Street photography in Oklahoma City is not like street photography in New York City, Chicago or Paris. We don’t have subways or open air markets. Street vendors are rare and walkability is a $50 word few people have heard.

Still, the highways and byways, streets and alleys of Oklahoma are filled with interesting subjects. They tell a different kind of story about a place that — as a good friend says — is not quite virgin, but almost.

Even in the most urban of Oklahoma City locations you can find people growing wheat and drilling for oil. Living here, you take all these things for granted. But, at least with the advent of iphoneography, we’ve gained a greater appreciation of our extreme sunsets. It is pure glory to see purple, pink and orange swirled into shades of blue. A few of these sunsets appear in this slideshow, which highlights my favorite pictures in shades of orange.

As I mentioned in my introductory post for this series, to be a great street photographer you must believe in the greatness of your city. But, famed street photographer Umberto Verdoliva takes it one step further:

“Street photography is generally very difficult to practice even if it is accessible to all not everyone can practice it without love for the people. I think it’s important to be able to show something that others do not see…My projects aim to show this.”

(Hat Tip: Paul’s Pictures)

I have been revisiting the genius of Boris Pasternak and Dr. Zhivago lately. Here’s a quote that brings me comfort when I see this guy who sits in a wheelchair on NW 23rd and Pennsylvania every day. He has no legs and he drags on a cigarette. He’s there to take your money and I always want to take his picture, but it feels ruthless. Even as he begs, I believe in his right to privacy. I imagine him as the perfect little baby he once was and I wonder what on earth it is that screwed up his life up so bad. Was it Vietnam or drugs or bad women? I pray those things don’t find my kids.

Here is Pasternak:

“But all the time, life, one, immense, identical throughout its innumerable combinations and transformations, fills the universe and is continually reborn. You are anxious about whether you will rise from the dead or not, but you rose from the dead when you were born and you didn’t notice it.”

Here are my oranges from 2012. If you’re viewing this on a mobile device and can’t see the Flickr slideshow, click here to view the orange street photography set on Flickr.

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