Comments on: People watching

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:15:05 +0000

One person’s ugly is another’s beautiful…
ie…beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Enough said.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:37:43 +0000

You said “face it – these are our customers.” I didn’t look at too many shots but I found myself wondering if they were anybody’s customers.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 15:29:43 +0000

I do know that it is more expensive to dress well and eat well than to dress poorly and eat poorly.

I’m not trying to be argumentative but I don’t agree. As someone who’s spent a lot of time being poor, being poor doesn’t mean you’re destined to eat poorly, be unnattractive or to be dirty. Good food -really good for you food- is very inexpensive. Eating a vegetarian diet of whole grains, cooking everything from scratch and no processed foods is the least expensive way to eat. We feed 3 people (one teenager) on less than $200 a month. Fresh beans are 39 cents a pound. Corn is cheap. It’s junk food that costs money. The more sugar and crap it is, the more it costs. I’ve spent plenty of time poor, living under the poverty level but we always ate well. Compared to everything else, good food has become even less costly, not more so. [climbs down from vegetarian soapbox]

About it costing money to look good, most of these people were unattractive because they spent money to make themselves look bad; if they’d done nothing they would have looked better and saved money. For example, pink hair dye costs more than leaving it alone so it’s not being poor that made that person unattractive. Tattoos cost money. Bad dye jobs, overplucked brows, long fake fingernails, it cost money to look that way. If they’d left themselves alone they would have looked better and saved money so it’s not true that being poor means you have to look ugly either. I was poor but I wasn’t trash. I didn’t spend my money on bad fattening food and cheap cosmetics.

And I’ll let the whole dressing thing go. I’ve been buying my clothes at the thrift store for so many years I almost forget you can buy them new.

By: earth

earth — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:46:22 +0000

A few points:

The people in my photographs are, 99% of the time, folks i would consider to be in control of their destiny. Meaning, they aren’t homeless or mentally/physically disabled. These are humans who make conscious decisions about their appearance, eating habits, and overall physical presence. Who i choose to photograph are those whose outward manifestations tend to be most obvious.

Why feel sorry for them?

Lest we not forget, the humans in my photographs are the majority.
They are not the abnormal ones… we are.

By: moss

moss — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:16:05 +0000

Maybe I do assume. I feel sorry for those people and maybe that’s not any less condescending but I do know that it is more expensive to dress well and eat well than to dress poorly and eat poorly.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 19:50:03 +0000

Actually Marjorie, you assume too much. I grew up neither middle class nor educated. If anything -I think you nailed it for me- I’m attracted to the photos because they represent my background, what I came from, what I know. Nobody in my family graduated from high school much less college. My aspiration of a college education was sneered at. I’m the black sheep of my family. Middle class would have been several steps up. Even aspiring to be a skilled blue-collar tradesman (pattern maker) was interpreted as trying to put on airs.

By: moss

moss — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 19:14:23 +0000

Bad person? You are very judgemental. Not everyone has the benefit of your middle class life, lifestyle, and education.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 10:06:35 +0000

Hil.ario.us !

Regards
Jeremy

By: earth

earth — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 06:09:57 +0000

Haaha! Thanks for all the link love… seems a few of you are coming over to find some fashion tips!
I knew there was a use for these after all.
One thing to keep in mind tho as i read your post… these folks, believe it or not, are trying their hardest to look their best. And i guess that’s one of the reasons i love photographing them as much as i do… From what i have observed, for many this is the event they look forward to most every year. Many of them have been coming to any given fair for most of their lives. Those are the ones i look for and try my best to capture. Anyhoo, hope you all are enjoying em as much as i do.
earth

By: jj

jj — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:26:26 +0000

It’s like the evil opposite of The Sartorialist.