Introduction:
Cinema and photography are built on the same foundation of light, composition, and emotion. In this series, we will explore films that can inspire and elevate your street photography.
Finding inspiration in photography is as essential as breathing. It fuels creativity, hones skills, and shapes unique visions by opening us to new perspectives and emotions. It pushes us out of our comfort zones and allows us to create work that is more personal and meaningful.
Before becoming a full-time photographer, I worked as a cinematographer for 20 years. I hope my insights into cinema will inspire you to bring cinematic elements into your street photography.
Director and Cinematographer
Hong Kong director, screenwriter, and producer Wong Kar Wai and Australian born cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s multiple film collaborations have produced some of cinemas most beautiful, poetic, and romantically lonely films.
Wong Kar Wai has an usual approach to his filmmaking, he writes the script as he shoots and expects the actors to develop their characters as they film. He prefers small crews, working on locations, collaborating with the same actors, and tight budgets. Wong has a heady mix of influences an affinity for Latin American writers such as Manuel Puig, Gabriel García Márquez, and Julio Cortázar, He has been influenced by a broad range of directors from Martin Scorsese, Bernardo Bertolucci to Patrick Tam. Wong’s use of music and a kaleidoscope of colours gives a uniques style to his films.
Christopher Doyle is a true master of cinematography. his deep understanding of colours, use of practical lights and his experimentation with compositions, lenses and movement set him apart from other cinematographers. Over his career, he has worked on more than 60 films, several in collaboration with Wong Kar-Wai.
Doyle is an adopted son of Hong Kong, having lived in the dense port city for three decades. He has captured the energy and soul of the city in an intimate and loving way. When asked by Anthony Bourdain about the slow disappearance of the region’s culture, a product of gentrification in the city…
“The only function of what we do, with art or anything, is to give voice to the unspoken, to give it a form that it has never been perceived in before. We can’t change the evolution of history or the gentrification — you can’t stop that. But, at least you can say: Look what you’re losing.“
– Christopher Doyle
Hong Kong episode of Parts Unknown
In this article, we will discuss three of their films whose style, elements, use of environment, and emotional depth can be applied to street photography
In The Mood for Love (2000)
In the Mood for Love is one of my favorite films of all time. From the first frame you are immediately drawn into a lush tapestry of romance, colour, style, music, small rooms, cigarette smoke, and humid alleyways of a neon lit British Hong Kong in the early 1960’s. I won’t go into the masterfully told story, that is for you to explore. Instead, the focus here will be on the photographic elements of the film..
Frame within a Frame
Frame within a frame is a photographic and cinematic compositional technique where a subject is framed with an element( like a doorway, window, archway, etc…) with in a frame. In the Mood for Love, the two main characters are, for much of the film, framed this way. Far from feeling sluggish or repetitive, this technique isolates the leads from the background, visually expressing their internal emotions and cultural restraints while drawing the viewer into their private thoughts.
Notably, Doyle often uses objects in the foreground to create the frame within the frame giving the feeling that the characters have of being observed, not to mention our own feelings of being observers.
The creative ubiquitous usage of the frame within the frame in this film yields volumes of inspiration for framing on the street. When looking for interesting backgrounds to frame my subjects to walk through I look for foreground elements to frame them in. Using this technique creates a three dimensional depth with a foreground element, mid-ground subject, and background. Regardless of your millimeter or aperture using this technique will create focus on your subject and depth to your images.
Colour
Watching Dolye’s films is a master class in colour theory. I would be remiss to not mention his work on the film Hero, but I digress. In the Mood for Love, use of colour is interwoven into the story of the of the characters. Subtle in the beginning expressing loneliness transitioning to a vivid palette of greens, reds, and yellows that express truth, love and moral principles,
The complexity of colour theory, involving cultural, emotional and subconscious elements is an article onto itself with multitude of references. But by watching In the Mood for Love, you can see how Doyle pairs colours and the moods they create. Transferring this knowledge will help you see colours in the street and subject with colour that compliment or contrast from the background, giving your photos an emotional depth.
Chungking Express (1994)
During post-production on his big-budget epic Ashes of Time . Wong Kar-Wai found himself creatively blocked. To blow off steam, he took two months away from editing and decided to make ChungKing Express. His approach to the film was basically let’s make a movie, almost no budget, fine, permits who needs permits, and lets film it and edit it in 6 weeks. Sounds like it would turn out to be a painful student film to watch. ChungKing Express turns out to be a highly stylized, visually amazing, romantic film that I fell in love with. The film takes place in 1994 Hong Kong about two heartbroken cops told in two short films. I leave the story for you to explore.
Composition
Doyle heavily referenced French New Wave style in his approach to handheld camera work, a feel of in the moment documentary style. His use of lower frame rates for both effect and to get an exposure from the standard motion picture 24 fps to 12 fps and even 8 fps (photographic shutter speeds of 1/24 and 1/16). The first opening scenes you can see street photographer Ernest Hass New York work of blurred coloured images.
Like street photographers, Doyle was filming fast and in the moment. His compositions are airy and fluid in extremely tight space that would challenge many cinematographers and photographers. Doyle has described his work on the film as “dancing with the actors”. His creative compositions in the film both on the streets (stealing the shots) and in small cafes, bars, and apartments is mastery of creative compositions. An inspiration to reference when challenged in the moment photographing in tight spaces.
Ambient Light
Doyle is a master of using ambient light with a limited budget his use of available light (daylight, neon lighting, and street light) immerses you in the characters urban life. Finding the light in street photography is not only essential for exposure but an intricate part of telling a story. Viewing and studying ChungKing Express will give you insight to finding and using light sources be it a daylight from a window, street light, a neon sign, or an overhead fluorescent lights.
Fallen Angels (1995)
Wong Kar-Wai’s Fallen Angels is an action film with barely any dialogue, told through visuals about delicate, lonely characters that makes you introspective on your life. Shot entirely at night in Hong Kong using a Century Tégéa 9.8mm lens with a wide-angle attachment, which gave it a 6.8mm depth of field.
Wide Angle View
The bold stylistic choice to use an ultra wide-angle lens for an entire movie, sets Wong and Doyle apart from other filmmakers. The typical range of 24mm to 85mm we see in films, shows, advertisements, and instagram is a baseline of reality for us. Fallen Angels ultra wide-angle view and shallow depth gives a larger than life dreamlike quality, but also an intimate connection with the characters.
The amazing use of the ultra wide-angle lens in Fallen Angels by Doyle, inspires me to move out my own field of view comfort zone and to experiment with different perspective.
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Night scape
The neon lights of 90’s Hong Kong is not a backdrop of Fallen Angels but a cental character of the film. Christopher Doyle’s understanding and use of neon light to create Wong Kar-Wai’s characters world is both beautiful and haunting. I think it is best to have Doyle express it in his own words.
I hope that watching and studying these three films will inspire you, push you out of your comfort zone, and help you create more personal and meaningful photos in your street photography.
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