Enrique Oliva's Life Documentation project

There’s a world out there, and there’s always the opportunity to learn from other folks, find and admire new works of art, discover new projects or ways to interpret photography.

Because of this I have thought about getting in touch with photographers from other cities and countries. For what purpose?

First, interacting with other people is always a good thing. You never stop learning. Second, putting a face, or voice, to a series of images, gives the whole thing a whole new perspective. Understanding why the photographer chose to create those images, and what his ultimate goal is, allows for a much deeper appreciation of his work.

So, I will sporadically be displaying images created by other photographers, in conjunction with brief interviews.

First up is Enrique Oliva, a photographer from Philadelphia. Enrique is very into street photography. He recently began a project with which he intends to create an historical record of his home town, while seeking photographers from other cities who would be interested in documenting their own cities.

Enrique sees this project as an effort to document daily life in the town where he has grown up. His “Life Documentation” project is just starting, but with the help from other photographers he may be able to create a very important historical record.

Let’s begin.  

©Enrique Oliva

1. How long have you been a photographer?

I've been snapping shots at things for quite some time. Unfortunately I can't pair that with consistently. I started taking photography a bit seriously about 2 years ago, i would say. Meaning carrying my camera around as if it were my wallet and shooting almost everyday.

©Enrique Oliva

2. What made you get into photography?

I remember my Pop having a 35mm Pentax MX (if my memory as child serves me well) and was always intrigued by it and him. I remember him taking pictures of my mother sitting at the kitchen table or in the park and of birds that would land in our huge tree in the backyard. I, not knowing you weren't supposed to open the rear of the camera, messed up a few rolls of film for him. You're welcome Pop. Then Polaroids stepped in the picture....I don't think that did film any good...

Years passed and I was always involved in some sort of art. From taking pictures to playing instruments, painting, drawing, anything i could make with my hands. 

My friend Kelly and I decided we wanted to pursue an art of some sort after high school. Well, he chose to do photography and I went on to do painting. As we were close friends, i would always be his subject for school projects and would always be really excited when I got to go to the dark room with him to develop photos. The dark room was fascinating. It seems that while studying how to paint, I was also reading what I could about photography on my free time. I think I took it more seriously than Kelly did. I became well versed in the world of photography for a while.

Anyhow, I went off and did my thing with paintings and did a few shows, traveled a bit as a working artist, and ended up needing money, as most artists do. Life caught up to me and I took a job and forgot about the arts for a while. Not completely, though, as I fell ass backwards into the culinary arts. I've been cooking for the past 7 or 8 years now in some of Philadelphia's best restaurants and have learned a great deal. Such as: Assume everything is hot in a kitchen!....Very interesting art and a very demanding art (i think its more of a trade than an art, myself) that leaves you for no time for anything else in life. I needed an outlet. Something of what I used to do and be involved in. Cooking has become a job to me now. 

One day a couple of years ago I decided to purchase a camera. Started reading up on my cameras again and took the plunge. I was also having my first child and what a simple perfect first subject. Well that camera hasn't left my side since and I have a lot more shooting left to do.

©Enrique Oliva

3. What makes you go out into the streets of Philadelphia in search of images? 

Philadelphia is a very "in your face" type of city. You have no choice but to go out in the streets. To live in Philly is to walk Philly and walking Philly is something people take for granted. So much of what this city is, is just at arm’s reach. Whether it be good or bad, clean, dirty, evil, holy, criminal or just, it's just forgotten about and overlooked. Dismissed in the craze of needing to get to the place you need to get to. In the big picture of the Philly day to day grind, peripheral vision doesn't exist. I purposely look for these things that people tend to walk right by. Sometimes pointing your camera at certain people here isn't very welcome because of that fact. 

I sometimes want the picture so bad I take the picture with the camera just hanging off my chest hoping they didn't hear my shutter go off. It's almost a rush to get yourself in those situations or to approach someone for their portrait knowing damn well this person shouldn't be messed with. But to come away from it all with a good shot is super rewarding. In the same breath though, you might come up empty handed. It feels like I'm an artist again.

©Enrique Oliva

4. Can you explain what you would like to achieve with your Life Documentation project? 

Philadelphia has tons and tons of history. We've all seen it from documentaries on TV to black and white photo books of the old days. We live off of this history. Everyone always compares everything from the past. I think it’s becoming a little boring that we ride the wave of what used to be instead of creating our own wave. I want to create my modern history. What the city I live in is like in my day. There's a lot of dark corners out there (and some bright ones too) I plan to catch. I want to create a display of photos I shot myself and a collage of the photos people send me from their city. My modern history would be that of my pictures and that of the use of technology in our day to reach people with ease to collaborate with. The achievement would be recognized if in many years later this display would show our future generation my (our) "modern history".

©Enrique Oliva

5. Any parting thoughts?

My head is completely wrapped in this project right now. It's a couple of months old and everyday new ideas come into play. And every day I check my mail box hoping to find one photo mailed to this project. That would add so much hope. I've not yet received any photos but have made a great contact and pen pal in Arturo. I'm sure one day they'll come pouring in.....

