had died out, she did the 'I didn't do anything wrong'-thing rather than apologize. Afterwards she decided to stop me mid-bite to ask if everything was alright. I said a simple, polite: yes, but thought otherwise (Yes, I am alright. Thank you very fucking much!). Good burger though...

Train home. And now I'm writing this while watching pictures on flickr. My girlfriends coming from paris soon. 'til next...