Dutch angle, Mexican girls and the street

Today I propose this old photo:

If we must remember a master street photographer of the Dutch angle the mind inevitably runs to Garry Winogrand. The crooked photos, which in reality were not crooked, but met the needs of composing in favor of the subjects, underlined the energy of the street situation, the snapshot that was sublimated from that uncertain, rapid, constantly changing moment.

Photographing like that should never be a pose. I don't tilt the camera on purpose, but I do because the scene calls it that to me. In the case of this photo we have an unbalanced frame on the right in favor of the girls but the photograph is not unbalanced, because there is no real negative space. That piece of passerby on the right side and the policeman peeking out hidden from the pole determine a space that is certainly not pre-weighting but that helps to contextualise, also offering a feeling of imponderable, uncertainty.

Behind the girls a man can be seen as if he is noticing the action taking place. The girls have interesting posture and expression: one points with her finger, while the other seems to observe me, the third in the center walks with a model's stride. All three are wearing sunglasses. All three are wearing jeans and a white top. It's a meeting photo, taken as they and I were crossing the street. Recognized the potential of the scene and taken on the fly, a snapshot, without even stopping.

Street photography is basically this for me.