Nadav Kander - Obama's People

I have just read an interview with Nadav Kander published 3 years ago just after his set of portaits "Obama's People" appeared in the New York Times. I found this article in an old RPS Journal (June 2009) that someone had left at my photography club. I had looked at this set of portraits on the photographers website early last year just before finishing TAOP in 2011. One of my 2010 Xmas presents was a copy of his book "Yangtse - The Long River" and I recorded my comments on the Yangtse photographs in my blog in January 2011.

I remember feeling puzzled by the style of his portraits. In my mind I was comparing these to the Annie Leibovitz portraits of US politicians that I had seen in the 2009 retrospective of her work "A Photographers Life 1990 - 2005" at the National Portait Gallery, London. Nadav Kander's portraits appeared to resemble snapshots, lacking the natural-looking light and stylish postures of Leibovitz portraits.

The article was interesting as Kander explained his intentions for this sequence of portraits that was commissioned by the New York Times.

The interview with Journal editor David Bland was entitled "The Question Mark" and the title was explained in the opening paragraphs with Kander was talking about his style of photography:-

"What I look for in a portrait and what I look for in a landscape are the same. It is always slightly uncomfortable, with the question mark rather than the exclamation mark. I love Bill Brandt's work: it's a similar effect. There's a disquiet there, and a questioning."

He also commented that "My work has very little to do with the decisive moment. It doesn't really come into my way of thinking. I don't need to see the moment. I take it. I'm not a documentarian, I am not a hunter."

His precise meaning here is unclear. What I take from his comments are

• Not all photography involves finding a decisive moment.
• I think his comment "I am not a hunter" refers to an analogy that photographers can be categorized as "hunters" or "fishermen". Hunter photographers use movement and speedy reactions to capture the elusive "prey" . For fishermen photographers, on the other hand, it is patience and guile that gets them the shot.

I have summarized some of the interesting points he made regarding his intentions for this commission:-

• They were intended to be viewed as a set, not as individual portraits. Indeed the New York Times devoted an entire issue to these portraits of the Obama Administration.
• He wanted the portraits to still be interesting in 20 years time. So that the portraits would not become too dated, he wanted the simplest possible format.
• He wanted to produce "accurate" portraits. His idea was to mimic a "photocopy" using a totally plain background and no context of the location i.e. no desk, room etc.
• He wanted the subjects to participate in the portrait making process. They could bring along something that belonged to them. He asked them to stand in a precise position and then he watched them to see how they would "handle their surroundings". If they got stuck, he suggested they remove their jacket or put their hands in their pockets.

His aim was to produce a set of similar subjects against an absolutely plain background. This has the effect that small details become important e.g. a particular hand posture. Such details would not be noticed in a portrait of someone seated at a desk or in a room. He acknowledges that this idea follows the thinking of Bernd and Hilla Becher in their series of photographs of water towers, blast furnaces etc.

The "oddity" with this sequence is that he added the shadows behind the figures at the printing stage. As a result, the subjects look as if they are standing immediately in front of a backdrop. In fact, the subjects were standing a long way away from the backdrop. He decided to add the shadow "to make things more interesting, more thought provoking: something odd that strikes you as not quite right". I am not sure that this subtlety would be detectible by the audience to produce the discordant note that he intends. As a student of photography, I will sometimes study the shadows in photographs to try and work out the direction and nature of the light source. These particular shadows, however, did not strike me as unnatural, even though I now know that they were artificially added.

Conclusions

Nadav Kander explains in the interview how he became a professional photographer. I was interested that his early career was based on commercial advertising work e.g. Benson and Hedges was one of his clients. My impression of this type of photography is that it involves close attention to detail, requiring total control over camera, lighting, setting etc. to achieve as near perfection technically and aesthetically as possible. This may account for the style of photography that he explains at the beginning of the article. With this commercial background, he is unlikely to become a street photographer in the style of Cartier Bresson or Doisneau.

Adding artificial shadows etc is probably fairly common practice in the field of commercial advertising.

His explanation of his intention in these photographs was fascinating and the I viewed the New York Times web page displaying the set of photographs with renewed interest and respect.

