2020 will also have been my first year entirely dedicated to Reunion Island and more specifically to Saint-Denis, where I live. In any case, it was complicated to go elsewhere with the Covid-19 which entered in our lives at the beginning of the year. My little finger tells me that 2021 will look like 2020. The vaccines have arrived, but it will take many more months before some semblance of normality returns. Note, we were rather spared on Reunion Island. We were confined like everyone else last spring even if in the end, it was useless because there were hardly any cases on the island. It was after the Easter holidays that the virus settled in us thanks to the holidays with all tourists and the return of vacationers.

For several weeks the number of cases has been quite low, but we fear an explosion in the figures with the influx of tourists who have come to spend the holidays with us and flee the curfews and confinements that are in force in mainland France. We’ll see. 2021 is likely to get off to a flying start!

Photographically, I don’t know where I am at the end of this year 2020. I had ended 2019 with a bang with the impression that everything was easy for me in the street. I had been to big cities (Marseille, Paris, Toulouse, Bristol, Rome) and I had the impression of having passed a milestone in street photography. This year has been a hard comeback. It was rather laborious and I do not even put it down to the Covid-19, even if this year has been cut by two months with the confinement.

This year I have used the Ricoh GRD4 a lot. It was kind of like a homecoming. This is certainly not trivial and it is directly linked to the difficulties I encountered in the street. I needed to regain confidence in the streets and I knew that the GRD4 was the camera for me. I only used my Ricoh GR3 for 4 weeks. I don’t have a feeling with this new camera and I’m not in a good enough mood to spend more time with it in the street.

I also had the project to work on a photo book gathering a certain number of photos on Aix-en-Provence, but I put it on stand-by, not having yet found a printer who could make prints of the delivered. It will not be for 2021 … It is not very serious, I had embarked on this project during the confinement because I had nothing else to do. It is not a priority. I will rather get down to rediscovering the pleasure of taking pictures in the street quite simply.

What does 2021 have in store for us? I do not know. We are all anxious to close this chapter. While waiting to switch to this new year, I share with you my selection of 12 photos to illustrate 2020. I wish you a happy holiday season and I look forward to seeing you next year!

For the more motivated, you can watch the lenghty slideshow of some 70 photos taken in 2020 from which this selection is taken.

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As you can imagine, I quickly got bored of Marseille. Well, not really from the city, but to take the road to take pictures. In the end, after spending more than four years documenting the streets of Aix, it is obvious that the boredom had nothing to do with Aix, but rather came from me. I think that it must be part of the process of appropriating a city when you do Street Photography. That’s what I feel right now in the streets of Saint-Denis. I don’t have a lot of fun and it shows in my work. My eyes are lazy and I am no longer attentive when I walk in the streets.

So how do you overcome boredom? How to rediscover the pleasure of taking photos? If I had the answers to this problem, it would be too simple … I read a few photo books. All these photos taken in big cities or in exotic places only depressed me even more. I’m complaining, but some people wish they could just get out of their homes. The current pandemic is forcing many people to stay at home. Here on Reunion Island, no curfew nor confinement light. The virus is not very active and we continue to live with a semblance of normality (masks, barrier gestures). Enough to allow me to do Street Photography in complete freedom, but no, it’s in the head that it happens and my brain and my eyes must be confined …

To try different things, I thought to myself that changing my camera might allow me to see things differently and re-motivate me. It is well known to people with GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrom) that it is THE solution to all problems! A new camera and here we go! Okay, I can reassure you right away, I haven’t invested a single cent in a new toy. I just opened my cupboards and pulled out my old Ricoh GR. The one who has a 16 MP APS-C sensor and who has the annoying habit of catching the slightest dust lying around. Moreover, I had used it for less than 2 days since I realized that I had like a big hair on my sensor. Greaaaat!

