Interview with Ludmilla Morais for YOU ARE HERE Street Photography Exhibition

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The YOU ARE HERE street photography exhibition is an experiment in which 30+ street photographers from LA were given 10 days to shoot in one square block in the Downtown LA Fashion District. The opening night featured 3 of the best shots of each street photographer, and Jordan Dunn won the best-of-show award and a Leica VLUX-30 camera, which was sponsored by Leica Camera.

The closing event for the YOU ARE HERE street photography exhibition will be this Saturday Oct. 29th at 7 pm at the ThinkTank Gallery (939 Maple Ave). Ludmilla Morais, one of the featured photographers for the event,  was interviewed by Jacob Patterson from the ThinkTank Gallery, about the street photography exhibition.

“How did you get involved with YOU ARE HERE, and how was your experience shooting through these 10 days?”

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I was invited to join the panel of featured photographers/judges, and if I am not mistaken it was Eric Kim’s initiative.

I would be lying if I said that being limited to one single small block didn’t bring me a tad of frustration. However, it was a valid experience, I was doing what I love and that helped me overcome all the other adversities.

“Whose work was your favorite at the show?”

I am very excited about showing with my good friends Alex JD Smith and Jared Iorio, I am a big fan of their work. I am also quite intrigued by the works of Susan Weber, Sebastian Spader, Mark Espat and David Blumenkrant.

“When you go out to shoot photographs in a busy city like Los Angeles, to what kinds of things do you find yourself attracted, and do you go out looking for anything in particular?”

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I am not sure LA can stand up to the busy city title when it comes to foot traffic, Los Angeles is known for its car culture, for being spread out through rolling valleys and for its parking lot-like structure; and of course its magnificent weather and light.

I guess that my level of interest and attraction to specific subjects depends on my mood, my energy level and the camera I am using during that specific day. On that, while randomly shooting around the city, I prefer to keep myself open to whatever surrounds me, I believe that doing so the opportunity of making interesting photographs ends up presenting itself, basically I just go with gut feeling, I never leave my house with a fixed idea of the photograph I want to make that day, I try to adapt to the places I’ve chosen, feel them. Unless I am working on a specific project, like “You are here”, where limits and time frame are set in advance.

“What have you been shooting lately, and what types of topics have you seen rising out of your work as of late?”

I am currently working on a personal project about the women in my life, a series of environmental portraits; I am also involved with promotion and judging panel for a Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Studio street photography contest which is being divulged in great part by Street Reverb Magazine and am working on a few collaborations with other Street Photographers for a new project which hopefully will be launched in 2012.

Keeping busy!

“Anything audiences should be excited about with an exhibition premise like that of YOU ARE HERE? What is different about this show than the other ones you have seen or been involved in?”

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The audience should be excited about the variety and quantity of works which they will be able to admire, absorb and analyze in a single visit. The opportunity to come in direct contact with 30+ different interpretations of street photography is a must see!

The difference in between this show and the others I’ve partaken in lies in the number of participants and of course the challenge of photographing one single block of the city.

“Were there any photos that you are not using in the show that you would care to share? Or cool stories from your shoot?”

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Yes, I’ve got a few which I decided not to use.

I have to say that I was taken by surprise by the receptivity of the shop keepers in the area and how well they handled the photographers’ mob. I heard many stories about how a family member, a daughter or a significant other is into photography; I was asked a ton of questions on the subject, which I took my time to answer. I also got yelled a lot, to which I didn’t back down, instead of keeping walking I went after the yelling subjects and explained to them what was going on, gave them a flyer and a path on the back. I don’t have a particularly story to tell, but the reception of the people, the good humor and the fact that most of the locals embraced this project was heart-warming and cooler than any story.

Do you have any extra photos you would like to share?

Below are the links for some of my photos and attached are the photographs which were almost takers:

http://tumblr.com/Z8h2Vy4riFOd
http://tumblr.com/Z8h2Vy8fykg8
http://tumblr.com/Z8h2Vy4ri9or
http://tumblr.com/Z8h2Vy4L7aw1
http://tumblr.com/Z8h2Vy3_86sW
http://tumblr.com/Z8h2Vy3v5QzC
http://tumblr.com/Z8h2Vy3h0FKD
http://tumblr.com/Z8h2Vy1-Nqsq

The closing event for the YOU ARE HERE street photography exhibition will be this Saturday Oct. 29th at 7 pm at the ThinkTank Gallery (939 Maple Ave). See more of Ludmilla’s work here.