Dmitri Kasterine: Street

Showing posts with label Street. Show all posts

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Upstate street party

Sometimes I go to events that I have a particular dislike for; a place I would never go to or a function I would never attend. Street parties and barbecues are on this list. But there are people at these events, and you never know where you are going to find subjects.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Off to Brunch

Was it last night that made this couple so happy, or the anticipation of brunch? They were laughing when I first saw them, stepping off the sidewalk the other side of the intersection, and they were still laughing as they passed me. In their state of mind I could have waived a red flag at them and they would not have noticed my standing almost in their path with my camera.

The last of summer.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Two straight knees - one bent knee

They didn't seem to know where they were going. She wears her bag as armor. He travels light, perfectly trimmed hair and side whiskers are enough. All I had to do was to hold my camera more or less vertical at my waist and technology did the rest: accurate focus and exposure.

A picture of indecision. A Saturday of unenjoyment on Bedford Avenue.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Girl with a purple handbag

Whores in Amsterdam and other cities sit in the windows on busy streets. As far as I know this is not the case on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg: just nice girls with lovely profiles sit in cafés.

From the photographer

I started this blog in December 2008. At the time I did not know if I would enjoy it or not, and whether I would get any response to it. I am enjoying it and people have responded. I made a silent pledge at the outset not to say much about my artistic intentions or the composition of the photograph. I would just talk about what led up to taking the picture and what it was like doing it.

The discipline is actually not a strain for me, because I do not desire, and really have never been capable of discussing my intentions, artistic or otherwise. My wanting to take a photograph appears as fast as a bolt and without warning when I spot the subject. I then take it or not, depending on how brave, awake, or fumbling I am with the camera. I enjoy exploring, looking for things that stop me, or frighten me. To fear to take a picture usually means you want to take it.

dmitri@kasterine.com

Biography

Born in England in 1932, I started out as a properly brought up young gentleman with an English mother and White Russian father. He fought wars all his adult life and died in a car accident in the North of England at the age of forty-seven.

Photography came to me at aged eleven, photographing birds at the bird feeder my mother put up outside the kitchen window. After the acute disappointment of the birds being minute specs in the picture, I did cows in the fields around us in Kent.

After the wine trade, Lloyd’s, racing cars, selling cars and flying aeroplanes to Australia, I became a photographer. I photographed my friend’s engagements and their weddings. I worked for magazines and advertising agencies.

I was sent to Los Angeles to photograph Mick Jagger, returned to England via New York where I met Salvador Dali in the elevator at the St. Regis Hotel. Thence started my interest in living here. Three or four years later I moved to America, remarried and lived happily ever after.

Dmitri Kasterine