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Table of Contents

Just Here and There

Table Top Series

Street Shooters of August 2022

Wide Eyed Wonder: Harvey Stein’s Coney Island

Semana Santa

Interview with Gunther Deichmann

Table Top Series

Kip Harris

Before I seriously started doing street photography, I worked on a series taken in diners and cafes for which the working title was “I See America Eating” in homage to Walt Whitman. These images were taken in stealth. I would casually focus on a table nearby that was about the same distance away as a possible subject and then put the camera on the table. I would fiddle around a bit with the aperture and maybe the shutter speed to convey to whomever that I was just making adjustments to the camera. I would remove the lens cover and put that under the lens to elevate the angle of the shot. Then I would wait. Although I thought I was invisible, I’m certain that people noticed what I was doing. I would push the shutter when something interesting happened.

These photos, taken on film, had the reflective surface of the table as the base upon which the image would rest. Because I was shooting Tri-X or T-Max 400 with a wide open aperture, the images were grainy and often not well composed but the process gave me access to people’s lives that I had not had before and taught me a good deal about how to capture light.

As it became easier to take these sorts of images with digital autofocus cameras with silent electric shutters or the ubiquitous smart phone which no- one pays much attention to any more, I found fewer and fewer occasions to try this sort of shot. I became for involved in shooting people where I had asked permission ahead of time which made me give up the illusion of stealth. Once in awhile something would rekindle this interest:

A truck stop in Vermont where I stopped in the early fall was one of these. I discovered that what interested me was more the reactions of people watching me than the people I had been watching. Sort of the mirror reflecting back was you had not expected to see. The waitress became what I focused on and what appeared to be the main subject was just the starting point.
The bar at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba where glasses had been prepared with deliberate calm for the afternoon onslaught of mojito drinkers.
A gentleman pulling a slice of pizza off the cooking pan with cheese clinging to his spatula.
A Bedouin preparing coffee in his tent with the camera placed near the fire and on the carpet covering the floor.
Or recently in a mall burger joint in Amman, Jordan where the Niqab covers everything except the eyes of the female patrons.

The process has changed over time but the interest in light, reflections, and the human condition has not.

Kip Harris

Harris grew up in a small farming community in Idaho. He holds degrees in English literature from Dartmouth College, in humanities from the University of Chicago, and architecture from the University of Utah. He was a principal of FFKR Architects in Salt Lake City for nearly 30 years. A serious photographer since the late 80s, he has exhibited in the United States, Canada, and Europe with four solo and over eighty group shows. He has been published in Shots Magazine, The Photo Review, Art Reveal, Smithsonian.com, and a number of on-line photographic sites. He now lives on the South Shore of Nova Scotia in an 1823 cottage overlooking the St. Margaret’s Bay. He and his wife created Company X Puppets (a highly portable puppet, dance, theater group established to present intimate mixed media theater works).

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Articles
August 2022

Just Here and There

Take a walk around Kalimpong, India with Birat Rai.

Table Top Series

Kip Harris photographs an international ritual - people gathering to eat.

Street Shooters of August 2022

Top contributions from members of our community

Wide Eyed Wonder: Harvey Stein’s Coney Island

What 50 years at Coney Island looks like.

Semana Santa

Neouen Melcangi Moreno documents a centuries-old festival.

Interview with Gunther Deichmann

Improve your powers of observation with long time photographer and avid traveler, GD.

Street Photography Magazine is the journal of street and documentary photography

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