I had the good fortune to hang out and go shooting with Forrest Walker when he was in Taipei some time ago shooting as part of his 100 Cities project. He had some valuable insights, and was very helpful and generous with his time, meeting with my students and sharing his experiences. So I'm happy to present here a detailed interview I conducted with him in which he discusses his beginnings as a street photographer, his projects, and a sampling of his work and the stories behind the photographs.
Please tell us a bit about yourself. Where do you come from, and what or who inspired you to take up photography?
Hello, my name is Forrest Walker and I grew up in a small town on the Oregon Coast in the US, later moving to Portland, but now mostly moving around the world the last five years working on a large photography project focused on major cities. I wouldn’t say there was a specific what or who that inspired me to take up photography, but there were a sequence of events and people that influenced it indirectly. A mix of overcoming a health battle years ago, work, travel, ex-girlfriends and finding a “Magnum Tokyo” book in a small shop in Tokyo one afternoon all contributed to my obsession with photography today.
How does your photography reflect your personality/state of mind? What do you hope to communicate or describe with your work?
Maybe it reflects my wide variety of interests and curiosity of life. I like walking everywhere, exploring places and overcoming challenges that would deter others. My mind tends to see/think about many things at once and photography helps slow things down for me. This at least affects what and how I shoot. I’ve always been highly sensitive and turned off to anything fake, be it in people, art or entertainment, so the candid and unposed aspect is important to me and holds much more interest for me. That potential power of photography is what initially turned me on in the first place and I hope that comes across in my work, along with a sense of my imagination and curiosity. It’s a bit cliche to say after so many others, but a mix of real and surreal, but in my own way of how and what I see.
In 2015, when I first started the project, I was living in Istanbul, Turkey, which is still easily one of my favorite cities. It actually ended up being the last one allowed, but back then, they somewhat allowed a Pride Parade. Due to Istanbul’s size and much of the surrounding countries/region not allowing anything like this, the one here attracted people from all over. It absolutely packed the streets all over where I lived near Taksim Square. It was crazy. Police were also everywhere and while they didn’t shut things down, they slowly kept pushing the crowds down the streets using tear gas. I took the photo below shortly after some tear gas caused the crowds to back up a bit from the line-up of police, leaving a moment of space. I noticed this woman dressed up in her strikingly unique outfit start to walk across in front of the police, paying them no mind. So I quickly ran up, kneeled down to create some separation from the background, took the photo, and moved on. Funny enough, years later, this woman contacted me on Instagram after seeing the photo shared and told me it was her and she loved it.
Your 100 Cities project is well known in the street photography community. How did you come up with this particular idea? How did you plan for it?
I was living in Istanbul finishing up some work there and had wanted to do something on a larger scale that hadn’t been done before. Something that would take years and full dedication, but could hopefully be put together into a work that was new. Over the course of the first 6 months, it grew into this project and has been my focus since.
I chose to focus on major cities for a variety of reasons. Many major cities don’t actually get photographed that much, while being filled with life and extremely important to the people, country, and history. I like how major cities connect to more people, even if they didn’t live there, they at least likely know it if they’re from the country or visited it. There’s a complexity to big cities, the variety of layers, diversity of people, scenery and life they contain. I also like how most people don’t understand why I’d photograph the big city instead of the picturesque little tourist town. There can be a negative connotation attached to big cities, but under that chaotic, not traditionally photogenic big city stereotype, there’s usually more interest to discover than anywhere else in the country, in my opinion. It just can be more of a challenge to find at first sight. Along with that challenge, there also can be more risks of photographing different areas, but that’s another reason many don’t get photographed as much, which also drew me. By covering major cities across over 75 countries and most major regions, I hoped to encompass the most variety of connections possible across the world, while finding the main connections we all share no matter the place, and put this together into work that would be much more than a just selection of favorite photos from different countries.
Another one of my favorite cities for photography is Saint-Petersburg, Russia, especially in the Summer. During this time, due to their far north location, daylight lasts over 20 hours a day. They hold their “White Nights” festival during this time, which lasts weeks, but the main celebration is held the Saturday closest to the longest day of the year, which also combines with graduation celebrations. People start early and I was walking to the prime area where people watch the “Scarlet Sails” and firework show along the river. Unfortunately, the bridge I needed to cross was up in preparation for the sail boats, but I did take this photo above. Little did I know, an hour later, after walking to the next bridge, I’d be under water after being knocked into the river by a crowd of fighting drunk graduates (Long story). My camera was done for the day (it dried days later) and so was any photography of the event.