Well that did not discourage me even if it was rather badly placed (in the middle of the sensor …). I had to change something, so I would do with it. And there, I rediscovered Street Photography, my eyes which could no longer see anything, finally opened and I made incredible photos with the GR. My creativity has been multiplied by 1000! Ok I’m doing too much here? How am I not credible? Isn’t that what the manufacturers promise us by trying to sell us their last wad of thousand euros junk? With their increasingly powerful cameras, soon we will be able to take night photos without the slightest noise!

So no, switching to the Ricoh GR hasn’t changed anything at all. I feel like I lost my Mojo. The children’s holidays come at the right time. I’m going to spend the next few weeks going to the beaches instead and going on little trips with them. As with all school holidays, this will be an opportunity for me to recharge my batteries and to do Street Photography differently. Moreover, as the effect of the GR is rather zero on my creativity, I will perhaps dust off my Fuji XE2.

All the photos were made with the Ricoh GR.

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This time, I will participate in this free entry competition with the idea of winning a Fuji X100 V. A camera clearly oriented Street Photography but with a fixed focal length of 35mm. I invite you to submit a photo of your side too. It’s free, I’ll remind you ! This contest asks you to submit a photo, but also to attach a text to explain the story behind this photo. I always thought a photo stand out for itself. It’s up to the viewer to  question the photo and interpret it. The photographer gave some information in the frame and that’s what makes an interesting photo for me. The photo can be interpreted differently depending on who is looking at it. Our sensitivity will not make us have the same interpretation of the photo.

This is a very Street Photography reasoning that I have when talking to you about this. The best photos for me are the ones that ask more questions than they bring answers. Some are very mysterious and must keep their mystery. On the other hand, I created a series on this Blog: Behind This Shot, which allows you to learn more about a photo that I have selected. It is a desire to have done this to explain through examples the process that had taken place when I took the photo. It’s like T.M.E (Through My Eyes). Trying to get you into my head to see what caught my eye when I click the shutter button. But I won’t do it for all of my photos.

Either way, you would be disappointed to know that in the end, the story behind some photos is appallingly banal. This is what is beautiful in Street Photography. We manage to sublimate the mundane. These are often simple scenes which frozen at 1/500s or more which offer us very beautiful moments of eternity.

So yes, I will surely submit one of my photos for this contest, but I’m still hesitating because for the photo I want to submit, I don’t particularly want to say anything about it. The photo, you know it, is of the old man with a thoughtful attitude on the beach. This photo is sufficient on its own. It is mysterious. This is what makes the charm and interest of this one. To say more does not make sense.

For the record, I’m never been interested in the story behind the street photos I see in books or on the internet. I like this freedom given to me to interpret the photo I have in front of me with the elements that the photographer wanted to distill in his composition. A good photo is a photo that questions me, challenges me and forces me to have a pro active attitude in front of it. It’s a photo that captures my attention. This is why I no longer give a title to my photos. If I need to give a text explanation for a photo, it’s not a good photo or in the case of this competition, it’s because the process is different.

In the end, the more I think about it, the less sure I will participate in this competition. It’s true that it would be cool to have a new toy like the Fuji X100 V. But it’s like all competitions. There is a jury and their choice will always be very subjective. Moreover, quite funny thing, Valérie Jardin, of which work I am not particularly a fan, is part of the panel of photographers who will vote for the most interesting photo (and story!). And among the thousands of photos that are going to be submitted, let’s face it, my photo is unlikely to attract any interest. Nothing flashy in what I am going to present. No layers, no Light/Shadows, no funny juxtaposition or other gimmicks so appreciated by the competitions. In short, I still have until November 30th to make up my mind …

All the photographs were made with the Ricoh GRD4.

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September and October were good months. Why ? By dint of doing Street Photography, we know when things are going well and when we struggle a little more to see and capture things. In general, I like the months following the start of the school year because I spent part of July / August (I stop saying summer because here in Reunion, it’s winter! ) to enjoy the family more with the school holidays. I always look forward to September to have a little more time to spend on the streets. This was still the case this year and for the past two months I’ve had a blast on the streets. But I also know that after moments of euphoria always follow moments of doubts, of questioning. The street is like that. Never take things for granted. And this is of course valid in both ways !

