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Street Glam.

The Streets Lately

 

I haven’t been “gunning” much street photography as of late….

 

Reason being: I love shooting models AND, to be honest, I don’t vibe with the respected professionals out there who call themselves street photographers.

rxrphoto.com/sunnysarah

Being a geek is fine. I’m not a geek however. I’m from the ghetto. I ride a black Harley-Davidson. I have a criminal record. I’ve shot guns at people in the streets and have sold my fair share of narcotics.

 

I know I’ve said before that being a street guy makes me a better street photographer. This is probably true. I’m a good street photographer. Turns out I’m a better glamour/fashion photographer though….

rxrphoto.com/anita

I also LOVE shooting females. Love it. There is little more I’d rather do on a Sunday besides shooting with a pretty lady and then editing the photos later on my iMac.

rxrphoto.com/lauren

Will I shoot more street shots? Of course I will sooner or later. I AM the streets. Right now though I’m doing other shit and having fun doing it. It’s not like anybody was paying much attention to my street stuff anyhow. I’m invisible. We all are, most of us at least. The internet is oversaturated with street photos. There can never be enough photos of pretty women though…Ever.

Exit.

 

Beyond Social Media: The Old Ways…

Like any good Samurai, I long to do things the old way…

 

Do I like microwaves? Nah. I heat my food up in the oven. TV dinners too.

 

Do I like TV? Of course I like TV. Um….at least I used to. I guess TV has lost its appeal to me as the centerpiece of human entertainment…

What has replaced TV?

Facebook.

Instagram.

Snapchat.

YouTube (which I like)

Netflix.

Every video game ever made in last 17 years…

…the distracting temptation of each mindless app on your phone.

 

At some point you look at all these cable stations and social media platforms and you feel as though you are spending your waking hours in a place that isn’t real.

I mean, lets say you are at work, (which is most likely a real place) but when you get bored or frustrated or happy or whatever at work you go to this virtual place on your phone to share random thoughts or to gain some sort of misplaced perspective by driving yourself to irrational jealousy as you follow other peoples lives…

 

I don’t want to be too harsh here. Even a Samurai must adapt to change. When the Shogun dies we become Ronin. When the Katana is outlawed we buy guns. When guns are outlawed we buy wine.

 

Still… I think back to my youth, when we had 3 TV’s (which each had 5 available channels to watch) and a chorded phone and a radio. Nowadays I have all that in my iPhone. All of it. I long for the days when the world was smaller and I couldn’t interact with so many people virtually.

For instance, I have several Facebook “friends” in Indonesia. I will never see them in person within this lifetime most likely, and even if they really aren’t so special that I’d go to the other side of the planet to holla at them, part of me wishes I could see them. Why? Because I see them on my phone and maybe we traded some adult photos back when Facebook was newer and people did that shit. That makes me want to see them. That makes me subconsciously compare American woman I meet to these world-apart Indonesian gals. Life was a lot simpler when Indonesian girls were a “theory” or a curiosity and nothing more. In short: the internet has made the world smaller but it has also made me feel smaller too, while making my expectation of the world bigger.

I deleted my Instagram account today. Why? First because I was shadowbanned and secondly because it was useless to me. I have never made a single meaningful contact through IG. R X R Photo has never booked a photoshoot or made a dime from it. I have felt bad when a photo didn’t get as many “likes” as I felt it deserved though…

Will I delete Facebook next? That’s possible, but I’ll give that another year or two. I have a feeling I’ll just end up using Facebook messenger only…which I really don’t understand how it’s superior to regular old texting, but whatever. I would like to be like the old photographers who booked clients through word of mouth and their own websites and not through becoming a bitch for social media. I’m starting to hate what I see everyday. Nothing is separate any longer. There are no sub-genres. Every little interest you may have on social media moves along the rivers and dumps into the big social media oceans of presidential politics, social causes, and blindly fighting with strangers. It sucks. I suppose this social media thing as isn’t social anymore…

 

Exit.