There is drama in the everyday and a poignant story to tell even in the most mundane scenes. However, it often takes a trained eye and a taste for profound narratives to pluck it out of the humdrum of daily life. Emmy Award-winning film & television director and producer Daniel Sackheim ticks both with his emotive and minimalist approach to street photography. Tapping into his affinity for storytelling, he captures scenes in and out of the streets with a distinctly cinematic flavor.
Los Angeles-based Sackheim, a husband and father of two who also co-manages a production company, also devotes at least three days a week to street photography. Finding time for his craft may be challenging, but sticking to this consistency, he says, is the only viable path to mastery of any art form.
His photography journey began in 2008 when the writers’ strike brought the film and television industry to a screeching halt. “I picked up my first digital camera in search of a creative diversion. It took hold of me and evolved into something far more profound than a hobby.”
With his newfound penchant for still images, Sackheim eventually developed his creative vision for capturing street scenes. Whether in color or black and white, his work bears a striking simplicity that highlights both the drama of the scene and the interaction of his subjects with the environment. Embracing a film noir aesthetic, he also taps into his film and television background to “capture the feeling of a bygone era in a scene that provokes questions.”
Copyright ⓒ Daniel Sackheim
Copyright ⓒ Daniel Sackheim
Finding the right light
Even as a street photographer, Sackheim is primarily drawn to settings with a “visually compelling interplay of light and environment.” He considers this the raw material on which to build a scene. Then, it’s a matter of waiting for the right combination of light, subjects, and action to coalesce before him.
Indeed, much of his work relies on the presence of the right light at the right place and the right time. This proves effective in bringing attention to his subjects and the stories unfolding before him.
However, this search for the right light also comes with its own challenges. “As the project has been shot primarily with natural light, it’s not unusual to only have a 30-minute window in which to capture the shot. This means I’m making multiple trips back to the location until I get an image that I’m happy with.”
Copyright ⓒ Daniel Sackheim
Copyright ⓒ Daniel Sackheim
Tapping into his inner emotions
As a viewer, it’s easy to regard Sackheim’s work as emotive and minimalist. However, as a drama director, he notes that he has a very specific definition of what constitutes emotion in a visual narrative. Unsure about whether it applies to his photography, he instead believes that his own internalized emotions play an important role in his work.
He recalls a cinematic scene that unfolded before him during a trip as an example at work:
“There is an image of mine that I captured back in 2016 while traveling through Tokyo. It’s a shot of a salaryman, a Japanese businessman sitting at a noodle bar, with his back to the camera, his face unseen. Compositionally, he sits at the center of the frame, in the middle of the counter. The quality of the light, the steam rising in the background, all lend it a cinematic quality. That’s what initially caught my eye.
There is a palpable feeling of solitude and isolation. I vividly recall the need to get much closer to him and in the process of sneaking up behind him, I was starting to feel this intense anxiety starting to overtake me. I was concerned about him sensing my presence and that he’d turn around to confront me, which as a stranger who did not speak the language, might not go well. I believe the tension I felt at the time, perhaps me feeling my proximity to him was an invasion of his personal space, is subconsciously experienced by the viewer.”
He describes this moment as a “tipping point where I feel this kind of twinge in my gut,” and an organic exploration that is difficult to articulate as a technical process.
Copyright ⓒ Daniel Sackheim
Copyright ⓒ Daniel Sackheim
The art of “observational photography”
Sackheim doesn’t consider his work as strictly minimalist, but he does acknowledge his preference for clean graphic lines. Anything that shows clutter, he notes, distracts the viewer from the central narrative of the image. A “minimalist” aesthetic, he adds, makes way for a “heightened reality” and incorporates a subtle tension to the frame.
Citing Edward Hopper as a profound influence on the way he sees, Sackheim also feels drawn to the themes of solitude and alienation present in the iconic painter’s work.
“…there is most definitely a spareness, a kind of ascetic quality to the environments in which his characters live and this contributes to the feeling of isolation and alienation that are such a hallmark of his work. These are themes I feel connected to, and one could argue are present in my photography.”
These qualities and characteristics indeed set the stage for photos like “A Salaryman’s Night Out” which he regards as a favorite. He describes the scene as a “crucial piece of a jigsaw puzzle,” one that led him to the idea of film noir as the “missing piece” that completes his narrative style.
Finally, all these elements come together to form a hybrid of classic street photography born out of keen observation and the desire to tell a consistent narrative. This “observational photography,” he said, is what his work is all about, anchored on capturing the feeling of a moment in time.
Visit Daniel Sackheim’s website and follow him on Instagram to see the rest of his street photography.
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