Last Friday, I was passing through Saint-Denis as usual before picking up the children from school. I have my little habits now. I always park in the same places and I will walk in the shopping street because I don’t have much time and I have to be at the exit of the school to pick up Joachim and Ronan. I had barely been 10 minutes in the city center that I was called by a guy that I often see in the city. It is a Chinese guy who is surely a political or other refugee on the island. Every day he holds a stand with someone from his family in the streets to denounce the Chinese government responsible for torture or other human rights violations. On the stand, many photos are displayed to support their words. I’ve walked past it before and the photos are clearly staged. We can see scenes of torture, organ harvesting … but these photos are not true. I’m not saying that these things are false but the photos are not real.

I never stopped to chat with them. I find it very good to denounce the actions of the Chinese government which is far from being a democracy, but I am not sure that showing these photos which are just staged ones serves their cause. In short, I was therefore challenged by this young Chinese who squarely yelled at me in English while filming me with his smartphone. He would ask me why I was spying on them and why I was taking pictures of them? I was quite surprised by the violence of his words. He had eyes full of hate and looked very angry. I tried to talk to him telling him that I take pictures in the street and that he was mistaken about my intentions. He called me a liar (in English of course), threatening to call the police. I invited him to do it if he wanted to because I had nothing to hide or blame myself. I quickly showed him what was doing on my smartphone, but he didn’t budge. For him, I was spying on him and his family and I was a liar. I tried to chat with him again, but his opinion was done and he didn’t want to chat with a spy …

At one point I asked him if he considered me a spy because I was of Chinese origin ? He didn’t answer me and I think he did. Can we blame him for being paranoid ? I don’t know what he and his family went through in China. They may have seen excruciating things or undergone things that surely made them very suspicious of others. I don’t know what their story is. I would never know because he will never speak to me. I’m a spy for the Chinese government … No one had ever done this to me before. It is obvious that in this situation, it is impossible to make this person listen to reason. It’s already complicated to make ordinary people understand why I take pictures of complete strangers in the street, but there, with people who have surely been persecuted and who have become suspicious of everything, it’s mission impossible.

This episode shocked me quite a bit and forced me to pause my work in the street to analyze certain things. Even if I know that I am not doing anything wrong in the street, I put myself in the shoes of the people I photograph in the street and I understand that their questions regarding my practice in the street are legitimate. Why does this guy allow himself to take pictures of me without even asking my opinion ? The law is on my side, I have the right in public places to take pictures of complete strangers. Good Ok I share them after the fact on my Blog or in slide shows and that, concretely I do not have the right. But until now case law has ruled in favor of the freedom of artistic expression which has prevailed over individual freedom. I never photograph people in situations that could damage their image. But even knowing all this. These altercations destabilize me and question me about the practice of Street Photography. As I said in the title of this Blog: “I’m just a human, after all …”. Besides, never forget that this also applies to people photographed in the street. They too have their history, their weaknesses, their dramas …

It’s been several days since I went back to the street. I needed to digest this episode. It touched me, but that won’t prevent me from returning to the streets soon. Sometimes it’s important to take a break to analyze what you’re doing in the street. I remain convinced that what I do is useful in my own way, to document the streets of Saint-Denis. The photos will obtain for some of them a documentary character in several years. Until now, I had lived in an environment that had kept me away from confronting the people I photographed. As I have already pointed out, it is much more difficult to do Street Photography here on Reunion Island. But I will continue because I like it. I’m not talking about confrontation, eh!

All photos were made with the Ricoh GRD4.

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We left for two days to tour the island’s skate parks. I thus documented these two days for the parents but also for myself. In the end I would have taken 500 photos and I used my Ricoh GRD4 and only 3 batteries. I chimp a lot when I take pictures, which explains the low number of pictures for 3 batteries. But what is more revealing is the autonomy of the Ricoh GRD4 over these two days. The Ricoh GR3 would not have even lasted a morning … When I left, I still wondered if I would not ran out of battery. We were in complete autonomy and since we were camping, we were already rationed in water, so don’t even count on having an electrical outlet! Note that I managed to spruce myself up with just 1 liter of water. It goes without saying that after two days with young people in the mini-bus, we were driving with the windows wide open!

