Every time I’m out in the streets, I would often encounter faces that make me look twice… faces that just stood out of the crowd without even trying… faces that are by no means ordinary. They range from the exquisitely beautiful to the strangely wonderful. Sometimes I would try to steal a shot without being too intrusive, most times I just stand there wishing I had the balls to just approach them and ask for their portrait. Thanks to my lucky stars … I eventually grew those balls to do so.
The 5 Sec Faces project I did in collaboration with Fleecircus was such an important headway for me on approaching strangers. Suddenly, strangers were no longer unwitting victims subjects, they were now willing participants … and that gave different life to the photograph, and a new awareness and dimension to my idea of shooting in the streets. When we wrapped up on the project, I felt like I wanted to continue shooting portraits. I came up with an idea that was just slightly different. 5 Sec Faces was about creating a collective portrait that showed the visible vibrancy and variety of the people of Singapore. This time I wanted to concentrate on the mysterious individuality of each subject. Take away the usual snapshot smile, zero in on the face, focus on the eyes, and you get that ‘unguarded’ natural look amping up the intimacy of each portrait.
“Is it ok if I take your picture?”
So there I was, almost every weekend walking around in Orchard Road, waiting to be struck by a face. And whenever that happens, I ask “Is it ok if I take your picture?” along with an unassuming smile. I’ve always considered myself lucky whenever I get a ‘yes’ from a stranger. Some would say ‘sure’ immediately, which is always a wonderful surprise for me :) Others would be a little wary and ask ‘what for?’ I would tell them exactly what I’m doing: shooting portraits of people in Orchard Road… a personal project for my portfolio. It’s surprising and touching how many people would be supportive of this.
After taking their photo, I almost always hand over my name card that contains my website address in case they’re interested in checking out the portrait I took of them. It’s heartwarming that some would actually send me a message saying how they appreciate their portrait. In a few cases, it was their mother that thanked me! Those made me grin from ear to ear.
“Look in the camera, and don’t smile.”
The one thing I wanted to capture with every portrait was that ‘unguarded’ natural look… that look that moved me in the first place when I spotted them in the street… the look that can give even just a little bit of honest yet mysterious sneak peek to who they are without actually knowing them. I can still remember a viewer comment that perfectly described what I was trying to do. ‘The Spoon’ said: “personal invulnerabilities are captured in every portrait…”
In trying to do this, I always ask them not to smile for the camera. I wanted to avoid that usual snapshot smile.. you know, that smile that you’ve smiled a thousand times whenever you’re in front of a camera… the canned smile that sometimes make you look… different, forced even. Portraitist extraordinaire Annie Leibovitz wrote in her book:“It took me years to understand that I equated asking someone to smile with asking them to do something false.” She further notes: “You can almost hear the sigh of relief when you tell someone they don’t have to smile.” I took this as a way to make the subject comfortable about being suddenly photographed in public… no need to do anything, just be yourself and look in the camera.
Now once in a while, a subject manages to sneak up a slight smile in the portrait… this is despite me telling them not to. I still appreciate this because at least I know that this was a sincere smile, which to me still makes for an honest portrait :)
Of the many portraits I’ve taken, there was only one exception where I allowed a stranger to give up his pearly whites. This was coming from the guy who I appreciate a lot because he gave me my first good street photograph. I just couldn’t not take his portrait:
Now tell me, could you have resisted that smile?
Dealing with the Language Barrier
Being such a melting pot of different cultures, Singapore has given me the opportunity to capture different faces of different races. However, it has at times also presented me with a pretty difficult challenge: the language barrier. Sometimes I’m caught off guard when I realize the stranger that I just approached could not understand a word of what I just said.
When I approached this girl, she suddenly turned to her male friend speaking in a foreign language which sounded Slavic, probably Russian. Her friend seemed to be translating what I just said and convinced her to pose for me. Despite the language barrier, it’s a wonder how she still managed to give me exactly the look that I was hoping for:
In another instance, when I asked this girl for her portrait, she just stood there looking at me quizzically… until I realized she didn’t speak English. She finally said in a cute yet heavy accent “do you speak chinese?” It was a canned response like how you would say “hablo ingles?” I shook my head. So I tried to act out like we were in a game of charades: me… picture… you… She seemed to understand me. She nodded, stood still, and smiled. Back to charades: no… smile… She nodded and toned down her smile. The whole encounter was quite worth it.
Facing the Fear and Anxiety
When I started this project, I honestly thought that this would be almost child’s play for me given my experience in working with the 5 Sec Faces project. But as I discovered pretty quickly, approaching strangers with a project partner was a breeze.. approaching strangers ALONE was a whole different story. I’ve received a lot of comments from viewers saying how much they envy my audacity to just simply walk to complete strangers and ask for their portrait… the truth is in most, if not all, of the portraits I took, I could literally hear my heart pound away as soon as I spotted a potential subject. And in some cases, my hands would actually shake while taking their picture.
