Asking about a street photo.

Q: IN A BLOG POST OF YOURS ON STREET PHOTOGRAPHY, THERE’S A SHOT THAT I’D LOVE TO HEAR THE STORY ABOUT. MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD IN FRONT OF A BLUE “POST NO BILLS” WALL AS TWO PASSERSBY OBSERVE. SO MUCH IS GOING ON THERE. CAN YOU DISCUSS WHAT YOU WERE THINKING AS YOU CAPTURED IT? HOW DID IT COME TOGETHER? WHAT MADE YOU SHOOT IT? WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

A: I was walking around NYC one day and I observed this couple having a discussion/argument across the street from where I was standing. “Might as well cross the street to investigate,” I thought. I ran across the street and stood on the curb directly across from them; I waited there, trying to look as though I was occupied with settings on my camera. I saw the woman and girl (pictured sort of ducking in the foreground) walking up the street and was planning on having them sort of “shield” me when I took the picture.

I pulled my camera up just before they walked in front of me, thinking the guy wasn’t paying any attention to me. Turns out he was paying attention to me. He clocked me as I pulled my camera up to take his picture. So did the woman and girl in the foreground; I think they were ducking, thinking I was trying to take a photo and they didn’t want to be in the way. The guy was wondering what in the hell I was doing taking a photo of him. I was watching this all through the viewfinder. It was one of those split seconds where nobody knew what the hell was going on except for me.

I immediately saw the photo I had just taken in the viewfinder of my X100. I have it set to show a 1.5-second preview of the image. I knew he had seen me, and he didn’t seem all that happy about it. The woman and girl had already passed by. He began talking to me from where he stood, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying because there was an idling bus two feet behind me.

Act stupid. Get the shot. Move on down the street. :: Fujifilm X100 / f2 @ 1/170th @ ISO 200 / Aperture Priority with +0.7 set on the exposure compensation dial / Available light.

I dropped the camera to my side and immediately looked just over his head, got a puzzled look on my face, looked back at my camera, and started acting like I was changing settings. Then I pulled the camera right back up to my face and took another shot. Once again I lowered the camera and looked right over his head. I acted like I didn’t even see him, as though I was just a dumb tourist trying to take a photo of something just over his head. I then looked at the back of my camera with a puzzled look on my face.

He bought into my act and figured I wasn’t photographing him. He, and his family, moved on down the street in one direction, and I went in the opposite direction.

The woman and girl in the foreground were just a weird caught moment, but it feels like there was something going on there. Questions of race and all that could be read into it. Photography is such a lie! :)