I was trying to document these two days mainly for the parents. The problem is that today with smartphones, everything is shared in real time. Videos, photos. Everything was uploaded on WhatsApp while my photos were still on my memory card and waiting to be post-processed in Lightroom when I got home. It was quite frustrating as I couldn’t share the photos in real time. I would need a Wifi SD card to be able to transfer the files directly to my smartphone, but here too I would need software to transform my RAW files into jpg … In short, a lot of logistics unless I shoot only in jpg. Parents will wait for the photos. We live in a society where everything is going too fast. We want everything without waiting. We share everything and too much without any filter. I’m going to stay old school and take the time to do things.

Besides, in this regard, for some time, you have noticed that I share less photos. Blame it on lockdown ? to Covid-19 ? No, none of that. Reunion Island escapes the recent re-containment that takes place in mainland France. The virus is still active among us, but remains at a not yet alarming threshold. This is the status quo here. We pay attention, we wear the mask, we avoid gatherings of people, we restrict ourselves to barrier gestures. The Prefect does not rule out having recourse to curfew or lockdown if the figures deteriorate, but for the moment life continues with us. The reason I share less is that I want to stop diluting my work by showing too many photos. I know very well that my website and my Blog are places where I can show my work without filters, but that’s no reason not to be more demanding with what I show.

So I now share my photos in monthly form with slideshows that I post on YouTube. In September it was 30 photos, but I think it’s still too much. For the month of October, I decided to share only 20. I do not exclude further lowering this figure to show you only ten photos per month. You can find the two slideshows for September and October below.

Let’s come back to the subject of this Blog, namely the Street Mindset. I applied myself to photographing the children who took part in this outing with this famous Street Mindset. Even though I photographed mainly for parents, I always kept in mind the possibility of taking some very typical Street Photography photos. The challenge was to be careful that the children were not recognizable in the photos. However, I photograph children in the street a lot without censoring myself. But the situation here was different. I was accompanying an outing that was not organized by me and I did not want to overwhelm the organizer of the outing who was responsible for the image rights of the children present during this trip to the skate-parks . In the street, I am responsible for my actions and it is I who would answer in case of problems. There clearly this was not the case.

It’s really not obvious, but it was a little challenge. All in all, I only have a small handful of photos where I managed to do what I wanted. In the end, the parents were delighted with the photos that I gave them. A mom even told me that my photos tell stories. I don’t think there is a better compliment than this. And of the 500 photos, barely 4 purely Street photos. It’s already a lot and I consider myself happy to have been able to make them.

All the photographs were made with the Ricoh GRD4.

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Do you remember the movie “The Groundhog Day”? A film released in the 90s starring Andie McDowell and Bill Murray, where Phil Connors (B. Murray) finds himself doomed to relive the same boring day of The Groundhog Day forever. It’s a bit of our life right now … We had been installed for less than an hour and the children wanted to enjoy the pool. An old-fashioned swimming pool with 1/3rd of the basin with water just above the knee and then a part where you can’t touch the bottom. They had been told not to dive, but jumping is not diving right? And bam, Ronan jumped where there wasn’t much water thinking there was … He screamed in pain holding his same leg that had been in a plaster not so long ago. it. He was screaming saying his leg was broken !

In a panic, we took him out of the pool. I quickly checked his leg and it didn’t look like the shin was (yet) broken. I asked him where it hurt and he showed me the heel. He had tapped hard on the heel and his ankle had swelled a bit and a redness was appearing. I wanted to go to the emergency, but in the end, I preferred to go to a doctor’s office which was open until midnight. It was 6:00 p.m. when we got there. Fortunately there was not much waiting but the doctor could not comment on his ankle. He had to do an X-ray to find out if there were any fractures in the heel or ankle … He made a small splint to relieve him. When he got back to the apartment, his head hurt more than anything else. It was a lot of emotions for him to deal with and the bad memories of his previous fracture were still very much alive and brought up things that were just starting to be digested.