I can still remember when I was taking this photograph, I was actually struggling.. thinking: “Steadyyy… man, I hope she doesn’t notice my camera shaking.”
I always try my best not to show my fear, but sometimes it just bluntly comes out in the open. When I approached this girl, the moment I opened my mouth, I literally lost my voice… it was like I suddenly swallowed air. This embarrassing moment went for about 5 long seconds while she stood there with a faint smile. I was finally able to regain my composure and ask her if I could take her picture. Luckily, she said yes:
You’d think that somehow I’d get used to it. But the feeling of fear and anxiety was almost exactly the same from my 1st down to my 100th stranger. Despite that, I still kept on it. I remember Fleecircus telling me, “Hey, all for the sake of a good portrait, right?” Yup, she was right. Believe me, the high the I felt right after knowing that I just got a killer keeper of a portrait can be so strong that I sometimes literally see my hands shivering in excitement.
There are some rare instances where the fear was overcome by the complete determination to get that portrait. These are the instances where I knew that I would never forgive myself if I at least didn’t try. I remember seeing her walking briskly and I just found myself running through the crowd, cutting off her path just to ask her if I could take her picture. I almost never do that because I’m not that daring. In this instance, I was glad I did:
Getting that Nasty Rejection
One of the obvious reasons for feeling the fear during the course of this project is getting that nasty rejection. I am not that charming of a photographer who can easily sway everyone I see to spontaneously pose for me for a portrait. I also get rejections, maybe about 25% of the time. I don’t blame them … I can understand the uneasiness of getting your photo taken in the middle of the street by a complete stranger. Most are quite shy and polite when they say ‘no.’ They even thank me at times, and I always appreciate that. It’s the nasty rejections that get to me, that condescending ‘no’ as if I was an outcast of society. I can never get used to that crushing humiliating feeling that usually stays with me for the next 5 minutes… but then after that, I still eventually find myself up and about looking for the next potential keeper… or another rejection. But as I learned along the way, the regret of getting a nasty rejection is easier than the regret of not having that possible killer of a portrait because you were afraid of that rejection.
The Stories Behind the Photos
This project was an amazing experience for me. I can still remember each and every encounter I’ve had with all these strangers: how I spotted them, how nervous i felt, how they reacted to me, and the rewarding feeling afterwards knowing that I just got one more keeper in a set of a hundred keepers I was aiming to get.
With this experience, I’m thinking of making a photo book of these portraits along with my thoughts of my encounter with each stranger. I’m hoping to have this available online through blurb.com by January 2011.
From Street Photography to Portraiture
I’ve always wanted to be a portrait photographer. Street photography is my first passion, but after 2 years of wandering in the streets searching for that perfect candid moment, my fascination with seeing people in their most natural state has made me realize my predilection towards creating portraits. This project has given me the perfect avenue for a slow transition from street photography to portraiture… from capturing a moment incognito to capturing a personality up close. I will never stop shooting street, but after this project, I think I’ll start venturing seriously into portraiture. I’m excited :)
Big Thanks to Everyone…
Thank you so much to all the viewers who commented so generously through flickr, facebook, and stumbleupon. And most of all, thanks to all the wonderful strangers who said ‘yes’. I feel so lucky having been able to connect with these people even for just a few seconds. Different faces, different races… all of them beautiful in very different ways.
I also have to give thanks to the many bloggers who supported and featured this project. Because of them, I was fortunate to be noticed by BBH Asia Pacific. About 3 months ago, this ad agency gave me an amazing opportunity to shoot for an ad campaign in KL, Malaysia. I’ll be talking about this next in this blog, so please do stand by for that.
To see all of the portraits, please visit:
• My Facebook Page
• My Flickr Page
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A footnote for the curious tekkies:
The gear I used for this project is a Nikon D300 with 85mm f1.4 AFD lens. I usually take 3 shots wide open at f1.4, and another 3 shots at f2 – then I select which one to use upon closer review. No flash was used in any of the portraits, only available light on overcast skies or under the shade. For further information about the settings I used, the exif data for most of the portraits are available on my flickr set here.
Thanks for posting this behind the scenes look into this project. It answered a lot of the questions I had after looking at the photos initially. Your project gave me the motivation to finally attempt the 100 strangers. And I think a book on them all would be a very cool. I wonder if you would need signed releases from them all to use them in a book though? Oh well.. keep up the great shooting!
@Thorpeland: Thanks, man :) From what I know, as long as the photo was taken in a public space and as long as you don’t use it for any commercial purposes, you won’t need a release form. Except maybe, just maybe for the photo on the book cover.
