Welcome To The Jungle
It’s a Friday night in Barcelona. I was pursuing what I love best in the urban landscape photography genre: imaginative night city scenes. The raucous gang of drunk teenagers was at the end of the outdoor pavilion. Recessed within the shadows of a building behind me I was for now, out of sight of that teenage crew. My challenge was that there is no fast way to shoot high quality night photography. The time it takes to make great art makes one eventually visible and predictable to felonious eyes. I needed to relocate to a safer place. Below, at street level, I spotted a quieter place with fewer pedestrians. I quickly moved.
For the inexperienced, night photography isn’t holding up your iPhone, snapping pix, moving on, and not critically assessing the image. In contrast, for professionals there’s the relentless demands of composition, visualization, equipment fitting, problem solving, and dial-in to name a few. Technically, there’s either long exposure with numerous test and refinement exposures or single exposure color/light balanced images. Neither of these two approaches produces ideal results in minutes. Lens swapouts, exposure adjustments, focus tweaking, local light changes, etc. all must be considered and resolved to obtain top results.
At my new shot place, I settled in. I solved scene elements and worked out composition choices. Eventually, the Agbar’s exterior lights came up. For the next hour I shot continuously. I used different lenses and shot in various camera modes. Suddenly—I heard them before I saw them, a group of five young men happened by. I noticed them; they noticed me. I’ve seen nighttime encounters in remote places like this go several ways. So if there’s mistakes to be made, I try to not repeat them in new settings.
Without signaling overt concern, I nonchalantly rotated my blind spot by reaching toward my bag on the ground at my feet. Shortly, in my peripheral vision I saw a shape tentatively approach. I assessed he was not the threat—couldn’t be…too skinny, maybe all of 130 pounds. A large sign blocked my view of the others. Perhaps an issue. He smiled, a bit shy. In English that was about as shaky as my Spain Spanish, he asked if I could take a picture.
In my experience, when strangers make this request, typically it’s either innocent…or a setup. In other cities and on other occasions I’ve seen and been in both. In this moment I did not know which. So far, the encounter had an uncertain feel. From behind the sign, the other four emerged. If they wanted to roll me, they had to be at least two things: 1) bigger, and 2) more skilled in a menacing presentation. This is not a statement to justify profiling or promote an anti-youth bias; it’s about how to practically protect oneself in a city, at night, alone, with thousands of dollars on your person. The tallest of the five, my height with a broad build fished his iPhone out of his jacket pocket. He leaned forward and gently placed his phone in my hand; international language for a trust move. The others remained loose and relaxed. This all read as legit.
So, a group photo. Compositionally, this was easy, the big guy in the middle and the four others in an arranged, half-open body angle. In this moment was when things could still go sideways; care was advised. I was about to take my eyes off $15,000 of camera kit to render a service to five strangers. I evaluated the scene and the near area around it. It all read to me as reasonably safe. I took up an appropriate shooting distance and knelt down. Before I put my knees on the ground, I quickly scanned; this move would make me vulnerable. I put the group into the phone scene. Young guys on the town on Friday night with the Torre Agbar as a backdrop. I took two shots and handed the phone back to its owner. They all looked in on his phone and approved.
Sometimes, the best way to be quit of a group and decrease risk is to give them what they want. They departed and loudly hailed “El Americano” as they left. The important thing: me, my work, and my gear were intact. I spent another 20 minutes with a final lens selection, packed up and moved on. Urban landscape photography is my love. My advice: if you don’t want to know how to be aggressively aware and willing to proactively protect yourself, you may want to consider another vocation. On the other hand, I occasionally experience the gifts of personal connection; that too is satisfying. In the end, this was another story of how photography gets done.
