Bottle Cap Checkers: The Drive-By Photos

Nearly four years ago, I moved to a neighborhood where, on a prominent street corner, men sit and play checkers each afternoon. The checkerboard consists of painted tiles on the sidewalk; the checkers, plastic bottle caps from half-liter soda. Ever since moving to that neighborhood, I wanted to photograph these men. The trouble is, to get a good angle for a photograph, the photographer has to be situated in a location that threatens the photo’s candidness.

Drive-by photographs begin to show the scene. In the photograph above, the checkers are visible, but the checkerboard is not. The expression on the face of the man wearing the blue hat explains why a more candid photograph would be difficult. The photograph below shows why drive-by photography is not the most effective method of photographing checker-playing men.