I promised myself to return and photograph the “White Nights” event without any river swim, and the next year I did. Luckily, encountering much more peaceful graduation celebrates, like in this above photo.
Do you spend time just enjoying the places you visit, or do you go exclusively to take pictures?
Unfortunately, I rarely can spend time enjoying the places I visit, outside of photographing them. During each city, I spend every single day out photographing it as much as possible, and most nights I’m working on the computer. I know it’s nothing like people want to imagine it, but this project was never about travel fun and always about the photography and work. I treat it more serious than a job. But it’s not only due to my need to focus on the work. Fun and enjoying travel costs money, which I don’t have much of. So, I have to live by as low means as possible and pass up all that travel and tourist stuff for the most part.
Do you ever have issues photographing all of these vastly different cultures? Do you change your shooting style or practice in consideration of these different places and peoples?
That’s one of the biggest challenges, but also one that I really enjoy and focus on. Places and cultures do differ vastly, which does effect photography, especially when it comes to police and security. My goal has always been to tackle each place the same photographically, though, so I don’t change my shooting style. Fortunately, I can say there hasn’t been one place I feel I wasn’t able to shoot my way, only some were more challenging. If I’m in a more dangerous city or area, I’ve committed to the fact I have to take the added risks without compromising how I photograph. But if I’m in a place that reacts to photography differently, I have to find a way to work around that, while still shooting the same. Sometimes this means being even more observant of my surroundings and body language. But the largest difference in me would be how I interact with people and carry myself. Smiling and joking, but in a confident way, seems to work well for me in most of these places. If people feel that you are comfortable where you are and you give off a feeling of confidence and that you can be trusted, you’ll get treated much better and any trouble is more likely to leave you alone. There’s a big difference between shooting in many of the places I covered. Some places are more relaxing and comfortable for photography than others, but I’ll admit the more challenging ones can provide more satisfaction and memories with the people.
While covering Mumbai, I got up extra early one day to catch the sunrise and morning exercisers along Marine Drive, one of my favorite spots in the city. After walking it back and forth, unfortunately not much interest had been out there that particular morning. As I was walking towards its end, I saw a nicely dressed man enjoying some relaxation by the sea. This isn’t an uncommon sight, but as I walked by, I saw how at this angle it created this clean illusion.
Coincidently, this next shot was taken less than 20 minutes after the last, providing 2 of my favorite photos of that year in less than half an hour. Almost makes up for the other 364 days worth of minutes that didn’t produce those results.
Has your relationship with photography changed over time, in particular the course of this project, and if so, how?
Honestly, It did get to a level of obsession that isn’t healthy or good for anyone. Over the last five years working on the project, I’ve been completely devoted to photography to an unreal degree. I had to give up all I had, from possessions, money and relationships to health, happiness and safety, over the course of it all. And every single day was on the streets photographing, while living out of a bag by the lowest means possible and trying to make just enough money to keep it going. Sanity and depression and health has been a struggle over the course of it, so I am happy to be done with the photography part of the project now, even though the actual photography part I never tired of. It was just everything else that had to go along with it. My obsession with photography can’t go away, but I’ll need to add other parts of my life back and find some sort of balance. I’d say when it comes to photography, though, I do see things differently than when I started the project just from the experience of seeing so many different things. And some things don’t interest as much as they did at the start, while some interest me more.
I was covering New York City during 4th of July so I decided to spend the full holiday shooting around Coney Island, one of my favorite spots anyway, but even better during the 4th. After shooting from Coney to Manhattan Beach, I was walking back through Brighton Beach when up far ahead I saw a photo that immediately stopped my eyes and grabbed me. The type of unique scene from life showcasing what makes it all so beautifully unique and interesting, without any tricks. I had to make a photo of it. Not being a complex photo to make, the focus was only to make it at the right timing before it or the feeling changed and disappeared forever. The group of women were all waiting in line together, but noticeably all separate in their look and body language. They were full of individual character, while displaying a collection of attire. My only focus and worry in shots like this is getting close enough without disrupting the scene and making the photo before anything changes, a balancing act of moving quickly but natural, timing and luck. Fortunately, I got this one off at the right time, putting the camera to my eye and clicking the shutter in stride, just as I passed.
