Street Photography Blog

The miraculous apparition

The advantage, in some manner, of street photography, is that the photographer can go out to the streets for prospecting without a determined goal in mind or a precise assignment or duty to bear. It reduces the pressure and allows the photographer to relax and to freely devote his time to his real quest, catching bits and pieces of everyday life.

Or at least that’s how I personally perceive this discipline.

For the photo of this article, I was wandering in the streets of Barbès, full of energy and enthusiasm about the colorful, noisy and photogenic people populating this district of Paris. I noticed these two poles in a street, which presented two items for a good background (I also took another photo of an interesting character before these two poles). I therefore stood here, on the opposite sidewalk, and waited, clearly indicating my presence, and not hiding in any manner my identity of eager, however cool, photographer. Suddenly emerged on my left a group of people, outside of my viewfinder, one of those carrying a picture of Jesus in his arms. These people were cheerful and picturesque, and I was carefully preparing to press the shutter, when they would be in my viewfinder. However suddenly to my right, a character emerges from nowhere like a rushing shadow, I had not seen him coming at all. At this time, I cursed (in my mind) the person who had disturbed my potential picture of the day. I decided to ignore this character, and I was really focused on the group of people in front of me, so I took several pictures, trying to isolate the group, and ignored the disturbing character, whose face or attitude was appearing like a shadow in my viewfinder, so concentrated I was on my main subject.

Back home, when reviewing my pictures, I was very pleasantly surprised to find the capture of this happy phenomenon :

• The character that I did not even look at, or even seen, as it was disturbing me at this moment, greets me. He is cheerful, picturesque, superb.
• The group, supposed to be at this time my main subject, takes the second role.
• The caracter with the red hat looks suspiciously behind
• And icing on the cake, a magical element punctuates this mixture of happy folks : the painting of Jesus, which is discovered behind the character in the foreground, is like a miraculous and welcoming phenomenon.

This scene looks completely fantastic to me, because I had absolutely no perceived it when taking the picture. The photo is blurry because I was in AF servo mode, with auto focus on the first plan, and the focus was switching alternatively from the group, predominant in the background, and the happy guy, crossing the line of sight.

This photo is one of my favorites because reflects the spirit and modesty of street photography: The ability to get a unique combination of micro elements, which can cause an almost supernatural event, that you are not necessarily conscious about when first taking the picture, because you are focused on one or the other subject.

I guess it requires a fair amount of experience to perceive all the parameters, characters, elements of background playing a role in a crowded street, and to catch the right instant. For the moment I will still rely on a bit of luck to capture these decisive moments, that will appear like miraculously when I develop the pictures, literally and figuratively. I think this is, after the adrenalin push of the street shooting, the best rewarding and enjoyable part of the discipline.