Times Square vs The 70's

Copyright Timothy Briner

"Untitled (Times Square), 2004-2007" is a series I've been working that will most likely end its run this year. In light of Tim Conner's "Tod Papageorge post", I figured I would share a few of these images and talk about my process as well as my motives for working on the project.

Tim Connor talks about Tod Papageorge's shooting style of the 70's. In this article, Tim references his own style and talks about the struggles of shooting in today's world compared to the days of walking around Minneapolis in the 70's. Below is the paragraph (from Tim's blog) that inspired this post.

Except at parades, demonstrations or other public events where people are in a sense costumed and expecting to be photographed, I rarely take these kinds of pictures anymore. I wonder if Papageorge does. Even as cellphones snap away by the millions, there seems to be a new & pervasive fear of being photograpically singled-out on the street. In the workshops I taught this year, my students were intimidated. “How do you take pictures of people you don’t know?” they asked. I suggested they ask permission. “But what if I want them NOT posing?” they asked. I told them to just shoot & see what happens. But I also gave them my opinion: “Don’t shoot children you don’t know.” In “Snapshots” I photographed a lot of kids without asking for permission. Not anymore. Pedophiles, real & imagined, have replaced the devil in our modern consciousness. Shooters beware.

This paragraph really resonated with me. I've never been a street shooter, never really had an interest until a few years ago. In 2004 I was spending a lot of time in and near Times Square; I started to take my camera and spend time watching people. Saturdays in the Summer are out of this world.

(After 9-11 I spent 4 weeks shooting from the hip. At first nobody was worried about a kid with a camera but as the weeks went on, people started to have negative reactions . This turned me off to street shooting; I didn't need the frustration, plus I didn't feel it was one of my strengths at the time.)

Times Square opened up possibilities for me. Not only is there great subject matter full of irony, the people/tourists seem to have no fear, no inhibitions. They just follow the person in front of them, and for some reason they don't worry about anything (cars, muggers, me, etc.). There are thousands of people taking photos at any given time, I blend right in. What really interested me was the fact that I could utilize a flash and still have very little or no reaction. I honestly felt like a kid in a candy store, shooting and flashing away.


Copyright Timothy Briner


Copyright Timothy Briner