Amazing post. It is very informative for amateur photographers who have always wanted to photograph strangers but never had the courage to approach them. Thank you!
I love street photography. I love the candidness of it all but I couldn’t help nodding my head as I read your article you mention that it would be difficult to forgive yourself when you came across someone that you wanted to photograph but didn’t because of the fear of rejection.
Second to photographer sharing their work, there’s nothing more enjoyable than reading how they did it so thank you for this glimpse behind the approach you had for undertaking this project. You’ve inspired me to do the same and this will certainly be a project I will be doing for 2011. I have to get over the fear of asking.
kudos to your project! Job well done!
your work is truly an inspiration.
This was a truly amazing read. YOu inspired me to go out there and so a similar project.
Thank you
what camera did you use and what settings. The pictures are terrific. I would love to photograph my wife like this and she has a Nikon D3000. Thanks.
Danny,
Terrific project, output and behind the scenes info. Very powerful post, that will be huge motivator – also for me! Once again, thanks for sharing it and keep up your awesome work…
that’s a very interesting project and a surprisingly good set of faces.
well done, even though i would prefer if you didn;t crop the top 10% of everyone;s head. why do you do that?
Thank you everyone! :)
@asoee: I do it to get even closer :)
what an amazing project! truly creative and so original. i’m pretty sure you’ll do an even fabulous job in that ad campaign. i am super inggit! :) – labski fotografi
I find this project so inspiring, thank you for sharing your work
Great write-up. You are the kindest and most earnest person I haven’t met! Great inspiration and motivation. Kudos to you sir!
Chris – Copenhagen
I have a deep respect for you for your kind and generous sharing of info and shots through your great projects and amazing write-ups for the inspiration and motivation of innumerable persons.Thank you :)
I’m curious, how do you go about figuring out what your background would be. Do you try to ensure there are not too many distractions in the Background or do you just take the photo immediately and deal with the background later in Photoshop?
Great Photos by the way. Love the idea and the article!
@Anshu: Most of the time, I’m quite conscious of the background and try as much as possible to shift slightly to my left or right until I get a clean enough background. Sometimes though, I just click away and hope I get a good clean one :)
Found you through 365Project… just had to comment and say your portraits are beautiful.
I think these portraits are fabulous. I keep comming back to them day after day. The eye contact is what gets you. In a way they are very simple shots, but fascinating. You can’t help wondering what they are really like, what they are thinking. As photograhers we need the courage to do the same kind of thing in our own communities.
Found you via Abduzeedo Best of the Week #155. Usually I plow through this weekly list but your work stopped me dead in my surfing tracks. Truly inspiring work. Street photography portraits are hard enough with people usually apprehensive with some complete stranger carrying around a hunking DSLR. But you’ve managed to go beyond and capture beautiful portraits of not just a handful but 100+ strangers all with a consistent photographic style and theme that makes the whole body of work sing. Mad props!!!
Thank you millions times over. Street scenes/photography are one aspect of photography I’ve dreaming about lately and I don’t know any photographers that really shoot in this style. Everyone I know is typical Portrait, family and landscape. They all do great work but I’ve been looking for something more “raw” I guess. Your line about “stealing a shot” is fantastic because that very much how it feels. And “growing a pair” might be the best suggestion I’ve heard in quite some time. LOVE your style and keep up the amazing work and articles. It’s all very inspiring!!!!!
Hey Danny,
This is excellent work.Your photographs have always been our inspirations.
I do believe that getting strangers to pose for you is the most difficult part.
I am again very shy & refrain from doing it, but seeing you post it inspires me certainly to attempt it. will try it for sure.
Thanks for this. & please continue your work.
-ramy
Hi Danny,
Like and love your pictures and passion. Remind me of Markus Schwarze’s One picture every day. Danny, just a suggestion, your picture outcomes sometimes are inconsistent, some are too dark or too saturated and some need more light. Overall, the characters are phenomenal. Good job and keep trying!
Ronny
Ronny,
I’m sure your comment was meant to be helpful and will, indeed, help many.
Perhaps, though, you are thinking too much about ‘correct’ exposure, ‘correct’ saturation, etc., but who has decided for you what’s ‘correct’? At best the idea of correctness is just an opinion, based on a set of guidelines which try to avoid beginners’ mistakes rather than speak to those who have moved past that stage.
Always, in art of any sort, guidelines help people to get on the right tracks. But experience and understanding allow a more developed artist to let go of the helping hands and stand and walk alone with the help of their own developing understanding; to choose their own direction, with confidence or tentatively, but their own.
Amazing work!!!!!!!
Awesome post. Just reading this made me feel some of your fear and excitement. The results speak for themselves!
