One of my Flickr contacts, Craig Biertempfel aka 'Btezra', constantly amazes me with his street portraits. Craig has the ability to connect with people, and in the course of his interactions with them, obtains powerful and touching portraits. Craig's interest isn't in the act of taking the photograph or the photograph itself, but in the connection he can make with the person looking at the camera lens. The photograph is a by-product of this connection and by far and large, they are excellent. Craig's Flickrstream is highly recommended.
Craig's street portraits inspired me to try my hand at obtaining consensual portraits of strangers. Unlike Craig, I'm still too photography-focused; for me, the obtaining of a consensual portrait of a stranger is still the focus of my interactions with them. Gradually, I'm trying to teach myself to value the interaction, and to see the photograph that emerges from that interaction as a product of the moment's connection between two strangers. I've had a fair few successes, where the portrait taken shows this momentary connection, when the person photographed isn't just interacting with the objective camera but with the photographer looking at him/her through the lens. Here are three such portraits of which I am proudest.
Street portraits can be hard work but, as I'm starting to discover, only if the purpose of your interaction with the person is the photograph. At the end of the day, I've found that the more satisfying portraits become reminders of the interaction I've had with the person - the morsels of insight into the person's life, into his or her past.
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