P H O T O G R A P H Y

MEXICO  CITY

Photographer's Statement

One evening I was sitting at my favorite sidewalk cafe in the historic district, light rain. I had been shooting some photos of a brass hand sculpture, my foreground subjects were people walking through the frame with colorful umbrellas, ghostlike images while the brass stood there in still life. My supply of rechargeable batteries played out, I had closed up my camera for the night. Zzzz.

Then it happened... Three chefs wearing their kitchen whites, heads capped with tall white tucs, long white aprons tied neatly around their waists. They walked a fast gate past me and into a doorway across the plaza. 
What a great photo that would make! 
My camera was exhausted, a shame since this
 was one of those images that was at once cinematic and richly photographic, 
but I couldn't capture it.

My only option: to do a quick sketch of the chefs.

 It was in that moment a thought came to me: Sometimes the best photographs go uncaptured. I had to let go of my "loss", a rare photographic image that, like a butterfly, evaded my net. 

 True, I could've run to the corner bodega and purchased batteries, then waited for the chefs to pass by again, or even research it to find out if they pass by each evening at that time. 

I refrained, not wanting to set up a "photo shoot", with its staged casting, location, etc. Yes, I could re-enact the moment, but it would not be the same. The visual splendor of the walking chefs reminded me of some of those excellent Perrier water
 TV spots from the 1980's. 
To most people they might seem to just be commercials, but to me they were beautiful short films, worthy of film festival screenings.

Pure.. cinematic... poetry!

Life delivers some very rich visuals to me, especially when I am in a magnificent place like Mexico City. I almost said "...especially when I am traveling." Reality is that I am not traveling. When I am in a place, I am living there at the moment, the traveling part is only the passage by air, rail or bus from  one place to the next map spot. Mexico City has an endless storyboard  offered, truly an art director's dream place, and how fortunate I have been to be there 
to click the camera's shutter!

The image I saw, that trio of chefs, was spontaneous, a unique frame is the film of life. To me it was a "rich visual image", but I'm sure for those three chefs they were just wearing their standard work clothes, is fast clip to get from a nearby kitchen to serve up 
gourmet fare in a large hotel ballroom. 

If I failed as a "photo-journalist", in not capturing the image that evening, then I am guilty... so sentance me to 12 months in Provence... please!

  I offer my recent photographs from Mexico City. Though I am sharing some good images,

 the best ones got away... uncaptured.

Hunter Mann

 photographer & filmworker

Mexico City, Earth
Autumn 2013