Many photographers tend to have one or two photos that they believe to be their favorite at certain points in their careers. But not Bangkok-based documentary photographer Jack Picone. Despite a decades-long career covering wars and major social issues in Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe, he says that “my absolute favorite photo is still to be taken.” But this, he also notes, isn’t a bad thing, as it motivates him to keep adding more to the “multitude of photographs that satisfy me and that I have an attachment to.”
Apart from his stint as a photographer for 30 years, Jack also spent the last 10 years teaching photography, digital journalism, and visual theory at universities in Australia, Hong Kong, and recently, Thailand. He is also the co-founder of Australia’s REPORTAGE photography festival, the founder of Reportage Workshops (a series of documentary photography workshops in Asia), and a member of the war photographers collective SOUTH.
Copyrightⓒ Jack Picone
“Brothers” Amish brothers on the way to church on a wintermorning in Upper State New York. (The frame before this one and the one after are a complete visual mess, somehow they just fell in line, like notes on a sheet of music for a milli-second.)
Copyrightⓒ Jack Picone
With his rigorous training and background in documentary photography, you’d think Jack would be selective in the subjects and topics he makes projects out of. But he also endeavors to shoot on the streets at least once a week, likening it to taking his camera out for a walk, wandering and seeing what the world unfolds before him. So, it won’t be surprising if his future “favorites” would end up to be poignant scenes from daily life that typically go unnoticed.
“It can be anything. For me, it’s about being open-minded in what I document.”
Moments That Show What It Is To Be “Human”
“Being on the street is freeing. Unlike many other genres of photography, street photography is not about trying to ‘control’ what you are going to photograph. It is about being not in control,” Jack muses. This freedom allows him to focus on what to look for when he’s out capturing life in the streets, in all its rawness and unpredictability.
This notion of freedom from “control” can be both challenging and rewarding for the street photographer. With so many things happening at a given place and time, how does one choose what and where to point the camera? The instinct to capture what is worth documenting – and even immortalizing – in photos takes time to develop and master. But Jack’s approach points to the right track.
“I mostly look for poetic, fluid, and original moments that somehow reflect what it is to be ‘human.’ The moments can be humorous, droll, high-emotion or even banal. What is important to me is that I have not choreographed them so that there is a reasonably evolved aesthetic and emotional charge from the photograph that reaches the viewer.”
The Emotion And Rhythm of The Streets
The key to this approach, he adds, is “‘reading’ the emotion of the street and the people migrating through it, and understanding the rhythms of the street, using intuition, being in the moment, being patient, and a lot of luck before deciding to trip the shutter.”
Next comes translating these ideas into visual street narratives. Part of it is the choice between color and black and white. Understandably, some subjects, themes, or topics call for one over the other, as Jack notes for his “Island of Uncertainly” series (See His Website)
Copyrightⓒ Jack Picone
“Boy with Ice cream” in Redfern which was a lower socio-economic inner city area in Sydney, Australia.
Copyrightⓒ Jack Picone
“When I saw Cuba in its faded, pastel, almost watercolor hues and tones, I could not see it any other way than in color. I think so much emotion would have been lost if I had chosen black and white.”
Ultimately, he’s comfortable with both color and black and white photography and regularly alternates shooting with both. However, when it comes to black and white, he leans more towards film than digital. This choice, he says, is rooted in the psychology of black and white film, which complements the way he harmonizes with the rhythm and emotion of the streets.
“The only thing I won’t do is shoot black-and-white digital. As expensive as it is, I still shoot black and white film for two reasons: the first is that I don’t wish to corrupt my now extensive black and white negative archive. The other is that I love the psychology of black and white film. It is all about slowing down, shooting less, and being in the moment, which results in a higher yield of aesthetically compelling photographs.”
A fixed “Style” isn’t Necessary
One would argue that Jack, as with many other photographers, either subscribe to a certain visual style or create his own aesthetic to make his work distinct from the rest. However, he says, “I have never been a photographer who buys into the idea that you need to have a ‘style.’”
Some critics, he also noticed, “will often say that all street photography looks the same.” But he also begs to disagree, acknowledging the inherent similarity in all street photography but also pointing out that each capture is a one-of-a-kind moment in time. This, he says, is a testament to his “uniqueness” as a photographer and precedes the need for a “style.”
“When you really think about it, each time you trip the shutter, the moment you record is an original moment, a unique moment – frozen – that will never take place again.”
Copyrightⓒ Jack Picone
“Frida and Man” at the New South Wales Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
Copyrightⓒ Jack Picone
In the same regard, Jack doesn’t consider the photography masters he admires — Diane Arbus, Vivian Maier, Daido Moriyama, Alex Webb, Saul Leiter, Gary Winogrand, and Henri Cartier-Bresson — as his “heroes.” It’s one thing to applaud and get inspired with their works, but he doesn’t see the need to emulate them.
Instead, he believes that it’s important for photographers to understand what makes these masters’ approaches work. Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment, for example, remains a revered street photography philosophy for a good reason.
“It enables a photographer to consider all the variables at play (the light, the emotion, the timing, the design of the environment, the composition, the juxtaposition) before they trip the shutter in the hope of making an aesthetically and emotionally charged photograph.”
Make sure to check out Jack Picone’s website to browse the huge selection of compelling projects from his decades-long documentary and street photography career.
