Coincidence

I'm a big fan of Jeff Wall, even though his work is as different from mine as logically possible. For one thing, Wall works entirely in the directorial mode, in which every aspect of the "scene" captured in his photographs is constructed. Even when they look like "street photography," such as in the example below, they ain't -- these are actors and the street has been cleared beforehand:




This incident of overt racism is not found but made.

I work almost entirely in the opposite mode of so-called "found" or "documentary" or "photojournalistic" photography. I try not to alter any aspect of the scene I'm trying to get, except perhaps when I take portraits. Regardless, the photograph below, which I took on an incredibly cold day last winter, somehow reminds me of the Wall photo above:



Well, maybe only I see the resemblance. It's something about the 3 people, the distance between them, the shadows, and the guarded expression on the mother's face, except that it's the Asian doing the stereotyping this time around.

Here, by the way, is what they were seeing:



Turned out to be a very friendly, chatty guy.