Fine art photography
I have this thing: I call it a "passion". It is a need. I'm not qulte sure where it would figure of Maslow's hierarchi of needs, but it is my mind, a real need and not just a perceived one. I'm not sure where or how it began but I guess I became aware of this need to look at people when I became a policeman. For almost thirteen years I had a front row seat to the greatest show on the earth. A trained observer, I'd spend most of my waking hours looking at people, all kinds of people from every walk of life, most of them on the street. A badge, gun and uniform afforded me special access.
The looking is not the a voyeuristic thing, like construction workers looking at women at their lunch hours. No, more like people who get lost in a bookstore or museum. It varies on duration, from glance, sometimes studying, at times interacting, other times ever staring. I would approach each day as an adventure, with enthusiasm, anticipating seeing both the usual faces and the new ones.
It is addictive behavior. The notion of not spending time looking or photographing people is almost repulsive. The idea of extended seclusion, unthinkable. In 1987 I became disabled and would no longer be able to be paid for looking. I lost my front row seat. But it has not ended there. No, instead I've begun to use a camera and I'm taking it to another level.