Robert Doisneau - Centennial Retrospective Exhibition, Tokyo

Before travelling to Japan, I did check what photographic events were taking place in Tokyo. As a country renowned for its cameras as well as many famous photographers, I expected that there would be a plethora of events.
In Tokyo, I readily found information on the Metropolitan Museum of Photography, but little else in central Tokyo. The Metropolitan Museum shows three different exhibitions at any one time, but it does not have a permanent display of Japanese or other photographers. On the day we went there, I had the choice between a retrospective exhibition of Robert Doisneau, an exhibition of photographs by Felice Beato, an Englishman who travelled through Asia in late 19th century, and an exhibition entitled "Desolation" by a 20th Century Japanese photographer. The latter did not seem likely to provide inspiration for People and Places course, so I opted for the Robert Doisneau Retrospective.
The retrospective included pre-war and war-time photographs in black and white through to colour photographs from the 1980s. The exhibition notes were naturally in Japanese which meant that I could only read the photograph titles which were shown in the original French.
I had liked the photos of his that I had seen in the past, but I was aware that he has been criticized as he used two actors for his most famous image of two people kissing at the Hotel de Ville in Paris. He does not feature in the books on photographic art criticism that I have read as part of this course and I have the impression that he is not considered as worthy of study. Nevertheless, there is, in my view, a lot to learn from his work:- 

• His use of light (natural light, artificial light and flash) was second to none.
• He portrays human nature in ways that almost everyone can understand. Sometimes humorous, sometimes ironic, most of his pictures need no commentary.

La Communion de Monique, Montrouge 1943
The photograph (Number 4 of 15 Paris Occupation Liberation) taken in wartime appears to have been taken in a cellar or underground chamber of a girl's first communion. She is dressed in a white dress and veil, and the room is full of friends and family dressed in their best clothes. There seems to be a light in the ceiling shining down on the foreground figures as well as some light illuminating the faces of the background figures. One of the intriguing features is that the people look as if they are listening for something: their faces are generally serious and several of them are looking up. Is the ceremony taking place during a bombing raid or some other danger, which has momentarily distracted their attention. It seems likely that this is a photograph of an authentic event, and I do not feel that this is a tableau arranged by the photographer.
Cafe Noir et Blanc, Joinville le Port 1948
A photograph (Number 2 of 15 wedding photos) juxtaposes a miner still black with coal dust with a bride in white and bridegroom at a bar. It is improbable that the photographer came across this scene by accident. He probably arranged for the miner and/or the married couple to be present. Are the people actors dressed up for the photographer? Maybe not, the miner certainly looks authentic. When I first saw this photograph, I assumed that the miner had been present at the wedding, as I seem to remember that miners are associated with bringing good luck. It looked to me as if the wedding party have adjourned to this bar, including the miner. For me, this photograph is amusing and intriguing irrespective of whether the photographer truly found these people in a bar, or whether he arranged for them to be present, or whether they are all actors dressed up specially for the photograph.
I assume that he must have used flash as it would not have been very light in the bar. There is a bright reflection in the window in the background. The shadows are not obtrusive however, just a little under the brides are and a narrow line behind the arm of the barmaid.
Other photos
Several other photos in the exhibition that I studied do not appear to be available to link to on the web. I have recorded briefly my notes on these below:
Arceuil 1943: The photograph is taken at a sharp bend. A mother is walking towards us with a child on each hand. The pavement sweeps around and leads to a tall building in the background. There is low sunlight from the right hand side. The light and shade of this image makes a drab scene something striking.
Jean Cocteau et sa gourvenante 1956: This is a head and torso portrait of two people, with Jean Cocteau in the left foreground with an elderly lady, his governess standing in a doorway in the background. Light is coming through the doorway so that her face is lit from the side and her head casts a shadow on the door. Both are looking at the camera, but there is an intriguing element which I think derives from the intimate link between the two subjects. The photographer is revealing to us a glimpse of the personal life of a celebrity. One wonders what the governess thinks of Jean Cocteau and vice versa? I like the fact that the couple are not shown side by side, which seems to add some psychological drama to the scene. Also the figures stand out against the light and shade of the doorway which makes the scene visually dramatic.

