The Young Man of Tachileik

Photograph Copyright ©2009 Loo Yen Yeo. All Rights Reserved.

Concept: Visual weight (face/emotional); Reactive (reactive shooting); Balance (dynamic equilibrium)

Description: In Northern Thailand on an agricultural fact-finding mission, we took some time out to cross over into the border town of Tachileik in the Shan state of Eastern Myanmar. While touring a village neighbourhood, I sensed the young man's curiosity and quickly pulled out my camera, turned to my left and took the moment before he hid his face.

The strong visual weight of his face and expression is augmented by the print and colour of his tunic. The framing is an example of visual weight balanced dynamically with energetic diagonals and negative space.

Title: The Young Master

05.03 Reactive

Reactive shooting relies on the photographer's ability to recognise an unfolding opportunity (observation) and to take advantage of that opportunity before the moment has passed (reaction). These are the hallmarks of street photography, because that's what's necessary in order to capture its images.

Successful outcomes of reactive photography are highly prized; and their virtuoso exponents, of whom Henri Cartier-Bresson is regarded as one of the foremost, are highly respected due, in no small part, to the recognition of how little control the artists have over their shooting environments.

This does not make reactive photography any more legitimate than its opposing counterpart, planned shooting. More realistically, reactive photography occupies one end of the shooting spectrum with planned photography at the other extreme. Between these is the 'half-planned' shoot, where favourable conditions are established, and then reactive shooting is allowed to take its course.