Every 7 days I plan to hit 3 new cities telling people about my project via internet advertising, starting from the west coast back to the east coast. Might even hit some other countries as well. 

I'm determined to make this project happen and OUR photos displayed!

To see Enrique’s portfolio please visit http://www.circled3.com/index.html

If you’re interested in collaborating with Enrique send an e-mail to eoliva@circled3.com

Shoe-shiner

Shoe-shiner - Tijuana, Mexico 2011

Camera: Contax G1
Lens: Carl Zeiss Biogon 28mm f/2.8
Film: Ilford XP2 Super 

Divine trinity

Divine Trinity - Tijuana, Mexico - 2011

Here's why you need to beat the crap out of your photo gear

Awesome post by Erick Kim, L.A. street photographer. Photographers who treat their cameras like they're made out of  porcelain, take note.

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2011/02/why-you-should-always-use-and-abuse-your-gear/#comment-6656

Taxis Downtown Tijuana

Spent a couple hours walking up and down the streets in downtown Tijuana a few weeks ago, Contax G1 in tow. It's a quirky little camera; can't say it's perfect, but there's something about doing street photography with a small -and light- rangefinder camera.

Here's one of my favorite images from that morning.

Limit your creativity

Well, the title above is a bit misleading. The purpose of this post is to give you a few ideas that will help you unleash your creativity, not hinder it. Keep on reading, and you'll find out what kind of limits I'm referring to. 

If your photography is in a rut, or just need a little boost to get your creative juices flowing again, there are some exercises that will surely jump-start your image-creating endeavors. 

Here's a few little exercises you can try out.

1 - The "one lens a day" exercise

There are those who think that using a zoom lens makes a photographer lazy. And I understand where they're coming from. It's easy to get into the habit of using a wide-angle lens setting for group shots, going to the telephoto side for portraits, and normal lens settings for, well, everything else. All without having to move actually. The zoom lens lets you do that.

But lets say today is your special day, when you can dedicate a day to yourself, and you decide to hit the town with your camera. Get your camera and only one lens, say a wide-angle lens, and hit the street. If you only have a zoom lens then make it a point to only use it at it's wide-angle setting. Beat the temptation to twist the zoom ring and get to the telephoto end of your lens. If you really need to get close, then use your perfectly healthy legs to move closer.

Next day you're out on the street use your lens only as a telephoto, not a wide-angle or normal lens. Again, if you want more space around your subject, then just use your good little legs to take a few steps back. Just be careful and watch where you're going.

Next time you're out use a mid-range setting on your zoom lens. Something closer to a normal lens. You get the idea. Use your imagination.

The idea here is that by limiting yourself to using only one type of lens, or zoom lens setting, you force yourself to work around your limitation, if you can really call it that, and get the most out of the perspective, depth of field and field of view of a certain lens. Try it out.You may be pleasantly surprised at the images you get.

2 - The "one type of subject" exercise

This is an exercise that doesn't really need a long explanation, due to its simplicity. The idea is to go out and shoot only objects that are a certain color. Or maybe if you're into street portraiture take pictures only of people wearing hats, or people wearing T-shirts. Or maybe you'd like to photograph only objects that are round, or square. You get the idea. I've seen photography portfolios showing only objects that are red. This can be quite interesting, especially if there are images of objects you normally don't associate with a certain color, like a red car tire.

3 - The "take thirty steps, turn around and shoot" exercise

No, this is not an exercise where the loser ends up dead. This can be done individually, but it works out better if you're out shooting with several of your photographer friends. Each of you take turns in counting steps and deciding on what direction you want to go. You all decide beforehand if you'll be counting 25 steps, 30 or whatever. You can take little steps, or make your stride really long; although you may look a bit weird.

But anyway, once you and your friends stop counting and walking you remain at that one spot and start shooting. Everyone can turn around and photograph whatever they want, but without moving from that spot. 

And you continue with this process taking turns counting and deciding what direction to go. Once shooting is done for the day each photographer selects his or her best shot for each spot that was selected during the session. Then everyone gets together and compares the results. It's amazing to see the different results different folks can get even standing at the same spot. You may capture the same object I shot, but with a different point of view. Or maybe you capture something that I didn't even notice was there.

This is a really interesting exercise I practiced during a recent photography workshop I attended. Try it out. Even if you don't have friends who are willing to go marching up and down the street with you, you can get some interesting images doing it on your own. By limiting your range of movement you force yourself to look in all possible directions, and pay attention to detail, and possibly capture something you wouldn't have noticed otherwise.

So as you can see from the exercises above, you can release your creativity by imposing limits on yourself, as illogical as it may sound. And these are just a few examples. I'm pretty sure if you set your mind to it you can come up with several exercises of your own.

See you out on the street.

 

Scott Kelby's Third Annual Worldwide Photo Walk

Don't miss Scott Kelby's Third Annual Worldwide Photo Walk this year, taking place on Saturday July 24th. Last year I got together with several other photographers in Tijuana and we had a great time. This year we're getting another dose of the same. Really looking forward to it.

Remember there's going to be prizes for the best images, so go out there and do your best. Take a look at the winning images from the previous two Photo Walks. There's some really great pictures in there.

See you out on the street.