People and activity - photography

Introduction

The weather was overcast and cold with occasional drizzle, which was fine for the photography that I wanted to do.

The first re-enactment performance was scheduled for 12 pm and the second at 3 pm. However, as the Spike is close to home, I went there mid-morning to see if it was possible to look around and also to book my seats. I tried a few photographs in the interior to see what the light levels were likely to be whilst it was quiet. There were notices stating that photography is not normally allowed in the interior, so I was indeed fortunate to have permission to take photos.

When I returned for the first performance there were half a dozen other people who had booked for the first show. For me, this was fortunate as it would have been more difficult to take photographs in the confined interior if there were more people.

The re-enactment started with a general introduction, but it subsequently followed the daily routine that I had expected:-

• Queuing outside for the gate to be opened
• Waiting in turn in an external shelter to be registered
• Registration and provision of food
• Having a bath and change of clothing
• Working breaking stones, cutting wood or producing oakum from old ropes.

I took as many photographs as I could as the performance moved from outside to inside. The second performance was unfortunately cancelled as there were no other people who had bought tickets - the bad weather had probably put people off.

I therefore have selected nine of the photos from the first performance for inclusion in this assignment plus one photograph of a person sleeping in a cell where the subject is a mannequin not a performer. I have set out comments on the individual prints below, but first, I will briefly describe the workflow that I used for making the prints.

Technical

As usual, I used Lightroom 3 to review and select the photographs. I used Silver Efex Pro 2 as a plug in to convert the photographs to black and white. This program is new to me so this was a good opportunity to explore the various presets and other controls. I chose a specific preset for each photograph based on the nature of the scene and the balance of the pictorial elements that I thought was the most effective. I decided to present the images as fairly plain monochrome prints. I chose not to give the pictures an artificial "antique" look with heavy vignettes, sepia colours and the like.

I also made a few dodging and burning adjustments in Silver Efex Pro. Back in Lightroom, I straightened up, cropped and cleaned up any blemishes as necessary.

Rather than print directly from the Lightroom adjusted RAW image, I created a specific JPEG image for printing at the precise size that I wanted. I printed the pictures using a home Canon Pixma printer set to greyscale instead of colour. Using the colour setting, the monochrome prints had a slight yellowish tint. The prints are on Canon Semi-gloss paper, rather than Canon Gloss paper that I have used previously.

Comments on photographs

The photographs follow the vagrants experiences from arrival at the Spike to departure on the following day.

Image 1 - At the gate

Nikon 18-200mm at 28mm: Iso 200 f4 for 1/200th seconds

A vagrant is confronted by an official from the workhouse at the entrance gate. The size of the official in the right foreground dominates the vagrant who appears smaller. He is understandably looking rather wary. The gate behind the vagrant was dark, but rather shiny. The black and white conversion was done to minimize the brightness of reflections so that the vagrants figure stands out.

Image 2 - The waiting room

Nikon 18-200mm at 28mm: Iso 200 f4 for 1/90th seconds

Some vagrants are sitting in the waiting room, a narrow shelter with a bench and a skylight. The lone figure in the foreground is frowning and he appears troubled. He is sitting apart from the others who are chatting together. The scene suggests some social tensions between this individual and the rest.

The conversion to black and white was done so that the figures in the background are in relative darkness. A skylight casts a pool of light on the left hand wall, but the conversion has left the floor surface a mid-tone with reasonable texture. The light in the glass door at the end of the room balances the other light areas in the frame and could be considered to have symbolic significance - a way out that is however closed to the vagrants.

The foreground figure is close to the edge of the frame, and if I had a second chance, I would have looked for a way to add a little more on the left hand side of the frame.

Image 3 - A wary look

Nikon 18-200mm at 200mm: Iso 200 f5.6 for 1/45th seconds

I zoomed in to take some head and shoulders portraits in amongst the more general photographs of the re-enactment, looking for moments when the performers gaze seemed interesting.

