A canvas to work on

I remember reading a comment by Joel Meyerowitz – see his work here and here – to the effect that when he was starting out as an independent photographer he spent hours, days, working New York's parades and festivals as a way of honing his skills and overcoming his self-consciousness. He talks of photographing so close to people that he could hear them breathe.

This had a huge impact on me – not because the idea of photographing at parades and festivals hadn't occurred to me, but because looking at the pictures Meyerowitz talked about helped me realise that street events can be approached as a kind of canvas upon which to work rather than necessarily as subjects to photograph in themselves.