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

On the endless saga of Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto; "It shouldn't have had to come to this. I'm so tired of getting up every morning and wondering, 'What will it be today?' I'm so tired of giving the benefit of the doubt again and again, only to be let down again and again.... Somewhere a responsible adult has to appear, draw a bright moral line, tell the truth and say unequivocally what won't be tolerated. Somebody has to do the right thing."

—Denzil Minnan-Wong