I selected this picture as it seemed to portray a little of the anxiety and suffering of poverty.

I used a black and white conversion that left the subjects hair as a darkish frame around the features of his face.

Image 4 - Tramp master and mistress at the workhouse entrance

Nikon 18-200mm at 70mm: Iso 800 f5 for 1/250th seconds

The Spike was managed by a Tramp Master and his wife, the Tramp Mistress. I have included this picture as the main subjects are the tramp master and his wife. Their position was powerful in the sense that they imposed the strict rules under which the vagrants were accommodated. On the other hand, the vagrants would in many cases be very difficult to deal with. It would almost certainly have been a poorly paid and thankless task. Their downcast eyes, I hope, express a little of this ambivalence and their mixed feelings towards the inmates.

On the left side of the frame, a vagrant about to enter the workhouse is blurred and lighter in tone than the two subjects. I think this adds depth to the image and I do not find this distracts from the main subjects too much.

If I were to print this again, I would possibly remove a strip from the right hand side of the frame in order to reduce the area occupied by the hand rail in the foreground.

Image 5 - What future?

Nikon 18-200mm at 150mm: Iso 800 f5.6 for 1/180th seconds

Portraits of the poor and desperate are some of the most recognized photographs of the 20th Century, e.g. Dorothea Lange "Migrant Mother, Nippoma, California, 1936" and Walker Evans "Allie Mae Burroughs, Wife of a Cotton Sharecropper, Hale County, Alabama, 1936". It is not realistic to take a photograph at a re-enactment that would inspire the same response as these great pictures. This portrait of a young vagrant momentarily in a reflective mood was the closest I got.

Image 6 - A survivor

Nikon 18-200mm at 48mm: Iso 800 f4.5 for 1/25th seconds

There were several reasons for including this profile of one of the vagrants. I like the rather dogged expression on his face, a suggestion possibly of suppressed rebellion. I also like the way the light falls on his face, which strongly shapes the face and the rim lighting around his hat and shoulder. The background is blurred, but hints of flaking paintwork are discernible.

Image 7 - Gruel, it's disgusting

Nikon 18-200mm at 22mm: Iso 800 f4 for 1/160th seconds

The workhouse was required to provide a meal to the vagrants. This was typically bread and gruel, a grey tasteless sort of soup. Any vagrants who appeared to have a contagious disease were also separated from the rest in the registration process.

This photograph captures the moment when the cook is offering gruel to one of the vagrants, whilst the Tramp Mistress is showing her distaste for what is being offered.

Image 8 - The bath

Nikon 18-200mm at 18mm: Iso 800 f4 for 1/160th seconds

The vagrants were required to have a bath, irrespective of whether there was warm water or not. For the performance, we just walked past the doorway with a brief moment to glance in.

I used one of the candid photography techniques where I held my camera down by my side and took a photograph on wide angle as I walked by. Naturally, I needed to crop and straighten the photograph to retain the elements that I wanted.

I expected the picture quality to be quite grainy as I had cropped down to a small portion of the original frame. The black and white conversion that I used was one that emphasized the grain suggesting a mistiness appropriate for a bath room.

Image 9 - Asleep in a cell

Nikon 18-200mm at 18mm: Iso 400 f4 for 1/6th seconds

The re-enactment did not portray the time spent by the vagrants asleep in the cells. Instead, I have included a photograph of a mannequin on permanent display in one of the cells. I wanted to include a photograph of one of the cells, as this seemed an important aspect of the workhouse. I also liked the lighting in this picture: the light from a skylight is illuminating the body and head of the sleeper whereas the rest of the cell is in shadow. I used a low viewpoint so that the perspective lines of walls and floor give a sensation of the dimensions of the cell.

In the black and white conversion, I ensured that the shadow area of the cell walls remains indistinct.

Image 10 - I'm off out of here

Nikon 18-200mm at 52mm: Iso 800 f4.8 for 1/25th seconds

To conclude the sequence of photographs, I wanted a strong picture and one that would fit the final place in the sequence. I selected this picture as I liked the subject's expression, maybe he is looking plucky and ready to go. I imagined a vagrant might have felt relieved to get out of the workhouse away from the strict rules and restrictions.

