Overcoming fear

Learning goal

You will be able to understand the fear you feel when raising a camera to a stranger in the street, and build a working plan that shrinks it step by step. By comparing it with real reactions, you will see that fear often comes not from a real reaction but from a script you have built in your mind in advance. You will climb, at your own pace, the steps that stretch from shooting from afar inside a crowd to asking a stranger's permission and taking a close portrait. You will prepare in advance a few short, clear and warm sentences to say when someone asks what you are doing. You won't let fear keep you away from some people and draw you closer to others, and you will approach people of different skin tones, ages and appearances with the same friendly face and the same respect.

The question

At the market a woman walks toward your friend; in her hand a net bag full of tangerines, on her face a smile squinting against the sun. With the viewfinder halfway to the eye, two gazes meet and your friend's fingers lock on the shutter button. The woman walks on; what is left behind is a camera raised for nothing and a warmth climbing up to the ears. Yet the woman neither got angry nor said anything. Why are we afraid to photograph strangers?

Context

In the lesson where you first went out into the street, you experienced why frames shot while hiding at the market always ended up being only backs, and what a smile after the shutter changes (Lesson 16.3). In the communicating with the model lesson you tried relaxing someone who tenses with open-ended questions and conversation (Lesson P.3). And in this track's opening lesson you worked on walking the same route in the street so that ordinary moments can turn into a photograph (Lesson S.1).

But there is a gap between knowing and doing. Many photographers know the rules of the street and still freeze in front of a stranger. This fear isn't a weakness; it is a natural response to entering someone else's space, to keeping them in a frame without their permission. Fear doesn't have to be eliminated completely; a measure of it remaining keeps the photographer respectful and careful. The aim is to keep fear from driving you away from the street.

Simple explanation

Where does fear come from?

A fear script is a short story a photographer builds in their mind before photographing a stranger, often imagining the worst reaction: "They'll get angry, they'll shout, they'll ask for my camera, everyone will look at me." This script is written before the shutter is pressed and freezes the body. Yet the reactions actually lived in the street are often much calmer than this script: many people don't notice, some smile, some get curious and ask, some say they don't want it. A harsh reaction can happen, but it is rare.

One way to shrink the fear script is to compare it with real reactions. Over a few shoots, writing down in a small notebook the reaction of every person you photograph makes the gap between the story in your mind and the reality in the street visible. After a few weeks, the notebook shows what fear rests on and what it doesn't.

How is fear overcome step by step?

An approach ladder is a set of shooting steps arranged from easy to hard to shrink fear in the street. On the bottom step, wide frames are shot inside a crowd; no one is the subject of the photo alone. Higher up, people are photographed with their backs turned, as silhouettes or from afar, as part of a scene. Then come scenes at medium distance, where people may notice but no single person fills the frame. On the top step, you approach a stranger, ask permission and take a close portrait. Each step lasts a few days, a few weeks if needed; once a step feels comfortable, you move on to the one above.

Asking permission is the step where fear is most intense, but it often brings the warmest encounters. Many people who are asked, "I'm photographing the people of the market; may I take a photo of you too?", accept; some refuse. Being refused isn't a failure but an answer; you thank them and move on.

How do you respond to a reaction?

A response line is a short, clear and warm sentence prepared in advance, to be used when someone asks the photographer what they are doing or says they are bothered: "I'm photographing the neighborhood's mornings, I can show you if you like," "If it bothered you, I'll delete it right away." A ready sentence prevents stammering or getting defensive in the rush of the moment and honestly explains what the photographer is doing. A friendly face is half of this sentence; the same words spoken with a tense face are understood differently.

Rarely, someone may react harshly. At such a moment, getting into an argument, trying to prove whether you are right, or walking away and fleeing makes the tension grow. Staying calm, listening to what the person wants, deleting the frame in front of their eyes if they want, and thanking them and leaving often closes the moment. Writing this kind of encounter in the notebook too corrects the next fear script according to reality.

