In large cities like Paris, making photos is barely noticed, even less so when you use a small, unobtrusive camera.
In a small town where you're the only person on the street - and an outsider - it can draw attention. I maintain an active membership in the National Press Photographers Association and carry their press credential.
A year in the South - where people said "Good mornin', suh" to me, a complete stranger, as they walked past me in a diner in Oxford, Mississippi - taught me that it's best to give a wave or say "hello" in small towns.
A few years ago someone stopped mowing their lawn and stared as I made photos of a Corvair up on a lift in an abandoned gas station in a town that was so small you could throw a rock from end to end (as
Sammy Kershaw put it in 'Chevy Van'). So I walked up to him with the press credential hanging around my neck and said I was doing a project on small towns. I carry a two-sided business card that has a photo on a third of its front side, and another
photo of cowboys on the entire reverse. Since then I've started carrying a
zine (as in magazine) of my domestic [USA] work that I hand out in cafés and to people who appear concerned. I carry a different one with me to Paris.
Sometimes people need to be reassured that you're up to good.
One's bearing is key ... be confident, act as if you belong, not trying to hide, and of course offering to send a print (or jpg file) to anyone who you photograph.
The manner to affect is
"These aren't the droids you're looking for."
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