Trafalgar Square
by Eyal Izhar
Many years have passed and I'm almost certain it was the summer in London, 1984. Or maybe it was the summer of 1987 when I went back to London for my honeymoon. But how stupid i would have been to take the wonderful Metz 45ct and my old Hasselblad with me on my honeymoon. So yes, it was the summer of 1984 when I arrived on a vacation and was foolish enough and curious enough to be dragged along as a tourist with such equipment for street photography in a foreign city. An attempt to continue with my street photography ( I think this term didn't exist at the 80' ) , taking snapshots using a hand held Hasselblad camera, that I had already begun in Israel, exploring human behavior in open spaces, families and tourists in public, moving, relating to each other, exploring the relation to the surrounding, the subjects's physical gestures.
What caught my eye in Trafalgar Square was the human diversity, locals but especially the tourists who always intrigue me as a photographer. I'm fascinated by the observing and photography of foreigners from different cultures, who comes from afar and spends a short time in a new, intriguing and challenging environment when his foreignness, in clothing, in language, in awe of the new and unfamiliar is evident. People came to feed and take pictures and especially to be excited by pigeons. If there's a bird I really don't like, it's a pigeon. And on the streets, for photographers, it's not always easy with people. So that's Two barriers that need to be dealt with. And in general, to come from India or the USA to London, feed a pigeon and take a picture with it? Is this the best that London has to offer?
I don't know much about those taking pictures with pigeons: not the country of origin, not social status, not the purpose of the visit. I only know that they are so happy in those seconds when London's doves is with them , on them.
Each frame here is the single shot taken. Kind of high stakes. When there are only 12 frames in the roll, the camera has no motor, I couldn't shoot more and more.