Conclusions

When I first looked through the photographs that I had taken during the re-enactment, I doubted whether I would have enough material for a sequence of ten pictures. However, I eventually put together a sequence of fifteen photographs that I have sent to the organizers for their use. I have selected ten of the people photos for inclusion in this assignment.

If I had had the opportunity to go to a second performance, I would liked to have taken photographs with more interaction between the players. In this re-enactment, it was not readily possible to anticipate what action was going to happen next. I could not usually get into a position where several individuals were visible together.

People and activity - Planning

The objective of Assignment 2 is to produce a set of 10 or so images of people in some form of meaningful activity which must be a single event or location.

Clearly, the activity needs to be something with sufficient subject matter for ten photographs. When taking photographs of people in the course of their daily activities e.g. at the market, it is not easy to find even a handful of visually interesting subjects. I was therefore delighted to find out that there was to be a costumed re-enactment at the Spike Heritage Centre, a former Victorian Workhouse, last Saturday. I have visited the Spike a few times before and had an idea what it was like inside and I had some notes on its history. Even better, it is only five minutes walk from where I live.

I contacted the organizers of the event to check whether they would have no objection to me taking photographs of the performance. I offered to let them have copies of the photographs if they wished to use these in their activities.

I would have liked to have asked for more details of the performance at the same time. However, I thought this could be putting the organizer to too much trouble when they would be very busy with final arrangements for the event. I was pleased that they responded promptly that I could take photographs for the purposes of this assignment, although they did not wish me to distribute photos publicly without their approval. I considered this was reasonable.

Two performances were planned so I decided to go to both as the tickets were not expensive. This would give me two opportunities to take photographs and I could use the second performance to fill in gaps and take photos from different viewpoints.

Looking back at my history notes of the Spike, I had a fairly good idea what they were likely to be doing. This was a part of the workhouse where migrant workers and vagrants could stay for a night or a few nights only. The long term destitute lived in a separate building. The regime was harsh but provided bare necessities for people who otherwise would be sleeping rough.

The daily routine was:-

• Queuing outside for the gate to be opened
• Waiting in turn in an external shelter to be registered
• Registration and provision of food
• Having a bath and change of clothing
• Sleeping in the locked cells.
• Working breaking stones, cutting wood or producing oakham from old ropes.

My intention was to take a variety of portraits:-

• Individual portraits of performers dressed in character
• Photos of the larger scene - queuing or waiting, eating etc.
• Full body/head and torso photos of performers engaged in activity
• Variety of postures, standing, seated, reclining
• Decisive moments of drama, if any.

The building has a mixture of natural light from skylights, windows and ventilators, and artificial light. Mixed lighting should not be an issue as I wanted to produce black and white prints for this subject. I thought that the shadows and contrast of monochrome pictures would convey the harsh atmosphere in the workhouse when it was active.

Light levels in the interior were also likely to be quite low. I was expecting to set high ISO levels of 800 or 1600 so that I could hand hold the camera with the 18-200mm zoom lens. I debated whether to use my 18mm f2.8 prime lens, but I decided against this as I did not know whether I would be able to get clear viewpoints of the performers. In addition, for close cropped faces or heads, the distortion from the 18mm lens is undesirable. The zoom lens, on the other hand, would give me flexibility, allowing me to take close ups and candid shots from further away. The graininess and smoothing effect of using high ISO should in this case not be a major issue and it could even enhance the "historic" appearance of the pictures.

Train your gaze - portrait photography

I bought this book shortly after starting the course, and had read a few sections which I thought might be relevant to project topics e.g. Moment and eventfulness. I decided to read this more methodically in recent months expecting that it might provide some inspiration for the Subject Unaware section of the course.
I found the book to be interesting in regard to the historical and creative aspects. In particular, I enjoyed studying the photographs. The practical guidance for taking candid photographs was however sparse. The exercises appeared interesting challenges, but I have not found time to experiment with these.