I enjoyed reading this article so very much. I cannot express myself. As I viewed your portraits I felt as if I was behind the camera and got the same feeling for that keeper shot! Please, keep doing what you do!
Hi Danny
You have some fantastic portraits! And I love the article, much of it I can relate as I’ve been on a similar journey for the past ten months too.
I’m up to 148 strangers (not all on the blog yet as they’re from different projects) and it’s been an education about humans – in general how helpful people can be and also how people can always surprise you.
Thanks for saying what your focus is. I think it’s help me understand what mine is too ‘having a fun interaction with strangers using the camera as an excuse’. In one project, me and my mate were sometimes spending 15 minutes with strangers as we attached an interview and present-swapping part, in addition to the portrait.
Even through I’ve taken 147 different strangers, I still get the nerves when I’m on my own! The heart pounding and with me non-stop walking. I just walk pass all the people I want to photograph. Yes, if you’re starting out, doing this with someone else, makes it a lot, lot easier.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Just read your blog and you just answered my question on asking permission. Thanks.
Do you keep all the photos you click? Or do you discard photos of some people that haven’t come well. What percentage of the photos do you keep? (I don’t mean duplicates of the same person. I mean different people).
Also where I try this I would be shooting a majority of very dark skinned people. Any advice on exposing them differently? Maybe in harsh sun that too..
Your photos are beautiful, I love the faces and colors and how natural everyone looks. Thank you so much for sharing such honest and personal thoughts about your photography experience. Dang, I want to run out into the street right now and start taking pics of people! Hahaha!
Hello Danny,
your photos are outstanding. I like the color mood and the persons you have chosen. Is it possible that you can get a bit into detail concerning the post processing.
I want to take pictures like that of my friends but I dont have such a good equipment like you (besides my 50mm 1.4).
Thank you for everything, Greetings!
@17°: The 50mm 1.4 is an awesome lens… I know you can get really good portraits out of it. If the light is right, not much post processing will be needed. I just adjust the exposure in Lightroom, then in Photoshop, I use the Heal tool to remove some skin blemishes that can be distracting, and then selectively adjust the Highlights and Shadows on certain parts of the photo. The same can be achieved with Dodge and Burn tool.
Hope this helps.
great portraits. you’ve given balls to a lot of shooters wanting to engage in street portraiture.
im very impressed!
each picture has its own story to it and its just amazing
i just got into photography ad baught my first professional camera and i realized its not that easy to take amazing pictures such as yours
you really inspired me to go on and try harder
all i have to say is Beautiful Work.
A friend had told me about you, and i have told friends about you, your work is amazing ! I check your website every week waiting for new pictures and galleries, do you have a book or something ? it would make for a perfect gift :)
@Raghdan: Thank you for visiting my blog. I’m currently working on the book for this project (through Blurb.com). I’m hoping to finish it soon! Please do stay tuned for that :)
wow, i really love what you are doing!
Great idea, I love your work. You have my vote. Get luck and keep that wonderful way.
Greetings from Spain
Im not sure if anyone asked this already but do you shoot these portraits cropped already or do you crop them only during pp? Big fan here
Danny – your work and honest narration of how you felt going about shooting people in the streets is very inspirational. I have been doing street for less than 6 months till now and have not managed to do stranger portraits – just too hard for me. You give me hope! :-)
Hey Danny, what a great work!!!
Each one of yur portraits tells a story.
Its not easy to mirror yur feeling and pen them down in words.
Kudos to u :0)
Great work! Re publishing a book — which would no doubt be beautiful — would it be necessary to get a model release for each person…?
G’day Danny
Truly inspirational work. I really love the little stories that accompany many of your street portraits. Through them I can feel some of the emotional buzz you experienced at the time.
Your simple but good kit must be liberating. Too many new photographers get lost in the equipment and not the moment.
Keep up the excellent work!
William Cowan
I was surfing through some website for inspiration of portrait photography. I am so happy that I clicked your link.
I read this page, it’s a super inspiration for me. Each and every words build and boosts my spirits. I recently, moved from hobbyist photography to professional and serious photography. I wanted to work on portraits. I believe streets and India are a great place for portraits. I have started the project 2 days back.
This is exactly the page I needed to bookmark. I would surely come back and keep reading it over and over again whenever I want the inspiration, a little read, a little help.
I saw your images, am totally blow away by the content. Added you on Flickr as well.
The camera I have is 550D and 50mm 1.8 lens. I do hope shooting at 1.8 – 2.8 is the correct focus to portrait photography.
Thanks once again for this writeup.
Thanks and Regards,
Girish
I love this idea. I have been incorporating photos of people into my daily shooting but I love the idea of making it a project of photos of 100 strangers or something similar to give it more of a mission. I think I will do something like this. Thanks and great work!