journal features

photographing strangers on the street

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Vancouver, 2001.10.13

Today I took photos of strangers on the street. An English couple wanted to know who I though I was, pulling a stunt like walking up to the seated half of the couple and asking if I could take her photo. There she was, holding her purse in her lap and looking off to her left, while on her right was one of those bronze life-size statues of a woman holding her purse on her lap and looking of to her left (the same direction). Great shot, but not meant to be. Kooky English!

I also picked up a Dimage 7 digital camera in the photo shop where I get my negatives developed. It didn't have the battery in it, but I thought it was at once strangely light in weight, gimmacky in feeling, and festooned with controls. I worry about the not-so-far-off date when I'll have to buy something along those lines simply because film is dying.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges