Meeting Louis Mendes

I had a great New York moment today: I decided to take a break at the office and swing by the grocery store, and on the way I saw a gentleman all in black with a fantastic old camera. Wanting a picture of it for my photo-of-the-day project*, I asked him if I could snap a shot of the camera. "What about me?" he fired back. Normally, I'm leery of taking pictures of strangers--I see tons of people on the streets that I'd love to photograph, but I worry that doing so might make someone angry; this is New York City. But this guy seemed friendly, and so he posed on the corner and I took a shot with my iPhone. He inspected my work with a critical eye. "It's too dark," he pronounced. "Do it right. Use the flash and get closer." I cued up the flash and he assumed the position again. The result was better, but still dark. "Here," he said, leaning over the screen and pointing at all the sun-drenched buildings in the background of the shot. "Your camera's focusing on all that and it's making me dark. With black people, you need lots of light. Try taking it over here." He stood in front of a wall (we were on the shady side of the street) and Shot #3 was a winner.

"Put it on my Facebook page," he said, after approving the photo. He directed me to type his name into Google, which I did, and saved the page so I could find him later. We chatted for a bit, then I shook his hand and resumed my trip to the store. Later, I put the picture on his Facebook page as directed and visited his website as well. I learned that he's a street photographer who teaches classes and sells books, and that he is known as "Shaft with a camera."

I've had some unpleasant encounters with strangers on the streets of this city, but I was delighted to meet Louis and hope to see him roaming New York with his camera again.

*I have been faithfully taking daily pictures, but less faithfully posting them... I will update this week, pinkie swear!