Girl in traditional Chinese dress and another mixing traditional and modern
One Word Sunday,  Street photography,  Themed galleries

Gallery: two by two

July 9, 2023 / 40 Comments

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was talking about how people interpret a photo. He shot mainly landscapes, but the maxim applies to all kinds of photography and perhaps none more so than photos of people. How you choose to portray them defines how the viewer will see them.

I have often in the past shared groups of three, for the Thursday Trios challenge. But today Debbie challenges us to find Twos, for One Word Sunday. Since I seem to have many more of those than I do threes, I decided to restrict myself to street photography and find some couples or pairs in my archives. So in this gallery there are quite literally two people in every picture!

Many of these people are clearly couples or friends, but a few are passing strangers or in one case engaged in a purely commercial transaction, shoe shining. Some you may have seen before but others, I hope, will be new to you.

Some of the images are in colour, some monochrome. The choice of colour or black and white is of course subjective. In general with street photography I lean towards the latter, but the setting of some of these shots seemed to demand colour. See what you think!

All the images were shot originally in colour, with the monochrome versions edited with Silver Efex Pro.

Couple with a mobile phone

Checking a selfie perhaps, in the Forbidden City, Beijing

My feature photo was also taken in the Forbidden City but unlike this candid one was a posed shot

Two girls, one in traditional white Chinese dress, in a park
Friends out for a walk, Bei Hai Park, Beijing

Friends out for a walk, Bei Hai Park, Beijing

This is the only other posed shot in this gallery

Two girls in fancy dress

At the Comic and Games festival in Lucca, Italy

Meeting a friend, Lucca, Italy

Two men talking in the street, one seated and one standing
Elderly couple on a narrow street

Making their slow way home perhaps, in Lucca, Italy

Man in a large hat having his shoes shined by another in a cap

Shoe shine in the Plaza Botero, Medellin, Colombia

Two small girls at the edge of an imposing fountain

Playing in the fountain in the Place Saint Sulpice, Paris

Tourists in the rain. Jardins des Tuileries, Paris

Couple seen from behind with an umbrella decorated with Eiffel Tower images
A man drinking coffee and a woman smoking outside a shop

‘Non Stop’, Sofia, Bulgaria

Outside an opticians’ shop in Sofia, Bulgaria

Two women talking and smoking outside a shop
Two men seated at a table

After trade has finished for the day in the Mercato delle Erbe, Bologna, Italy

Two men sitting on a doorstep

A doorstep chat with a friend, Arpino, Italy

Couple relaxing on a bench among trees

Finishing where we started, in Beijing, in the gardens of the Imperial Ancestral Temple

40 Comments

Do share your thoughts, I'd love to hear from you! And please include your name in case WP marks you 'anonymous' - thank you