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DANIEL WAKS: THE MAN WHO STOPS TIME AND OFFERS IT ETERNITY.
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As cameras became more and more portable, street photography as a genre became more popular. And such iconic names as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau showed that photography can not only capture the beauty of the moment, but also carry a visual message.
French photographer Daniel Waks is this kind of photographer who presses the shutter for a reason. He is a masterful catcher of amazing moments. Daniel photographs the street and its characters, especially women, and always in black and white. He stops time, offers it eternity, and gives us the opportunity to see the world through his eyes.
I started photography at the age of twenty, with black and white film that I developed myself, in a cabinet that I had set up. At the time, I was doing mostly family photography. I didn’t go to photography school, I am self-taught. I learned on my own, letting my instincts guide me.
At one point I had to suspend my practice for many years because I didn’t have the time to devote to it. At that period of my life I was working in the textile and garment industry.
Only fifteen years ago, after a break in my professional life, I rediscovered my sensations. My view of the world around me changed and my artistic sensitivity increased considerably. It was a revelation for me, a form of therapy that gave meaning to my life. I decided to devote myself entirely to photography. The great humanist photographers of the 50’s and 60’s in this hyper photogenic Paris inspired me enormously.
If you want to get a shot that reveals the authenticity of a person or a situation you are photographing, it has to be an instant shot. Asking for permission is a heresy in the field of street photography.
Today, in the age of social networks, it is becoming difficult to carry out this practice, as people are so afraid to be found on these media.
So, you have to be very discreet and use subterfuge.
Sometimes, however, I ask permission from the person I really want to photograph. I have rarely failed, even if it was sometimes after long negotiations. You have to be reassuring and have a sense of human relations. These are rarely the best shots, by the way.
There were quite a few, I think, of course, of humanists such as Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Boubat, Ronis. For fashion photography, there are Peter Lindberg, Sieff, Klein, Avedon, Helmut Newton…This list is not exhaustive.
Every photographer wants to exhibit their work, it reflects the true purpose of the work done, but it is not easy. The gallery that exposed some of my work closed at the time of the Covid crisis. I don’t have any concrete project to come. I’ll just keep doing what I love: photography.
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