Streets of Trinidad, Cuba
One of my favourite methods of coming to grips with the character of the city is photographing the street scenes. It forces me to slow down, observe the location and watch the people going about their daily routines. A good street scene often delve deeper than a photograph of an icon, telling the stories of the city and its dwellers. While it may seem a world apart from landscape photography, my approach is similar.
"Concentration", New York City
When I prepare to shoot a landscape, I’ll arrive early or do a scouting session. This allows me to figure out the location and try anticipate how the light will affect the scene at different times of the day. With street photography, this process is sped up a hundred times. I’m constantly watching and attempting to predict how the various elements in a scene are going to interact with each other. These may be people, vehicles, shadows, light or other objects.
Vincenza, Italy
The idea of the ‘decisive moment’ in photography is associated with Cartier-Bresson. It was the title of his book in 1952 and it came from a quote by Cardinal de Retx that is in the book’s preface : “There is nothing in the world that does not have a decisive moment.” Cartier-Bresson elaborated on this idea and how it relates to photography : “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as a precise organization of forms that give that event its proper expression.”
"Nostalgia", Montalcino, Italy
I’m inspired by the idea of the decisive moment. These are not necessarily perfect moments, where everything falls in place exactly as you want it. However certain moments are clearly more harmonious than others. Capturing these requires anticipation and timing. Since the photographer doesn’t usually have much control over what happens on the street, it is vital that he or she observes very carefully what is happening. What does one look out for? I try to anticipate where people are going to appear in relation to certain elements in the scene. This might be predicting when someone will walk past a particular shop for example. Or perhaps, waiting for a group of people to form an arrangement that strikes a good balance photographically. Instincts play a part too – one needs to guess what the best position is to take the shot when it arrives. This brings us to the question of timing. What moment should be frozen? It’s another element that is determined by vision and instinct.
Morning Ritual, New York City
Sometimes, a scene can inspire one to do more than document the action on a street but to capture the spirit and emotion of the moment…
Playing at Sunset, Cuba
The New York gallery has just been updated with new street photography images.
