Christine Chang Photography

Here’s a portion of my life:  on some days I am driving and I see something happening.  Two questions immediately pop into my head.  1)  Is the issue/circumstance that I am seeing newsworthy?, and if so, 2) Where do I stop? 

I used to have to ask myself if I have my camera with me, but now it’s usually always with me.  I always have quarters with me so I can meter it in Los Angeles if I have to, but all in all I’ve heard other photographers say that photojournalists in LA are also called “drivers who navigate through traffic” because one of the biggest components of taking that picture is getting there.

Then I’m rushing to the scene with my notebook and my camera, and half the time I am running and trying to catch my breath because everything is going so fast.  There’s police, and if they’re after someone I follow them but I have to make sure I’m not getting in their way.  Sometimes I lose the person they’re after in the parking lot, and at other times my camera goes off and security people get really angry and then I have to say sorry and then smile the “I’m a little girl that’s lost can you help me tee hee” smile (but at least I got my picture).

But on the other side of things, there’s the daily grind.  Most of the time it’s not adrenaline pumping, and yesterday I got to relax a bit and take pictures of a junk drawer exhibit at the Unurban Coffee House.  It’s an exhibit with about 10 pictures of junk drawers, and when my editor gave me the assignment I was a bit confounded but when I went there the room was really neat and it’s a semi-absurd but fascinating idea that what’s in our desk drawers, and how it’s organized, can be one way of defining who we are.

It gave me time to think about things and photograph under low light, so it was relaxing, and enlightening too.  I think my ultra organized husband might think differently of this exhibit, but this exhibit makes me feel better about being messy, cause it’s artistic to be messy right?