Street photography is generally understood as capturing candid moments of everyday life. However the paradox is that some of the most memorable street photographs taken in history were either posed or as a result of the interaction with the photographer.
Think of Klein’s famous “Kid with gun” photograph. Although the moment looks raw and candid, the photograph was actually a result of what Klein said to the kid. When Klein saw the kid with the gun, he told him: “Look tough.” The kid then turned toward Klein, and pointed his gun straight at him– giving an incredibly brutal look.
If you look at Klein’s contact sheet of the shot, you can see the next photograph the kid is smiling and posing with one of his friends.
So how did Klein interact with his subjects when shooting on the streets? He explains how his subjects were aware they were being photographed, but not always 100% sure:
“Yes, but they didn’t know I might be photographing a hundred other things going on behind them—someone lurking in the background, a shadow, a reflection, posters, traffic, junk. [I'd say], ‘Hold it! Don’t move! Hey, look this way!’ People would say, ‘What’s this for?” I’d say, ‘The News.’ ‘The News! Wow! No shit!’ I didn’t much care.”
So doesn’t this mean that Klein was simply manipulating his subjects? This is an interview question that was given to him, in which Klein responds:
“Not always. We’re not completely brut, you know. I thought people could be provoked to pose or play a role in some situations. Why not? People have posed for portraits for centuries. When I was a kid in New York, if some tough kid caught you looking at him he’d say, ‘Hey! What are you looking at?’ If you said, ‘I’m looking at you,’ he’d say, ‘Oh, yeah!’ if you said, ‘I’m not looking at you,’ He’d say, ‘why not?’ either way you were in trouble.”
Klein also shares his thoughts on how pointing a camera at someone you don’t know can cause a tension, but how it is also generally accepted:
“In rough neighborhoods in New York [sometimes]… it’s better not to look. So if you point a camera at a stranger, you’re almost breaking a tradition of not getting involved. Yet in a way, the camera erases involvement. Its accepted.”
Klein knows how photographing someone can cause someone to be provoked, but in the end– most people quite liked being photographed:
“In another way, it could be worse—a provocation and a threat. But generally, the people I photographed in New York seemed flattered. If I manipulated them sometimes, they didn’t seem to think they should mind. Elsewhere, if I’d get people to clown around with me, like people in Italy to pose in hierarchical Roman way, I think that should be a valid picture. They’re telling us something about themselves.”
But if a photographer provokes a person, what does it show except the result of the provocation? Klein thinks that people’s reactions show less of the photographer, but more of the subject him/herself:
“Rather than catching people unaware, they show the face they want to show. Unposed, caught unaware, they might reveal ambiguous expressions, brows creased in vague internal contemplation, illegible, perhaps meaningless. Why not allow the subject the possibility of revealing his attitude toward life, his neighbor, even the photographer? Both ways are valid to me.”
Klein shares how sometimes people he provoked did things he couldn’t have even imagined:
“In any case, very often people did things I couldn’t have organized or imagined. A mother points a toy gun at her child’s temple. Maybe I asked her to do it, I honestly forget. But lets say I did, out of some perverse inspiration. At the same time, though, she holds the child’s hand in the most tender, touching way.
The way a subject reacts to the camera can create a kind of happening. Why pretend the camera isn’t there? Why not use it? Maybe people will reveal themselves as violent or tender, crazed or beautiful. But in some way, they reveal who they are. They’ll have taken a self-portrait.”
Street photography is generally understood as capturing candid moments of everyday life. However the paradox is that some of the most memorable street photographs taken in history were either posed or as a result of the interaction with the photographer.
Think of Klein’s famous “Kid with gun” photograph. Although the moment looks raw and candid, the photograph was actually a result of what Klein said to the kid. When Klein saw the kid with the gun, he told him: “Look tough.” The kid then turned toward Klein, and pointed his gun straight at him– giving an incredibly brutal look.
If you look at Klein’s contact sheet of the shot, you can see the next photograph the kid is smiling and posing with one of his friends.
So how did Klein interact with his subjects when shooting on the streets? He explains how his subjects were aware they were being photographed, but not always 100% sure:
“Yes, but they didn’t know I might be photographing a hundred other things going on behind them—someone lurking in the background, a shadow, a reflection, posters, traffic, junk. [I'd say], ‘Hold it! Don’t move! Hey, look this way!’ People would say, ‘What’s this for?” I’d say, ‘The News.’ ‘The News! Wow! No shit!’ I didn’t much care.”
So doesn’t this mean that Klein was simply manipulating his subjects? This is an interview question that was given to him, in which Klein responds:
“Not always. We’re not completely brut, you know. I thought people could be provoked to pose or play a role in some situations. Why not? People have posed for portraits for centuries. When I was a kid in New York, if some tough kid caught you looking at him he’d say, ‘Hey! What are you looking at?’ If you said, ‘I’m looking at you,’ he’d say, ‘Oh, yeah!’ if you said, ‘I’m not looking at you,’ He’d say, ‘why not?’ either way you were in trouble.”
Klein also shares his thoughts on how pointing a camera at someone you don’t know can cause a tension, but how it is also generally accepted:
“In rough neighborhoods in New York [sometimes]… it’s better not to look. So if you point a camera at a stranger, you’re almost breaking a tradition of not getting involved. Yet in a way, the camera erases involvement. Its accepted.”
Klein knows how photographing someone can cause someone to be provoked, but in the end– most people quite liked being photographed:
“In another way, it could be worse—a provocation and a threat. But generally, the people I photographed in New York seemed flattered. If I manipulated them sometimes, they didn’t seem to think they should mind. Elsewhere, if I’d get people to clown around with me, like people in Italy to pose in hierarchical Roman way, I think that should be a valid picture. They’re telling us something about themselves.”
But if a photographer provokes a person, what does it show except the result of the provocation? Klein thinks that people’s reactions show less of the photographer, but more of the subject him/herself:
“Rather than catching people unaware, they show the face they want to show. Unposed, caught unaware, they might reveal ambiguous expressions, brows creased in vague internal contemplation, illegible, perhaps meaningless. Why not allow the subject the possibility of revealing his attitude toward life, his neighbor, even the photographer? Both ways are valid to me.”
Klein shares how sometimes people he provoked did things he couldn’t have even imagined:
“In any case, very often people did things I couldn’t have organized or imagined. A mother points a toy gun at her child’s temple. Maybe I asked her to do it, I honestly forget. But lets say I did, out of some perverse inspiration. At the same time, though, she holds the child’s hand in the most tender, touching way.
The way a subject reacts to the camera can create a kind of happening. Why pretend the camera isn’t there? Why not use it? Maybe people will reveal themselves as violent or tender, crazed or beautiful. But in some way, they reveal who they are. They’ll have taken a self-portrait.”
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