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I don't take many portraits. This is an impromptu one taken on the street during the 2010 Olympics.

As I was stalking the street for interesting scenes, I passed close to this happy tourist. He acknowledged my work with a look at me and my gear and I lifted my camera a little off of my chest to proffer a photo of him. He smiled for my camera although I don't think his expression changed all that much from the moment I saw him to this moment.

Portraits are different than street shots. They don't include a cast of characters in a setting. They don't explore events, society, relationships, stories. They interrogate one simple relationship, the one between the subject and the focal plane. In a good portrait, something genuine about the subject is revealed to the film/sensor and thence to the viewer of the photograph.

To open a subject to this reveal, a genuine connection between the subject and photographer is necessary. This requires the photographer to be as open as the subject. When I look back at the successful portraits I've made, it's clear that I was emotionally engaged and open while taking them.

This is why I don't take many portraits.

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