Discretion is part of street photography. If you want to capture candid pictures of people, it’s best to do it when they can’t see you. But sometimes, as photographer Benjamin Lee (aka Itchban) shares, it’s unavoidable that you’ll get “caught.” In an ongoing series of photos, he pinpoints the moments when people are looking directly into his camera as they walk down the street, sit in their cars, or stand on the train. It’s not just humans, either. Dogs also notice when Lee is trying to snap their portrait and give him a steely-eyed stare.
Lee compiled some of the images in a viral TikTok video with text that says, “POV: when they catch you shooting street photography.” It features a slideshow of the times people have seen him taking their photos. The wildly popular video had commenters fixated on one person—a woman on the London tube. A debate ensued; some people assumed she was mad that Lee was snapping her photo.
Lee posted a follow-up video showing that the woman wasn’t mad. “Sometimes street photography isn’t always what it seems,” he says. It turned out that he shot the photos in bursts, and he shared more photos from the encounter (which lasted just over a second). In the subsequent images, the woman smiles as her hair blows from the wind on the train.
The debate is a reminder that street photography captures people during a split second of their days. Although it might seem like we have the answers, the images are vague and allow us to make up our stories about who these people are and the moods they are in.
Discretion is part of street photography. But sometimes, as photographer Benjamin Lee (aka Itchban) shares, it’s unavoidable that you’ll get “caught.”
In an ongoing series of photos, he pinpoints the moments when people are looking directly into his camera.
It’s not just humans, either. Dogs also notice when Lee is trying to snap their portrait and give him a steely-eyed stare.
Lee created a viral TikTok video highlighting the times he's been “caught.”
@itchban That eye contact 👌🏼 Which is your fave? — #streetphotography #photography #japan ♬ original sound – Posterised
Commenters debated whether one woman—standing on the London tube—was mad. Lee created a follow-up video showing that she was smiling.
@itchban Replying to @real madrid277 Sometimes, it aint that deep — #streetphotography #photography #london ♬ Better Call Saul TV Theme – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Voidoid