I have noted a few observations and points to remember from this book.
Concept of portraiture
I have the impression that the author is concerned only with photography whose intent is "fine art". He does not mention any such restriction, but there is virtually no reference to photographs of people whose purpose is other than purely aesthetic. For example, the book does not touch upon fashion photography, nude photography, wedding photography and so on. He includes some comments on photojournalism/reportage but I feel that there is more to be said regarding style and subjects.

On the other hand, he writes about artists who use cameras to produce art works, e.g the artificially structured tableaux by Jeff Wall. The fact that a photograph includes people does not to my mind mean that the result is necessarily a "portrait". Some of Cindy Sherman's for example are interesting artistic works, but I am not sure whether they should be considered as portraits.
Role of photographer (and viewer)
He makes the wholly valid point that a portrait is an amalgam of the subjects appearance and the thoughtful regard of the photographer. To me, the role of the viewer is equally important in interpreting a portrait (more so than other pictures).

The reason for this, I feel is that a viewer interacts with the image of the person, responding in some way as if the actual person was present. As a result, the direction of a subjects gaze has a significant effect on the character of the image. If the viewer looks directly into the subject's eyes the interaction between viewer and subject is very different to a photo where the subject is gazing at something else.

Strangers as subjects
For me, one of the mysteries of candid/street photography is what makes a stranger interesting as a subject? The photograph Stranger 1999 on the cover by Shizuka Yokomizo which is on the cover of Train Your Gaze is one where this question comes to mind. The picture is visually pleasing with white curtains framing the subject repeated in the background. At first glance, I was intrigued by the image as I could not put my finger on the facial expression of the subject. Once I had read the background to this photograph, it becomes clear that the man is just bored and fed-up. This is not surprising as he was asked to stand in his window and just wait, whilst the photographer anonymously took photographs, without any contact with the subject. Why would anyone want a picture of a stranger of no interest to them whatever? I can understand that it is good to try anonymous photography and it may occasionally be possible to capture a significant moment or expression. This photograph seems to me to be little more than decorative. Similarly, the example of Beat Streuli's work shown in the book "New York 00" passes me by.

Whilst in Tokyo, I had an opportunity to see the retrospective exhibition of Robert Doisneau's photographs which provided further food for thought on this subject. Doisneau photographed ordinary people, but the images are compelling. For some he used models, I understand, but others seemed to be taken unaware.

Public space, public activity - Japan

This project is central to the sort of travel photography that I aspire to. When traveling on holiday, I want to capture impressions of the lives of the people and the place of people in the landscape (or cityscape). I am less interested in photos of the famous sites as a record of having seen them. This course is pushing me to look harder to find subjects and to be more adventurous in getting a viewpoint.

I present in this blog some of the photos of public spaces and public activity from my trip to Japan. The course notes suggest choosing a single location such as a park for this project. However, when traveling with others, it is not readily possible to take time in one particular location. I feel that choosing a larger area can still fit within the aims of this particular project.

I have selected just a few photos of public spaces and public activities from the trip.

Photography

This project is an opportunity to practice and experiment with the techniques covered in earlier sections such as gesture and pose, lighting, and capturing a suitable moment.

Workers - delivery man and back street manga cinema

Nikon 18-200 at 20mm: Iso 125 f3.5 for 1/500th

I stood in this position to take a photograph of the brightly coloured posters and frontage of the small cinema- the first photograph of the holiday. This uniformed worker from a local office fortuitously walked along the street to create a scene that I feel is distinctive to Japan.

Workers - fishmonger at Tokyo fish market

Nikon 18-200mm at 40mm: Iso 500 f5 for 1/40th seconds

This man was concentrating on cutting a thin slice from the large piece of fish. I had some time to take a sequence of photos. I chose this one because the horizontal framing draws the viewers attention to the huge knife. This was the moment where he lifted his head a little out of an area of shadow.

Shoppers - window shopping

Nikon 28mm: Iso 800 f6.3 for 1/50th seconds

I wanted to have a group of shoppers in the foreground of this view of a covered street in Kyoto. Some were obscured by other passers by, others were walking along with their heads down. This group of girls however were just what I had in mind. Whilst the camera was not pointed directly at them, they clearly guessed that they could be in the frame. I feel that their faces reflect the friendliness that we encountered all over Japan.

