The crying man

Someone once said that photography is nothing more than "organized lying". 

I find that to be true, the more pictures I take. 

You see, at first, one believes that photography documents. It simply picks up whatever it is that is in front of the lens. 

This is true, to some extent, however this changes in time. The more pictures you take, the less you "document" and the more you "convey". You no longer capture what's in front of your lens. You organize what you see into a picture that you first conceived in your mind.

Granted, no picture is ever what you designed, not exactly. There are always surprises. The less time you have to organize the picture, the more surprised you'll be. 

The next step is to manipulate. Not the environment, but what you see. You can conceive of such a strategy as to make it easier for the picture you want, to happen.

For example, the tittle of this photo does not represent what was happening. The man is not crying. Not really. He is actually laughing with a woman (presumably his wife) but she's not in the picture. 

I chose to hide the woman and only show the man. The couple in the back stands as an akward witness to what's going on. 

This is what the camera captured, yes, but only after I've decided what to show of the situation plus the time I waited for the right thing to happen. 

This was taken with a Leica camera and the film is Ilford, HP 400 I believe. Really didn't care for it that much. I'd rather shoot Delta, which is the only film I shoot from Ilford.