Street Studio
By Garret Clarke
24 April 2008
Living in a medium size city in southern Taiwan and having the aspiration to make a living as a photographer may sound like two goods that do not complement one another. This may be true! But for myself and a fellow photographer, Steven Vigar, (www.stevenvigar.com) the only way to combine our mutual desire of a photography career and a life in the "strangeness" that is Taiwan, was to inspire one another to embark upon photographic endeavors that could only be inspired by a few drinks at asian, backwood drinking hovels. This story documents our "street studio" project idea that spawned from the unpredictable lifestyles of English teachers lost on a small island between South East Asia and mainland China.
After discussing the various aspects of shooting monks, and streets littered with vertical neon advertisements of Chinese characters, we realized that it is the every day people that keep life interesting. Unfortunately being 99% illiterate in Chinese does not lend one access to photographing "everyday" Taiwanese people. In order to get around this dilemma, Steven and I, created the "street Studio." This invention had to be contained within the restraints of a two of Nikon D-80s, two Nikon SB-800 flashes, and two tripods (that we had to buy only ten minutes prior to the "shoot"). We were the predators, these were our weapons, and the unsuspecting Taiwan citizen, our prey.
The first step was to decide upon an area that had heavy foot traffic and an appealing back drop. After a few places were scoped it out, we decided that the most suitable location would be on Beimen road just a few blocks south of the train station. Not only was this area located in the midst of many street stores and vendors, there were two main access points. The first being the train station, with a high volume of people leaving the station and heading our way for shopping and food. The second was the fact that we set up in front of one of the main pedestrian railway underpasses. An additional benefit was that if we set up in the late afternoon we would be able to catch the sunset behind the buildings, and capture some of that golden light coming down the street behind our subjects. It was an immediate certainty that this would be a great location to set up our first "Street Studio"
We woke up late on a saturday afternoon, had our "western breakfasts" at My Way around one, and discussed the preparations for the afternoon shoot. We ridiculed each other about who was going to forget their camera and only bring cigarettes. Or which one of us would show up all ready to shoot with a dead battery and so on. I am certain this little ritual was performed to let the other person know to come prepared, basically have your shit together and this thing could be cool. We met on Beimen Rd. around three to get things set up, and allow for time before sunset to get potential things we may not have or have forgotten. In our case it was go buy tripods, because the flashes were not going to hold themselves up.
We chose the exact area, and a marker that was on the ground, it was a chinese symbol for something that neither of us knew. From this point on it became both fun and challenging for a number of reason. The first step was to place the camera on a tripod and make sure that it was in the exact spot and would not move. We wanted to have a background that never changed, with one the subject changing in this static background. We set up the shot by building on one lighting set to the next. First only using the speed light on the camera, achieving the initial desired lighting, as far as the back ground and the natural light that would exist in this space. We then put one of the SB-800s on a tripod to the right of the camera, on the left face of the subject. We had to run through all types of different settings on the flash before we could get it to provide the desired lighting. The same procedure was then followed for the third flash. This was placed to the left of the camera at a low angle, and bit closer to the subject. We finally had it set up how we wanted! Unfortunately, this was not a studio, but the street and the sun was setting and continually testing our ability to adjust to the rapidly changing light.
We spent a couple of hours petitioning as many passerby's as we could, to stand on our spot and have their pictures taken. The results were fun and interesting. We were able to shoot all different types of people, from the young to the old, and the workers to the fashionistas, although an overwhelmingly large number of candidates happened to be Taiwanese teens, out buying strange small things from the stores around us. This was a great first shoot to a project that is definitely going to develop into something larger that will consist of many similar such shoots. These pictures capture the setting up process as well as some of the final results. We hope you enjoy the idea and the pictures!
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