The next day, the morning was devoted to radios and returning to the doctor’s office. He is doing quite well. No fracture (phew …), but surely a nice sprain. 3 more weeks with a splint … Cold bag to heal the hematoma and a splint to prevent the ankle from moving. Frankly it is painful for him because he has the impression of not getting out of it. A kid is made to run, jump and there he crawls a sprain after being immobilized for 6 weeks. He was just starting to walk normally after 3 weeks of physiotherapy and there it is. Note, we are glad that there is not another fracture. In the end, we can even consider ourselves happy at the time. It does not console much Gwen who had already experienced the “tibia/fibula fracture” episode as a second confinement. And to say that there he resumed for 3 more weeks

Well, let me reassure you right away, he’s getting better (and so are we!). He manages to walk, dragging his paw a little. We bought him high-top basketball shoes to keep his ankle secure. Besides, his ankle deflated and found a normal color. He is not yet running, but moves without any help. This mishap changed our stay at the beach somewhat. We tried to take advantage of these three days at the beach anyway so that Joachim did not feel that this unfortunate accident was going to ruin his holidays.

What about the photos ? Well, I’ve stayed at the apartment a lot with Ronan and the only two outings I’ve done with him were to meet my sister with the family at a restaurant and to the aquarium. It was not easy because I had to carry him, but it is also holidays for the crippled ! So I might as well tell you that I took very few photos. I just had a few minutes with Joachim at the beach and one evening at sunset time while I was out ordering for food. You have in this Blog, the summary of our three days spent at the beach ! You can see he’s smiling again and things are moving in the right direction. Otherwise, this year 2020 is really lame. Between the Covid-19, Ronan’s misfortunes … Roll on 2021. Finally, it couldn’t be worse? Could it ?

All the photographs were made with the Ricoh GRD4.

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That day, on returning from vacation spent in the South of the island, an event came to shake up our little life and especially that of our little guy Ronan. Double tibia/fibula fracture less than two weeks before the start of the school year. To be honest, he hasn’t been back to school since and Gwen my wife went through a second lockdown with him at home. She still did the teatcher for him for almost 6 weeks ! For 3 weeks now, Ronan has had his plaster removed but had great difficulty walking. He is already not very thick and he has lost a lot of muscles and his tendons, which have not worked for this long period of time, have retracted and we had to work with a physiotherapist to regain flexibility.

We were impatiently awaiting this date of September 16th. We checked it off on our diary. Ronan was finally going to walk again and the ordeal was finally over ! Well no … He couldn’t walk and it was a cold shower. It took 3 weeks of rehabilitation for him to walk again. He is not yet running, but the few swimming sessions in the pool have surely helped him. With some exercises his broken leg got stronger, but there was also a click in his head. He no longer considers his leg to be broken. When we had taken off his plaster, he was still telling us that he could not walk and put his leg down because it was … broken ! It was in vain to tell him (the doc too) that the fracture had healed well (radiography in support) and that he could go, but for him, it was not true.

So, as I told you, I have complicated stories with the Ricoh GRD4 as soon as I approached a little too close to the water. But it’s stronger than me. Winter is over for us and the arrival of mosquitoes heralds the start of summer. The temperatures are rising slowly and the children have their fins wagging and wanting to get in the water. This is all the more true for Ronan as he is stuck at home and swimming is highly recommended to strengthen his little chicken leg.

This first day of vacation, we had to pack our bags because we were moving for the vacation time to my parents because some work had to take place at home. Instead, we ended up at the beach with a little improvised picnic with cousins and my sister. The children were delighted to enjoy this first day of vacation with their cousins. Ronan still had a hard time moving quickly, but that didn’t stop him from trying to slide on his board, trying to imitate his brother. Joachim, moreover, has an innate sense of sliding. He does very well on skis, can do amazing things on a scooter, is not afraid to try his hand at skateboarding and there it was quite impressive to see him run and slide on his board without falling. Basically the opposite of me. Even if I snowboard, I wouldn’t be able to do what he does.

