The enigma of the hat Man
Let’s also not forget the elusive men in hats,
a recurring fi gure in his work. It is very
reminiscent of Richard Koci Hernandez’s
images of the same subject. In David’s case,
the hatted men take on different persona.
Sometimes they look like intimidating
American cowboys, and at other times like
fedora clad undercover agents.
“When I think of cowboys I picture
the more stereotypical milieu—like the
ones riding horses in the desert. So forme, there’s a certain visual incongruity
to the sight of a cowboy walking down
the downtown streets of a huge urban
metropolis. There’s an odd magnetism to
it that draws me in. Koci tapped into this
way early on. He pretty much owns the ‘hat
man’. I feel like any time I shoot someone
in a fedora, I’m automatically copying him,
and that’s frustrating! Also, the ‘hat man’
seems to represent the every man in some
general way that I can’t quite put into words.
This instills a certain timelessness intoCurrently he is using
the apple iPhone 4s
to shoot, and is ready
to graduate to the
iPhone 6 soon.david found Todd
hido’s colour
photography work so
exquisite that it made
him want to explore
colour photography
further. But he is still
going to largely be a
‘black and white guy’.ProFILEBETTEr PHoTogrAPHY APrIL 201560
david is of the fi rm
belief that you should
treat your instagram feed
as your personal gallery
space that is open to the
world. Which is why, he
is very selective about
the photographs that
he uploads.in regards to street
photography, he feels that
the genre is so widely
practiced that it may
be repeating itself a bit.
“at one point i asked
myself—“Where can
i take this? What can
i do with this that hasn’t
been done?”