Preconceptions and Street Photography

I have to confess: I’m not too much into the worldcup. This is partly based on the huge amounts of money invested in the tournament contrasting the overall conditions of living in the host country. Another local aspect is that I see us germans in kind of an historic debt when it comes to flag waving and national pride so I’m a bit skeptic concerning the current trend of showing off your colors on every ocassion. When I went out capturing some street photos the evening France faced Germany I planned to get some shots of this crowd I expected to be not too sympathetic to me. Did I succeed and found my prejudices confirmed?

Speaking of flags and national identity this scene struck my eye. What does it mean to be german? Is it about passports, flags and labels?

Part of my preconceptions were drunk people roaming the streets and actually I bumped right into the above scene.

Public viewing looked like what I epxected – at least on first sight.

Then I started to explore the side alleys and back streets a little and found scenes that I felt were quite sympathetic actually.

So I just dove into those micro public viewings a little more.

Actually the level of sympathy rose pretty much when I saw that there are also locals who just enjoy themselves, bringing together brought variety of people that I like my quarter so much for.

Gentrification is part of the quarter too. Watching this middle aged lady aggressively honking her way through the crowd made me wonder if her destination was the parking garage of her expensive penthouse.

At some point I wasn’t the anthropologist dissecting the strange scenery any more but actually somehow part of this nice crowd that met at the big tv a local kiosk put up.

That was one nice evening stroll that made me walk home with some quite all right pictures and more important insights into a somehow foreign subculture that I didn’t understand to a point where I had prejudices. Photography opens doors to worlds you wouldn’t enter otherwise. This is especially true for street photography. Sometimes it can even open up your mind a little, making false preconceptions visible.