Shoppers - buying sweetmeats in food market Kyoto

Nikon 28mm: Iso 400 f6.3 for 1/80th seconds

I like to visit markets in the different countries that we visit, but it is often difficult to take a photograph where both the traders and the customers are in suitable positions and light. This group of women are listening attentively to the shopkeeper and my proximity fortunately did not disturb them. I should maybe consider cropping more closely to the area around the shopkeepers face, removing a strip from the bottom and left hand edges of the frame.

Leisure time - sightseeing

Nikon 28mm: Iso 200 f8 for 1/400th seconds

I was sitting on a wall in the car park of a famous Kyoto temple when I saw this tour group being led towards the entrance. Whilst photographs of Japanese tour groups following a guide holding a flag is rather a cliche, the photograph makes the point that almost all the tourists were local Japanese. It also illustrates the smart clothing of both the guide and the group members. I like the posture of the guide with her arms outstretched. When she turned her head, I thought she was going to look directly at me, but in fact her gaze is directed behind me at something else.

Leisure time - picnic on bank of Sumida River

Nikon 28mm: Iso 200 f5 for 1/2000th seconds

We went for a short walk along the embankment of the Sumida River which is the main river in central Tokyo on Sunday after lunch. There were small groups of people who were having picnics along the embankment. The picnic groups were different in several ways to a British style picnic. Many of the groups were old men, rather than families. They were clearly comfortable sitting on the flagstones, rather than sitting on a bench or wall.

In contrast to the banks of the Thames, there are relatively few landmark buildings along this part of the river. Whilst the photograph is primarily a riverscape, the people are necessary in the foreground to draw the viewer into the picture. Moment was not so crucial to this photograph as the scene was relatively static.

Conclusions

It is probably easier to find subjects when in a foreign country as everyday scenes can seem fresh and distinctive. I also felt more anonymous as a foreign tourist than I do when taking street photographs in my home town. It would potentially have been more challenging to do this project at home.

An organized event - Temple Festival, Tokyo

The sound of chanting in the street not far from our hotel in central Tokyo drew us to a procession of people carrying a religious shrine towards a Buddhist Temple. We discovered afterwards that such festivals, called Matsuri, are held annually in springtime throughout Japan.
Planning
In this situation, my planning was unavoidably off the cuff. The people seemed to be in teams, each team dressed in matching coloured jackets. These teams were taking turns to carry the shrine and to lead the chanting. In front of the procession was a group of musicians drumming on gongs carried on a decorated cart.
The procession was moving slowly and I therefore had time to photograph the head of the procession, and then to move back and forth looking for viewpoints to photograph the people carrying the shrine, the people watching and other individuals who looked photogenic. My camera had my 28mm prime lens fitted so this meant plenty of moving around to get close enough to my subjects to fill the frame.  
Photography
I have selected a group of five photos to produce an impression of the procession, starting with the front of the procession.

Leaders and musicians at the front of the procession 

Nikon 28mm: Iso 200 f8 for 1/160th seconds

The Shrine

Nikon 28mm:  Iso 200 f8 for 1/200th seconds

Sharing the burden

Nikon 28mm: Iso 200 f8 for 1/320th seconds

Another team, another uniform 

Nikon 28mm: Iso 200 f8 1/1250th seconds

Youngsters join in

Nikon 28mm: Iso 200 f8 for 1/320th seconds

There is some surrounding context in these photographs, but I did not include photographs of the temple structure itself as I wanted to direct attention to the peoples enjoyment of the festival. For me, this was a  side of Japanese character that was lighter and more vibrant.

Conclusions

In this particular case, I am not sure that much would have changed if I had had more planning time. It would have been useful to have seen such a ceremony before, or to have read about this. I would then have been able to think beforehand about the narrative possibilities and have an initial list of subjects prepared. 

I may have been tempted to take my 18-200 mm zoom lens, but I was happy with the 28mm prime lens. It is just means moving closer when you need a close up of someone.