This post is more of a personal victory for me. It’s a reminder of how creativity can really heal your soul in a tough situation. This past holiday season, my better half and I set off to fly to Wisconsin to visit family. To make this very long, tense, disturbing, frustrating, annoying story short; we were stuck in the Minneapolis airport, held hostage by the incompetence of NW airlines, with one silly delay after another.
After running in and out of security to ticketing and back, trying to find someone responsible, I finally put up my white flag–knowing there were much worse things in this world that could happen (i.e. your flight landing in the Hudson River).
Lindsay grabbed the laptop to watch a movie and I, my camera, to capture the feeling of defeat. In about forty minutes, this is what I came up with.
Some people had been there for days.
It was -17 degrees outside
This woman waited 9 hour to watch this plane and her other son take depart.
A older man uses a few near by chair cushions to camp out until morning.
Baggage flooded the claim area with many people looking for the right baggage.
It felt great to shoot this freely again! I saw a story fueled by pure emotion and frustration. I approached people far too pissed off to worry about me taking their photo. No deadline or client to please. Just me, my camera, and no expectations. The only part I would have liked to change is how I chose to use my time. Forty minutes of whining like a baby and 7 hours of shooting would have been better ☺.
John
on February 28, 2009 4:52 amI know this feeling all too well. It's funny when you're able to take a step back and realize how insignificant our deepest frustrations really are, and how liberating it can be to shoot just for the sake of shooting without some ulterior motive. Great shots!
Austin Richardson
on December 9, 2009 3:15 pmI like the Sunday paper feel of the series. What a great feeling to take photos while stranded at the airport.
Also like the b&w. It's warm enough at the airport and the light is always pretty good, but varied enough to make good photos.
-AR
Tim King
on March 15, 2012 12:13 pmAwesome post & awesome attitude. Really did a great job capturing the story of those indefinite layovers that seem like prison. Or purgatory. And yes, you hit the nail on the head with the freedom of shooting whatever. I feel like that's a good thing to do on a regular basis!