In this Review Fix exclusive we sit down with photographer Susan Gross to talk about her Tumblr blog My Manhattan Captures.
Review Fix: You’re approach to taking all these photographs seems to be: find it, and then shoot it?
Susan Gross: Yeah, and it’s not even find it, I let it come to me (laughing). I know a lot of people sit and wait for a moment, but I don’t do it like that. I’m just walking down the street and I shoot it. In fact, I would say 95% of my photos are just me walking down the street, like I just don’t stop. And I never stay in one place for very long. I just want to do it during my walk.
Review Fix: I’ve gone through My Manhattan Captures, your photo-blog on Tumblr, and this year you’ve published well over 1,436 photographs. That’s such an amazing number.
Gross: I take between 150 to 300 photos a day. But, not ever day. But I do delete a lot of them and then I also don’t delete a lot of them. I’ve been told by many people that I just have to start deleting them.
Review Fix: Why?
Gross: Well, there’s so much. My whole computer is now just my photography. They’re not all brilliant shots and I really should keep the ones that are. But you know when you ask someone of their opinion of the shots they’ll be like I really like this one. And I tend to not post like two similar photos. I’m a perfectionist so it’s really difficult for me to post something that I don’t think is totally perfect. When I first started it was for fun. I would take photos of the people I passed on the street.
I had started a day job at a salon. I worked two different upscale salon in New York to supplement my income as an actor. And then I got this job at this one salon it on Madison Avenue, and I would have to walk from the subway to my job. I had this iPod Touch, and it had a camera on it. On my walk I would notice the most fascinating women walked down this street. These women are a rare breed and someday no one is going to look like that. And I thought, somebody needs to preserve how these ladies looked.They are so interesting, they are from a different era, you don’t see people dress like that. They are vintage, like they stepped out from the 1940s. So I thought I really need to start photographing these women, and that’s what I started doing.
My blog used to be called My Walk Down Madison Avenue. Then I changed it to My Manhattan Captures because I didn’t want to limit myself to just Madison Avenue. And I really became addicted. But, I can’t stop. Like, I can’t just go out with somebody to the city and not take photos. It really takes a lot of discipline and will power for me not to.
I don’t think I’d ever have done it without this product, the iPod Touch, because I am able to do so with without anyone knowing. If people knew, I feel like it wouldn’t be the same photo. The Hipstamatic app, it basically does all the work for you, as far as the texture, makes it look like an old photo. I feel like it sort of represents my personality, because I’ve always been, I’ve always dressed vintage. When I was younger I always dressed vintage, wore a lot of vintage clothing. I’ve always been drawn to that era. The Hipstamatic, I was drawn to it because I loved the vintage feel the photographs have about them, that’s what I loved. Like, I love the 70s, I love the 1970s. I don’t know why I’m such a fan.
When I take pictures without the Hipstamatic app, I noticed that I can still capture the same quality, but then I would just have to doctor it, like I’ll make it black and white. I like black and white, to me it’s more striking. Every now and then there’s the color, but then again it’s the vintage thing again.
I think because I’m an actor like every one’s fascinating to me. Like everyone on the street, I want to know their story, I want to know what they’re doing, why they are the way they are, I’m like that everywhere I go, like I’ve always been like that. I think this is just another medium for me as an actor to sort of capture people’s moods and emotions and everyday struggles.
I love to see a fascinating person and take a picture of them and capture their emotions, things that I feel like we can all relate to you, so that we know that we’re not alone. We’re not, we’re all going through the same things.
Review Fix: What drives you to take all these photographs?
Gross: I love it. I love getting a good photograph.
Review Fix: Has anyone ever confronted you about you taking their picture?
Gross: I’ve only had a couple of people ever say anything to me. Like most of the time, even if they think I’m taking their picture, they don’t say anything.
Review Fix: What did those couple of people say?
Gross: One time, when I first started, it was a street vendor, it was night time, and I had my iPod touch (laughter), and I was just standing there, and I made it pretty obvious. And he was like Are you taking my picture? Are you taking my picture? And I was like No, no, this is just an iPod, it’s only music, and he was Oh okay.
Review Fix: That was the only time?
Gross: One other time was at Port Authority, and I saw this couple, they were really cute and they were being very playful. He turned on me and the minute he saw me he and he goes , ‘You recording me? You recording me? And I was like, No, I’m not recording you, which I wasn’t but I did get a photo. I was terrified. So, I ducked into Port Authority, and here he comes saying, ‘You better not record me again.’ I was like Okay, not doing that in that area again (laughing). I kind of stay away from Port Authority now.
Review Fix: From all the your photographs what is one thing that you’ve learned about New York?
Gross: I think it is that, that I see the same struggles that we all go through everyday, especially when we’re on the subway. The crowding, the rudeness, when people sit next to you and don’t give you any room. I think I’ve learned that it’s a city that no matter how much I can’t stand the rudeness, and some of the noise, all of it, we are all going through the same emotions, the same things, the same feelings. So I really wanted to connect people to that, and I hope my blog does that, helps people see that.
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