Rute 20; Oslo, Norway
Here in Norway, people aren't known for their openness towards strangers. On the contrary, you should avoid eye contact in general and physical contact in particular.
I'm fascinated how the confines of public transportation alter the private spheres of people and how people deal with this.
Public transport is an everyday social experiment. Put a bunch of total strangers in a box, shake it and observe what happens.
Well, I'm trying to do the observation with my camera. So far with varying success (from lousy to mediocre).
Comments and faves
tomabok (51 months ago | reply)
Black & White Art Award
very nice !
kylejones (51 months ago | reply)
Well, they are certainly avoiding eye contact. The guy on the right looks like he wants to rip your head off and feed it to his dog. If I were doing this project I'd definitely get a quiet camera and do what Walker Evans did... hide it!
This image shows a scene similar to other situations were people are forced into close proximity, such as elevators and street corners. I like it. There are enough faces here to see the "look everywhere except at your neighbor" effect. Even the guy who wants to kill you would rather do it without making eye contact. Now that's a polite society. :)
I'm looking forward to seeing what else you come up with.
Found in the Street Photography Comment and Critique group pool.
Ogun Ferraille (bkryzz) (51 months ago | reply)
You captured this contrast strikingly! I like a lot the counterpoint offered by the guy in first plane looking down, and the woman in the back looking outside (still very neat despite the compression created by the short focal length).
Found in the Street Photography Comment and Critique group pool.
Søren Bock-Larsen (51 months ago | reply)
Thank you for the comments.
@kylejones: I'm taking the pictures with a DSLR, which seems to grow in size when I bring it out in the confines of a bus. Furthermore, the shutter sounds like an explosion. But, I know it just my mind playing a trick due to the fact that I have nowhere to run... ;-|
@ Ogun: Thank you for taking your time to look deeper into the picture. I appreciate it.
khanosu (51 months ago | reply)
Three different picture frames; each one with its own heroes and action. Nice!
Søren Bock-Larsen (51 months ago | reply)
@khanosu
Thank you for your comment.
Though, I count four frames... ;)
khanosu (51 months ago | reply)
You are right - I missed one :)
PlatonicPictures (48 months ago | reply)
Sounds a lot like my recent train candids--it's tougher than you'd think finding good composition in such a cramped space! I like the work you're doing though--much more spacious and including more figures that any of mine. Something I've been trying to do is use the spacing of the train/bus/etc to isolate certain characters, maybe you could use the same idea to give a stronger sense of the attempt to preserve privacy?
ausfi (46 months ago | reply)
I like the photo, people really have put boundaries round themselves. It's funny, earlier I saw a photo from the underground in London, people did not seem to be any more communicative there.
I live in Oslo myself.