Strangers in the Woods

I am finishing up my first assignment for photography class, and I am having trouble with one final picture. I am to take a photograph of a stranger without looking through the lens of the camera; the idea is that it won't *seem* as if I am taking their picture, and so I will acquire it anonymously, secretly.

For one thing, I think the idea works best in crowded public areas; in my little town of Camas there are few places to sit with a camera waiting for strangers to pass by. And this week the gorge wind is blasting so hard and cold, that nobody wants to be outside anyway. I tried sitting in my car - at the gas station, at the grocery store - and "tinkering" with my camera until a stranger moved into my peripheral vision, and then clicking away. No luck. I got plenty of cars and rooflines and skylines, but no people. I went to the trails and sat at a picnic table with my camera, waiting for hikers to come by. There was one hardy couple, and since I was the only other person in the park, I was hardly unobtrusive with my camera.

But my difficulty goes beyond the challenge of catching strangers within the frame of my camera lens. There are many cultures, spanning the globe, where it is believed that photographing a person steals their soul. I can't say that I disagree. I found this writer's explanation:

"Of course, most recognize that the process of photographing a moment in time captures something in a fixated way that would normally be lost to history. I also believe that photographic images capture an aspect of that lived moment, a reflection of reality if you will, and that the photograph literally captures an element of the life force that presented itself in that moment that was captured." This from James W. Bailey, an experimental artist, photographer, and imagist writer from Mississippi.

When you photograph a person you capture an essense of them, and that image takes on a life beyond the life of your subject, their personal moment is seen and read and judged as others see fit. Is this not stealing the soul?

I took a picture of the couple walking at Round Lake. I think it looks like one of those blurry Yeti photos. This is the moment I have stolen.