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The situation described earlier, wasn’t a one-time thing. I remember about a month ago, I was shooting, trying to capture the street life of Targoviste when a girl about my age, a seller at a local store yelled at me from considerable distance: “Do you want to take a photograph of me?” I looked at her with disgrace and I barely refrained from telling her “I want to photograph only beautiful things” ,not that I had a problem with her looks, but that’s how I saw her in that moment, very ugly (on the inside at least).​



Another situation that springs to mind is when I was photographing an old house, when an old lady screamed: “You take pictures at other houses ha? Why don’t you take a picture of my house?” She was clearly not in her right mind, but nevertheless… I ignored her and carried on with my shooting.

So, why do people do this? Why this need to say something when they see photographers out shooting? They do this to appear more interesting, or what? I really can’t understand. When I see a person doing something, anything that doesn’t concern me, I let him/her do it in peace and quiet, especially strangers. I don’t come at your table at the coffeehouse and ask you “Is that coffee sweet or sour?” 

I consider branding a t-shirt with the message “If you feel the need to say something, don’t!” and wear it when I go out shooting. It’s like when I go out with my headphones in my ears. This means that I don’t want to hear anything while I have them in my ears.

Maybe it’s the society’s way of thinking. Maybe, what I’m doing is extremely interesting for them (I bet it’s not the case) or maybe this kind of people feel the extreme need to appear themselves interesting because their lives are so boring.

I don’t know. Come to think of it, maybe I judge them too harsh, but please, I beg you, if you ever see me on the street with my eye on that viewfinder, leave me be, don’t yell at me, don’t do anything to disturb me. I don’t want to hear your silly comment.



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Take care,
Ovidiu Ocnaru