Observational – Henri Cartier Bresson. The approach of observationalism focuses on capturing moments as they naturally unfold – while actively avoiding interrupting this moment. Henri Cartier Bresson pioneered this style of street photography – capturing what he called the decisive moment; framing a perfect composition and waiting for the subjects to align perfectly with said composition.
Confrontational – William Klein. This method is about provoking with reactions and engaging with the subjects. Klein is a prime example using close up, dynamic raw images. This method takes strength to use because it can be awkward or scary to do – you have to be very outgoing and confident to just shove a camera in peoples faces.
William Klein







The mise-en-scene presents a young boy with an angry face pointing a gun at the photographer – this photo has a direct mode of address and almost feels threatening. Contrasting is a younger boy look innocently and curiously at the gun wielder.
As far as the technical aspects go, the image is black and white, and has really high levels of contrast – the boys skin is blown out with little detail and their clothes are a deep black. We cant really tell from which direction the light is coming from, but it is natural. The shutter speed is definitely high – at least above 1/250. I can tell this because it is definitely a snapshot of a fast moving scene – the boy wouldn’t have held this pose for too long. The aperture is probably f/5.6, the gun is out of focus but the boys and the background are all crisp. I think the ISO would be relatively high to to the high amounts of grain associated with both a high ISO and the process of shooting on a film camera.
Conceptually, after taking this photo he mentioned he felt he was photographing himself – the two young boys felt like different parts of himself – one side is angry and aggressive and the other is calm collected, naïve and curious. This could represent his street persona when he’s being all aggressive taking photos rapidly up close to people – confrontational, vs when he’s off the job and being with family.