An even-handed approach is letting the scene and the moment, not fear or prejudice, decide which people you photograph in the street. Fear sometimes steers the photographer only toward people who resemble them or look "harmless"; sometimes, on the contrary, it leads them to find some people "interesting" because of their skin, their clothes or their faith and to treat them differently. Both unbalance the archive: only one face of a neighborhood is seen, or some people always appear as an object of curiosity. Approaching everyone with the same friendly face, from the same distance and with the same response lines carries the street's real diversity and every person's dignity into the frame.

Visual evidence

In the first week your friend writes in a notebook the moments they froze at the market, and also their fear script: "They'll get angry, they'll shout." The same week they also note the reactions of the thirty or so people they photograph: most didn't notice, a few smiled, one asked what they were doing, one person said they didn't want it. No one shouted.

In the following weeks they climb the ladder. First they photograph the market crowd with a wide frame, then people with their backs turned between the stalls, then at medium distance the sellers' hands and faces. In their pocket are two response lines. One morning, looking at their notebook, they notice they have always photographed the same kind of people: young, light-skinned sellers like themselves. That day they also approach the dark-skinned fishmonger at the other end of the market and an old greengrocer with the same friendly face.

A month later they see the tangerine woman again. They go up to her, smile and ask permission; the woman laughs and accepts, and lifts the net bag full of tangerines toward the lens. The frame is sharp, on the woman's face the same smile squinting against the sun.

Common mistakes

Summary

We are afraid to photograph strangers because, before the shutter, our mind writes a fear script that imagines the worst reaction; yet the real reactions in the street are often much calmer, and a reaction notebook makes this visible. Fear shrinks step by step with an approach ladder stretching from the crowd to a portrait with permission, response lines prepared in advance and a friendly face make encounters easier, and an even-handed approach keeps fear or prejudice from choosing who gets photographed.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will climb the steps of the approach ladder for two weeks.

1. On the first page of a notebook, write your own fear script; then at every shoot, note the real reactions of the people you photograph.
2. Starting from the crowd, try the ladder's steps in order and stay on each step for at least a few days; carry two response lines in your pocket.
3. At the end of the two weeks, look at your notebook: how closely do your script and the real reactions match, and do the people you photographed reflect the street's diversity? Finally, ask a stranger's permission and take a portrait.

Check yourself

• Did your fear script match the real reactions?
• Up to which step of the ladder were you able to climb?
• Do the people in your notebook show the street's different faces?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is a fear script?

• A) A real reaction lived in the street
• B) A story the photographer builds in their mind before shooting, imagining the worst reaction
• C) The plan for a photo series
• D) A competition's terms

2. What is the top step of the approach ladder?

• A) A wide frame of the crowd
• B) People with their backs turned
• C) Silhouettes
• D) Asking a stranger's permission and taking a close portrait

3. What is the benefit of preparing a response line in advance?

• A) It prevents stammering or getting defensive in the rush of the moment
• B) It makes the photo sharper
• C) It makes asking permission unnecessary
• D) It lets you refuse the person's wish to delete the photo

4. If a photographer notices they always photograph people who resemble them, what should they do?

• A) Carry on the same way
• B) Give up the street
• C) Try to approach everyone with the same friendly face and from the same distance
• D) Photograph only people who look "interesting"

Answers

1. B — The script is a product of imagination; real reactions are often much calmer.
2. D — Asking permission is the step where fear is most intense but the encounter warmest.
3. A — A ready sentence provides an honest and calm explanation.
4. C — An even-handed approach opens the archive to the street's real diversity.

Summary card

• Fear is often a script; write real reactions in a notebook.
• Approach ladder: crowd, backs, medium distance, portrait with permission.
• Stay on each step for a few days; move up once it feels comfortable.
• Two response lines in your pocket, a friendly face.
• Being refused is an answer; thank them and move on.
• Even-handed approach: let neither fear nor prejudice choose whom you photograph.

Bridge to the next lesson

The fear has shrunk; your friend now stands comfortably in the middle of the market. But another problem comes up: a child runs past in front of them, and by the time your friend raises the camera to their eye and finds focus, the child is long gone. Every time they raise the camera to their eye, people notice them too and the moment changes. How do you get a sharp shot without looking at the camera? The next lesson takes up pre-set focus and a narrow aperture.