25°48'19.9"N 80°12'26.5"W
I was at stopped at least 10 cars back from the stop light and the light had just turned green. The line of cars was slowly starting to move in the fits and starts usually indicating drivers were distracted by their phones. As is the norm in Miami, this is when pedestrians will step into the line of cars and cross the street before the oncoming traffic makes it through the intersection and up to speed. I happen to notice a police officer starting across the street from the darkness of a side street just before I released the brake…
Driv(ing)-By(e) is a title that references not just the physical creation of the images, but also my past as a forensic photographer. The physical creation of the images was mostly done while sitting in traffic. My drive home from approximately NW 7th ave and 14th street takes anywhere from 45 min to an hour as navigate through side streets and cut up and down residential streets to avoid major intersections, accidents, or multiple blocks of stop lights. There isn’t any easy, major artery from north to south or east to west that takes me directly to where I need to be. Inevitably, I still end up in bumper to bumper traffic, inching along. Stationed in the center console, close at hand, is my camera.
There are two methods I use for shooting. While at a stop light, I will look for interesting islands of light and any action that may be coming into or out of the island. Being stopped, there is time to focus, compose and wait until the light changes and traffic begins to move again. Even then, I always have a few more seconds as most drivers finish the text message or other phone-related activity. I refer to these images as, Driving-By; I just happened to have stopped for a moment. The other method is more “shooting from the hip.” Since I am using a short focal length, 35mm lens, I don’t have to worry about minimal focal distance, depth of field or framing. I just mount the camera, activate the auto focus and once it ‘beeps’ start firing the shutter as I feel the timing; never looking through the viewfinder or back screen… aka, “I’m Driving,bye!'“ Once I get the images into post-production, I see if I got anything worth editing.
Finally, the title is an ominous reference to “drive-by shootings.” As a forensic photography intern at the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s office during 2003, I photographed over 700 autopsies. Quite a few were of victims from drive-by shootings and many were burned into both film and memory. In some sense, there is something at once familiar and distant about the areas I drive through. To be sure, none of these locations were actual crime scenes that I was present to photograph, but I do drive past the Medical Examiner’s office many days during the drive home.