Street photography has never been my thing. I don’t have a good feel of advanced composition and plus I didn’t really like walking up to people and asking for permission to take their photos.
Nevertheless,  i took an assignment where i needed to get environmental portraits,  together with their name,  age,  occupation and country of origin. The commission was for a magazine article documenting the different faces of foreigners residing, working or travelling in Singapore. Now that i have a purpose,  i gritted my teeth and did the ground work. I focused on areas with high human traffic flow in Singapore, such as Dhoby Ghaut and Orchard.
Candid photos would have made my job so much easier,  but the information i needed meant I had to approach  and ask strangers walking down the street and position them properly. Getting the light right was easy,  I opted for the standard rim light and hair light to make the portrait that bid more interesting.
The assignment was conducted over several days in the late afternoon,  with generally strong directional light giving me the effect i wanted. Luckily, posing was not required, I just needed a full body shoot with the subject facing me head on.
Below are some examples of my gracious subjects:

All subjects gave their permission to be featured in the magazine which commissioned me. Eventually, the result was very satisfactory but sadly I was unable to provide photos for each subject as I did not collect any contact information.

My takeaway from this assignment was that people can be quite receptive of having their photographs taken, as long as you explain clearly that you mean no harm and that the photos will not be used in a malicious way. On my part, I definitely became less wary of approaching strangers and acquired some “skills” in handling different people.

 

 

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