After lunch, he urged me to come and take pictures of him, but I collapsed on a towel under a tree to take a nap because I had been up since 5:30 am to go to work … When I emerged , I saw them having fun sliding on their boards. Ricoh on the wrist, I went to immortalize these moments. Children always provide great photo opportunities. They are unpredictable and often have very photogenic gestures. I must have spent almost 30 minutes by their side photographing them.

For the processing, I didn’t hesitate for long before going Black & White. The pristine blue sky lent itself well to monochrome. I could expose on the sky to keep only the silhouettes of the children. I worked at ISO 80 to keep a lot of sharpness in the photos. I also did some color photos trying to make interesting compositions, but ultimately exposing in highlights to make it minimalist worked best for the situation.

This first week of vacation, we are going to go to the seaside for a few days to enjoy the beach and the good weather which announces the arrival of summer. A little thought for those in the northern hemisphere who are starting to get cold. Summer is coming up here on Réunion Island. We send some warm vibes to all of you!

All the photos were made with the Ricoh GRD4.

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This photo dates from 2016 and was selected by Lauren Welles, a New York street photographer for a small contest. It was printed in a photobook : World Street Photography 4. I like this photo a lot, but not just for aesthetic reasons. I love it because I happened to walk past this scene. I parked a little further and I was heading on foot to another place that I had spotted. So I passed under this bridge on foot whereas I am usually on the road by car and the perspective is totally different. This place has also changed enormously since the pharaonic works that saw the roads remodeled to accommodate Aixpress, buses with dedicated 100% electric tracks. This photo is anchored in its time and we will never be able to redo this photo.

This photo serves as an intro for the subject I wanted to discuss for a while. The importance of triangles in photography and especially here in Street Photography. In this case, the triangles are obvious and visible as geometric structures. As I might have said, I’m not a huge fan of architectural photos, but I don’t disdain sometimes taking the time to compose with urban elements to do different things. This was the case for this photo below.

I had passed by this site and I liked to see these rough concrete blocks coming out of the ground. I stayed to observe the ballet of the crane which came to bring fresh concrete to pour the walls. I took the time to compose quite precisely, which I do quite rarely and I am quite happy with the result. I always have triangles in mind when I compose. Triangles make everything dynamic. This is still the case here with the tilted verticals and the many triangles that appear when you take the time to study the composition. I can confirm that all the elements are placed where I wanted them.

Very often, triangles are suggested and do not appear directly as in the previous example. We find these famous triangles with the anchor points of the composition. It could be people or just elements that I wanted to integrate into the frame. Very often in my case, it will be people. I still find it difficult to do it differently. These are some recent examples where I have worked with individuals or groups of people.

These compositions are quite simple but they work because the eye is attracted by the summits of the invisible triangle that I have put in red. Which leads us to have a dynamic reading of the photo. In any case, I work like that.

Lately I told John Harper, that I tried more and more to integrate cars, motorcycles or any other elements in my compositions. I am attracted to people and tend to focus only on them. But I tend to widen my field of view a bit when shooting to incorporate more context into my photos. Whether it’s traffic or buildings. It’s pretty funny because very early on, I started doing close-up when it’s one of the most intimidating things in Street Photography. People start with more general scenes taken from a distance and gradually move closer to be closer to people. I do the opposite! I am no longer attracted to close-ups. I want more complex scenes by integrating as many things as possible into my composition. In the photo below, there is also a suggested triangle in my composition: This red and white car coming out of the frame, the boy and the two ladies in the distance.

