I'm still plugging away at this series and still only using my iPhone. When I started "Strangers On Buses", I intentionally used mostly monochrome images. I felt that full-color images could be too distracting, diverting focus away from the content. The use of monochrome also gives the images a sort of "timeless" feel, which I like.
But then, a few months into this year, I allowed myself to play with color in this series. I think this was because I'd seen some old street photography photos from the 1940's that were originally shot in black & white, but that had been expertly colorized...and I was stunned at the new life the color gave them. You see, I've always loved gazing at and studying old photos, especially street photography. I could spend hours upon hours looking at street photography from different decades. I get so much pleasure out of seeing what life was like back in (you name it!) decade/century. I'm absolutely fascinated by what the fashion was like, and how people related to each other in public, how children played. I guess those colorized old photos stunned me because suddenly the people in them didn't seem so different and far away. I felt a deeper connection with the people in those photos. The times they were living in and the rules of society were, for sure, very different than the present, of course. But it reminded me that people are people, and though technology, fashion and social graces may change over the years, we never really change.
Also new this year: I started giving titles to many of the new images in this series.