Have you been influenced by other photographers? If so, who?
Plenty. Looking at great work by others has been my favorite inspiration and teacher. Before each city, I always check the Magnum Photos archive for that city, among other photo searches. Discovering Magnum was my first serious influence so that’s where most of it can probably be found. Some specific names from there would be Alex Webb, Constantine Manos, Harry Gruyaert, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, David Alan Harvey, Bruno Barbey, Richard Kalvar, Bruce Gilden, Josef Koudelka and Carolyn Drake. Outside of Magnum, I’m also a big fan of Helen Levitt, Joel Meyerowitz, Tony Ray Jones, Lars Tunbjork, Cristobal Hara and Jason Eskenazi, among others. I like to look at a lot of work for influence and inspiration, but without getting too focused on one style or photographer.
The next photo I made in London Fields park. I like this area around Hackney and was walking the park on a somewhat quiet day when I saw this older woman playing goalie for her grandson. Obviously, a funny scene you don’t see every day, I had to go in and take a photo. I didn’t want anything unnatural or posed so I just went up and started taking photos in a way where they didn’t pay me much mind. I took a few photos catching the free kick at different timings. Sometimes she got there, sometimes she didn’t, like above, but it was all fun to watch and shoot.
You studied business in school and worked for a time as an office worker. How did you make the rather radical pivot into this project? Have you done other types of photography, and how did that go?
I’ve done a variety of photography work, without sticking with much of it for long until I found the type of work I shoot now. Headshots, weddings, some fashion work for a period, a few ads, and then documentary work, which was the one thing I truly enjoyed, and led to this project. As for the radical transition, I did save up money from my previous job for over a year in and sold most of my belongings in plans of making the jump, but it still was a big leap into a completely different world.
Halloween in Tokyo has become one of my favorite events to photograph. I’ve gone the last few years after discovering the surprising degree that they celebrate it here, especially in Shibuya. It’s crazy. So crazy, that last year the city upped the police force with a 100 million yen budget just for it. While you can see locals dressing up throughout the week, the day of Halloween is the biggest celebration, going throughout the night around Shibuya’s streets. While the street activity is still a sight to see, I made this photo below before they cracked down more on alcohol consumption and street parties. While most photographers of the event are standing at corners taking photos of all the costumes, I like to get involved and in the mix. So, I dress up in a costume and try to get into some real scenes. Here in this small parking lot, they had a dj blasting music, alcohol flowing and all types of costumed partiers stopping to dance. At this point of the night, the police had had enough though and they shut it down, which helped create the unusual scene above. And fortunately I was right there in the middle of it all.
The major cities in Sub-Saharan Africa don’t get photographed too often, especially when it comes to street photography. There are a number of challenges compared to most other places, but I wanted to focus on cities everywhere, as equally as possible so I made sure to cover some of Africa’s biggest cities. Accra was one of my favorites. It wasn’t always easy, mostly due to daily police and security guard hassle around the more local neighborhoods, but I loved the life. Bukom was one of those places I loved here. While near Jamestown, one of the few areas visited by tourists in Accra, you’ll only see local life in Bukom. For me, it was the most interesting part of Accra, filled with a vibrant and authentic local life that poured out onto the streets. I came here more than anywhere and on this day I noticed this child walking with a yellow box on her head. Bukom is a colorfully painted neighborhood, especially when it comes to their national colors, so it provided a nice color match of yellows. I tried to time things to connect a few layers of life along with the colors, got up close and made the photo above.
Lima has become one of my favorite big cities for photography in South America. I grew up on the coast and I love to photograph cities on the sea. Not only do I enjoy the atmosphere of walking along the ocean, but I also enjoy the life they attract. The Miraflores district of Lima has one of those atmospheres that will get me out shooting as much as I can. Along the beaches below, you have the beach activity you’d expect, especially on weekends, along with a strong surfing culture. What makes Miraflores even more special is how it’s situated just above the ocean, with some really nice parks stretching along the cliff that connects below. You get miles of beach and park life right by each other, all with that picturesque view and atmosphere. In the photo below, I noticed this couple with matching white pants, which could create an interesting look at a particular angle. I’m also attracted to themes of love and people connecting in street photography, so I liked how it all could be combined here. Along with that Miraflores setting.