Sometimes you can say too much with your photo/s...candid vs. posed street photography

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

   I periodically get emails from Eric Kim. He promotes himself as a street photographer, but from looking at his work over the years, he seems to be more of 'ask permission street portrait shooter' than hard-core candid street photographer. He is the type of photographer that gets rich by giving lectures around the world telling others how to be a great street photographers. 

Anyway on his latest email he had a nice street shot of a lady in NYC. I thought to myself, wow he has really improved. Up close and candid, great work!

Photo: Eric Kim

Then a paragraph down he shows the backstory...

 

Photos: Eric Kim

So he punked me again...a staged, bullshit fashion shoot, passed off as candid street work. OK, he didn't actually lie about it, but sometimes it is better to not say so much and destroy the dream. Other times we should give more info, so the historical record is correct...just depends.

As a curator as well as social documentary photographer, if someone claims to be a street photographer I don't want to look at street portraits as being the majority of your output. Call yourself a street portraitist if that is your specialty. Of course none of this matter to most people of this generation. They don't care. But within the realm of 'street photography,' candid street work is what separates the men from the boys. With all the photoshopping and BS people do with photos, that is why I started years ago to label my candid work as candid. And some of it I label as 'not staged,' if it is just posed, but some may think it is staged.

 

Monsoon Thailand 1982 (Candid)

From Monsoon project (All of output was destroyed in a flood in 2001. This is one of the last remaining negs from the project.)

 

Infrared Flash Photo (Candid)

 

Whoop-Whoop Project (Candid)

 

Now, most street photographers shoot street portraits once in a while, we all do. Nothing wrong with it. But candid work requires a whole different skill set than asking permission and shooting a fashion shoot. The problem of all this arises for the young guns starting out trying to learn the ropes. You want to learn how things are really done, not fantasy and posed bullshit photos passed off as candid work.

Selection from 180...the Circular Fisheye at Large! (Paid $1 for permission.)

Las Vegas

Sure, I could have shot this candid...but it would not look like this. If a photo can't be perfected as candid...then you have to pose it. I discuss this below in the Hierarchy of Documentary Photography

 

Elliot Erwitt is a well known street photog. Here is a famous photo of his of a man with 2 bulldogs.

 

Then a few years later the proof sheet surfaces...

 

 

Yep, another posed bullshit, fashion shoot. But Erwitt is actually a great candid street shooter, so while disappointed, I can't hold it against him. As I said...we all shoot posed work sometimes or another.

 

Faces of Gentrification

Selection from The Americans: 60 years after Frank

Staged or posed? It is posed. If I had a crew drop off an old tub and hired some models to pose, it would be staged. These were people of the neighborhood looking at the aftermath of tearing down their block for new construction. I asked them to sit in the tub and shot it.

 

Here is the Hierarchy of Documentary Photography*

1. Candid events unfolding as they happen.

2. If it cannot be perfected or obtained as a candid, then the photo must be posed.

3. If it cannot be perfected or obtained as a posed photo, then it must be staged with the proviso it is a recreation of past events, preferably with the actual persons reenacting the events.

4. Figments of the imagination. Varies in documentary value.  Can be based on pure speculation or a recount of events.

*Created by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

 

Hen Party (Candid...but caught!)

Amsterdam

 

Busker Subway (Candid)

NYC

 

Bishop that got canned for sex issues (Candid)

WV

How is it candid?? I shot with the 2 second self-timer...Candid! If I can make my candid photos look like they are posed, I've succeeded...in being invisible!

 

Order Women Like Pizza (Candid)

World record on how close you can shoot a candid photo...just a few inches away.

The backstory...

Order Women Like Pizza…the backstory – Daniel D. Teoli Jr. (wordpress.com)

 

Now, getting back to the 'staged photo' discussion...

When I first made the transition from film to digital I was on many photo forums trying to learn digital. I used to post my work and get lots of feedback from the 'flower and sunset' shooters. (And lets not forget the smoky lake at dawn with the mandatory boat dock shooters!) One day I had read some of the comments and I found out they thought I had staged this photo.

Hakenkreuz in a Dress 1973

Los Angeles

So I did a poll on it and sure enuf, majority thought it was staged.

The reality is; it is a posed photo of a neo-Nazi in her bedroom from 1973. Everything is exactly as shown. (I did block out the face. That was 1973, I don't know where she ended up or if she still has an interest in this subject.) 

So whenever I send out certain posed photos to institutions I label them as not staged....right on the back of the photo, so the info won't get lost. Someday we will be all gone, no one to give the scoop. So have your say while you can for the historical record.

 

Selection from Whoop-Whoop project

Ohio

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.