POV: Staged Photos In China : The New York Times

Photo Gilles Sabrié | Courtesy The New York Times

The article titled "At This Instagram Hot Spot, All the World’s a Stage (and the Buffalo’s a Prop)" appeared in The New York Times on June 28, 2021.

The New York Times' coverage of China has -on many occasions- been extremely negative (and in political and societal cases, deservedly so), but I fail to see the real intent of this article...even after I've read it a few times. 

Many of its readers' comments also take issue with it, essentially asking what's the harm of staging photographs in a scenic region, providing pleasure to the photographers (presumably none are working professionals) who flock there and, in so doing, provide additional income to its impoverished farmers. After all, many countries, regions, areas, towns and villages do the same...for instance, Colonial Williamsburg and Mystic Seaport (to mention but a few) offer a myriad of photo opportunities with its staff wearing period costumes, speaking Olde English and posing for visitors. The Omo Valley in Ethiopia is well known for stagings of its tribes by unscrupulous photographers...adorning these beautiful people with incongruous props, headgear and flowers. Another example of staging are the beautiful photographs of the Inle Lake fishermen in Burma (which I've done and enjoyed doing).

At least, the stagings of the Chinese villagers et al don't seem to have demeaned their culture as those in the Omo Valley have done. 

I expect many in the travel photography communities will view these arranged setups as inauthentic (of course they are) and fake. I also expect a number of the photographers taking part in these arranged photo sessions may win prizes in travel photography competitions.

But what's the big kerfuffle about? There's ample room for staged travel photography (which I've often done)....there's room for candid travel photography (which I've often done)...and there's room for the type of travel photography I always relish: "travel photography meets photojournalism". 

Post Scriptum: One of the photographs in the article has a Chinese photographer wearing a red MAGA cap...😡

The "Joker" of Washington Square Park

Photos © Tewfic El-Sawy | All Rights Reserved

As soon as New York City completely lifted its restrictions, Washington Square Park just "exploded" with activity to levels seldom seen (as least by me, and excluding political rallies) before the pandemic. It was always a meeting place and center for cultural activity, a hub for politics and culture in our city. For many years, people visiting the park mingled with buskers, performers, musicians, narcissists and poets. However, lately it's as if a massive infectious dose of dopamine-fueled energy was suddenly injected in the bloodstream of the square. 

Naturally, this also led to late-night chaos and disturbances (to put it mildly) fomented by out of control youngsters which led to police interventions and resulted in provocative articles in the local press. 

I frequently visit the square in the late afternoons, as I plan on producing a photo book with the scenes that I come across during these visits. It's a long term project that will take advantage of the freewheeling months of summer, and will fill the temporary (hopefully) created by the impracticality of international travel.

One of the intriguing characters I see reasonably often is the "Joker". Dressed in various different outfits -including an orange jail jumpsuit- and facial makeup to resemble Joaquin Phoenix's character in the 2019 movie, he seems to be well known among the regulars in park. Occasionally, courageous photographers ask him to pose for their cameras.

I chose to use masking techniques to isolate him from the distracting backgrounds, and for his persona to jump out of the photographs. 

The Color Versus Monochrome Debate

I recently posted the two top photographs on my Facebook timeline and asked which version was more compelling, nicer and/or interesting visually speaking.

As I sort of anticipated, the responses were almost evenly split, with the tiniest of edges going to the color version. I remained ambivalent as I seesaw between the two, perhaps depending on the time of day. The responses were from seasoned photojournalists as well as from non professionals.

The preference between monochrome and color has largely been a subjective one. although the subject matter, physiognomy, scene and location sometimes do not offer much leeway in the final choice. 

As I write this, I must admit that I am inclined towards the monochrome versions...perhaps because New York City street scenes are expected to be gritty? I don't really know....

Unique, The Skateboarder

Having noticed Unique David Starson in Washington Square Park, I approached him with my iPhone, on which there was one of my earlier photographs of a skateboarder, and asked whether he'd be interested in posing against a tree a few feet away. He was amenable to the idea, grabbed his board and posed. A skateboarder and an aspiring model, he told me he often dropped by the park with his friends.

I added these photographs to my NYC Photography website.

I used ON1 Photo Raw 2020 to replace the tree trunk that I had him stand against with a black opaque black background, and try to duplicate the setting of an indoor studio.  

Whenever and wherever I traveled, it has always been my regret not to have a lightweight backdrop support system (such as this one) coupled with a black muslin backdrop (such as this one) to quickly set up and photograph whoever I came across. It could also be very useful in Washington Square Park with the many interesting individuals that seem to congregate there.