Moment Makers: Facial Expressions

Today while looking for a topic, I decided it was time to create a new blog category for myself: Moment Makers. In, this category, I’ll take an aspect of a trait that makes the momement stand out in pictures, such as timing, beautiful (often directive lighting), and in today’s edition facial expressions. I went through my photo library to find two very different photos and to tell you the back story behind the expressions that for me make the photo.

The first photo was taken of a man who works on Fisherman’s Wharf as a street performer. He at first wouldn’t even give me a name calling himself Silver Man. Eventually, after talking to him for a while, he said I could call him Evan, though I’m still not sure if that is his real name of one he just chose.

I photographed him and interviewed him for The San Francisco Daily as part of a story on the proposed plans to license, regulate and reduce the number of San Francisco street performers. Evan was undecided on the issue, on one hand, he was in favor of having decreased competition, on the other hand, he didn’t want to pay a license. Both while he performed and while answering my questions he seemed to have a focussed angry energy, which I captured in his photo above.

*******************************

While I was a student at San Jose State University, I had the pleasure of photographing Sam Donaldson who came to speak as part of the Radio, Film and Television Department’s 50th Anniversary celebration. I can still remember how his talk started, he came into the room to a standing ovation. Sam immediately waved it off telling us that we shouldn’t do that as we, too were journalists. Despite his years of hard work, he was seeing us that moment as potential equals, and he really reached his audience in that moment.

After he shared with us things he had learned in his career, it was time for question and answers. It was apparent that my fellow students had done their homework asking him about how journalism had affected his personal relationships with his family, what it was like to be the reporter on certain stories, and he seemed to relish all the questions, giving each a long and informative answer. I see in this photo the seriousness and dilligence he brought to his field through his work in his facial expression.