As we wandered around the RMIT University City Campus in search of a subject to photograph, my group and I found ourselves overwhelmed with people but with little opportunity that inspired us. Bowen Street was bustling with people – sitting in bean bags, studying in groups, ordering their food and coffees – yet we couldn’t find a single person that truly captured our attention or spiked our interest. Until we found her: Carol, a woman that was working away in the far less busy chip shop. While many people were ordering their lunch and coffees from the cafe nearby, this woman occupied herself with jobs in her one-man-shop that only really attracted the occasional customer. Her smile was bright and her persona was inviting – the fear of asking to photograph people had left, and her bubbly personality shined through the camera! Even when we returned multiple times to photograph her, she never seemed irritated, we were just a little embarrassed.
We walked up to her and asked if we could take her photograph, where she was quite happy to participate, stating that people came here apart of the uni to take photos regularly. She did not pose for the camera (until we asked her to later on – the third time we came back to photograph her), rather Carol just continued on with the work she was doing while we stood there taking turns in taking her picture. Despite there being a camera directly pointed at her, she was more than comfortable and was never distracted by the camera, not once glancing towards us as we snapped away.
