PEOPLE WATCHING
MARINA MORGAN
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DIARY
AUGUST-NOVEMBER
2023
I believe that photography is the art of focusing one’s attention. Evidently, mine gravitates towards human subjects, particularly the social interactions and spatial dynamics that shape our existence. In order to most effectively familiarize myself with a setting, it is essential to thoughtfully observe the behavior of its occupants. People watching and the act of street photography, otherwise known as the documentation of humanity in public spaces, present an opportunity for sociological study and serve as a tool to understand a time and place more deeply. A conduit for unraveling the complex layers embedded within my surroundings, photography allows me to distill sensory overload into a visual narrative relating moments to each other.
Throughout the past few months as I’ve been studying abroad in Rome and embarking on various travels, street photography has become the medium through which I catalog my observations. I have become more actively engaged in my present contexts by studying the people they’re composed of. These explorations have been curated into a visual diary of my encounters with the people that make the place. From each image emerges an unscripted, and often imagined, story. Subjects become the protagonists of a silent film, inviting viewers to speculate on the life culminating in this fleeting frame.
In architecture school, I’ve learned that the strongest design work is born from an intimate familiarity with the people it will serve. Photography serves as a bridge between the observer and the observed, a tool for uncovering the nuanced ways in which humans engage with each other and with themselves in space. As I document these interactions, I am not only cataloging observations but also gaining insights that will undoubtedly influence my future designs, grounding them in the tangible implications of design on human behavior.
As a natural byproduct of creating images, I consider why I think the way I do, what I value, and what I want to communicate. This self-reflection based on how I see allows me to confront my relationship to my environment. The message I want to tell regarding an experience often isn’t clear until I have taken many photos. I contemplate why certain moments compel me to change my route or stop and watch, whether I would behave similarly to that random stranger if I were existing in their same context, should I verbally engage with this subject, was that shot someone yelled at me for worth it, and so on. I am as much a participant as I am an observer.
More than just a visual record, this book represents an ongoing exploration of self and surroundings. I look forward to the continuous discoveries street photography will bring me and how my work may be able to share them with others.
Marina
