dear lookatokc photographer,

No, you can’t take my picture. Yes, I’m also a working photographer (for a given value of working), no, that doesn’t mean we really have anything in common. You take party pics, i take pictures of my friends at parties. You use a flash when you don’t need it, I hate it even when I absolutely have to use it. You have a huge camera bag weighing you down with shit you don’t need, I only own two lenses. All of these are strikes against you, but really, it’s just that I don’t like having my picture taken.

Some of us don’t want to be in the paper. I might be the only one, but I’d wager there are at least a few people out there who like anonymity. Or who need it.

Certainly there’s little value in party pics, hell, I take thousands myself and put them on this shitty blog, but the big difference is that I know the people that I take pictures of, for the most part. I feel weird not knowing people and taking their picture. It’s knowing the people that lets me get closer, get a little more meaning in the phototographs than the standard grin and grab-the-person-next-to-you. Some of them, at least (yes, there are a few posed pics here on the blog and more on my facebook, but those are here for the people in them, not for me to show off).

Posted by Matt on 2009-07-19T00:00:00Z GMT