On this last example, I integrated these two static elements in the foreground into my composition. When I look at this photo, my eye is doing ping-pong between the different elements of the imaginary triangles that I drew for you in red. Subconsciously when I compose a photo, I am looking for elements that allow me to create these triangles. 3 is a magic number in photography. In fact it takes odd numbers, but I find it very complicated to work above 3 elements in a composition. Here in this case we have 5 elements in the composition but it is a static scene, quite far from the mess of the street.

It is true that it is quite difficult to think of everything in the street. Everything is going fast, there are a lot of unforeseen events and clutters elements. Sometimes succeeding in having a clean scene with just two elements is a challenge, but little by little you learn to spot the scenes with potential and personally I always try to make my life easier by trying to integrate static people in my compositions. I also use triangles a lot to sort my photos. To determine the potential of certain photos. Sometimes these famous invisible triangles appear during editing. This is what will make one photo more interesting than another.

All the photos were made with the Ricoh GRD4 except the opening one (Fuji XE2|18 mmf2)

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Let’s come back to this photo. For some time now, I tend to hang out a lot in the same places to take pictures. Because I know where there will be more people to do Street Photography. As I already told you, Saint-Denis is a big city, but in the end it’s never the big crowd in the streets. To be completely honest, at the end of the afternoon after kids leaving school, there are quite a few people going home. I even noticed that on Friday at the end of the afternoon, the streets came alive a little more. Surely the approach of the weekend !

This late afternoon, I had decided to go hang out on the seaside for a change. I walked past Saint-Denis Cathedral and saw this small group of people who were likely to attend a wedding. Moreover, given the current health circumstances, a marriage has a good chance of turning into a cluster of covid-19 … It has often happened to me to interfere in the middle of a wedding to take pictures. I like these situations because people are well dressed. In Aix-en-Provence every summer weekend, the town hall square in the city center saw dozens of weddings. It was quite fun trying to capture some interesting scenes. There were very few people outside here except for this small group of people.

I hesitated a bit. It’s easy to blend in with the crowd when it’s crowded. But there it was more complicated … But still, there were these little girls in tutus ! In the end, as you can imagine, it was stronger than me. I went there without knowing how I was going to go about successfully photographing these girls without being noticed. I just walked over to the small group. In the current situation, I had to climb the stairs to get to their level and it allowed me to be able to take a photo while being slightly lower than the little girls. This is important because if you don’t get up to their level by photographing them from above, you crush them and the picture is not very nice. I couldn’t afford to walk up next to these girls and get on my knees to take the picture. There I would have been unmasked and questioned in the best case and insulted in the worst case … The stairs allowed me to take the picture while being slightly lower, as if in the end I had knelt down. All this reflection, I had it by traversing the tens of meters which separated me from them. It’s always like that when I spot a situation from afar. I’m trying to figure out how to take the photo.

I quickly took a picture at the bottom of the stairs. I knew this photo wasn’t the one I wanted, but it’s like a reflex that prompts me to click in case I wasn’t going to get what I want afterwards. As much to say to you that it is strictly for nothing because the photo is of no interest. Just that will serve me to lament later on this lost opportunity. As I walked up the stairs, I was surprised to see this little group breaking up and having a cleaner scene with the two little girls in tutus looking at someone behind me. As a bonus I had a little gesture from one of the two girls. The photo was in the box and nobody noticed anything and yet this photo was not taken from the hip, but while aiming with the screen. I waited until the characters didn’t overlap to click.

I wondered if I wasn’t going to stay a bit to take more photos, but it forced me to go back down the stairs because the position of the sun dictated my position. It was too complicated and I was going to arouse suspicion and lose this moment. Very often with children you only have one chance to take pictures. Then you are quickly spotted and assimilated to a predator or pervert. It’s a shame because I love to take pictures of children in the street. They are unpredictable and always offer good photo opportunities. A person came out of the cathedral and I took this last photo.

I remain convinced that there was still potential here but sometimes you have to know when to leave. I got what I wanted. Was it necessary to go further at the risk of being exposed or even creating a potential confrontation ? These people were still there to share a moment of joy and celebration. No need to ruin this moment. So I left them. In the end, I did not go to the seaside. Next time !

