The Shot #2: The Hasid and the Statue

“Cool photo! Is it posed?”

This is usually the first thing I hear when I show a friend or family member this photo. To a street photographer, I’m not sure if that’s a complement or a accusation, but my answer is an emphatic “No!”

When I first saw this man sleeping on a picnic bench in Tsfat, Israel, I was across from him. His head was down and his yarmulke was facing me. I wasn’t completely sure he was sleeping, but it looked like he was wearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. Staying on brand, I visualized a confrontation if he looked up while I was making a picture, and it wasn’t pretty. I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Still, I hesitated.

Instead of making a photo, I slowly walked past him. Then my heart skipped a beat as I saw a statue next to him mimicking his exact position and mood. Any concern I had of a confrontation dissipated just long enough for me to pick up the camera and make a few photos. My heart began to race from the excitement that this scene was mine.

Whatever settings I had already dialed in would be the ones I would use for this photo. I pressed the shutter button a few times, but quickly became conscious of an alternate reality where he was awake and yelling at me. I also noticed the guise of a bystander in the frame with a disapproving face. Holding my camera still, I took one last shot.

I really do love this photo, but if I could do it again I would have made some changes in my process. For one thing, I would have taken my time and worked the scene. The man was asleep, for gods sake! I also would have opened the aperture (I was shooting aperture priority), freezing the frame and getting more separation between the foreground and the background.

This analysis comes a full two months and seven thousand miles from the moment I made this photo. It’s easy for me to sit at my desk critiquing my work, and it’s important to do so. But I also feel like I have a nice photo here. I enjoy showing this photo to others and watching their reactions. It’s similar to the reaction I experienced when I saw the scene for the first time.