You can see that in the end the photo was post-processed in Black & White. The colors in this precise case did not add anything to the photo. Monochrome allowed me to make these girls identical with their tutu. There was also already a white cast in this scene with the walls and pylons. The Black & White prevailed.

All photos were taken with the Ricoh GRD4.

Cet article Behind this shot : Girls in a tutu est apparu en premier sur Jeff CHANE-MOUYE PHOTOGRAPHY.

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Frankly, I have countless photos from August of last year that I consider my favorites from those Aix years ! Everything was simple, I say again. I saw an interesting scene and I clicked : Bam ! keeper. Quantitatively, I had reached a level that I had not imagined. It was like a dream. As much to say to you that the awakening was rather brutal on Reunion island … I believed for a long time that my difficulties stemmed from the changes which were underway in my routine life. New assignment, new living environment, professional questioning … I won’t hide from you that these elements surely had a certain effect on my photography. But now that I’ve spent a year here, I can tell there was something else behind it …

I can affirm that it is much more difficult to do Street Photography in Saint-Denis than in Aix en Provence, Marseille, Rome, Paris or any place I have been in the last few years. First of all, the situations are sorely lacking. Saint-Denis is a big city, but nothing is happening there … The city center is dead and there is no dynamic. Nothing that hold people back. Bars, terraces or places. It’s crazy. It is still the largest city in the DOM (Overseas Department), and it is a city without life. It should be noted that the streets are more crowded on Saturdays and this is clearly the day when I can have interesting photographically speaking opportunities … But the rest of the time, forget about it.

The second thing that makes things complicated is its people themselves. Here we have Arabs, Tamils, Comorians, Chinese, Africans, Creoles and Zoreils (local name given to metropolitans …). A very heterogeneous population with different religions. The first ethnic groups mentioned are very community-based even if everyone lives well together. Taking pictures is often a challenge because cameras are often frowned upon. Even if I walk around with my Ricoh GRD4 which is very discreet, I am constantly being thrown disapproving looks when I take pictures. There are not only looks, but also words that would be able to discourage the less experienced street photographers.

A lot of times I have to shoot blind (from the hip) because I know it’s the only way to try and capture a scene without creating a confrontation. And the confrontation is latent in Reunion because people do not hesitate to call out to you if something does not please them and they are ready for a confrontation, even physical if it is necessary. Yes we are hot-blooded here and it is not only due to the sun … What I am telling you here is a reality. Despite my 4 years of practice, I am not fearless in the streets. I try to stay away from problems and confrontations by adopting a low profile in the street. I don’t hide to take pictures, but I take a lot of precautions. I act quickly and try to always stay on the move to instill doubt in the person photographed. “He couldn’t have photographed me there anyway !!? …” I never make Eye Contact with the people photographed.

I would like to take more time, but frankly having done it several times, I get spotted quite quickly. Saint-Denis is not a tourist town and someone with a camera, no matter how discreet, quickly attracts attention. And it’s a shame because despite everything, the city offers moments of pure grace that we would like to capture by taking the time, but it’s very complicated …

So far, I haven’t had a lot of troubles because I take a lot of precautions on the street. Even avoiding taking some photos because fearful of a misinterpretation of what I do. No need to go and explain that you do Street Photography to anyone here … In the end, things were easier in Aix-en-Provence. No one was paying attention to me. This difficulty is certainly felt in the photos that I now take in Reunion. Lots of photos taken from the hip, taken from further away. I have to reinvent my photography here to be able to continue documenting the streets of Saint-Denis. What worked elsewhere does not work here. It’s not a bad thing. Because in the end, it is still an evolution in my photographic journey. My work will inevitably be different from the one I was able to do in Aix-en-Provence. We’ll see where it takes me …

All the photos were made with the Ricoh GRD4.

Cet article Street Photography in Saint-Denis est apparu en premier sur Jeff CHANE-MOUYE PHOTOGRAPHY.

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