Danny Santos II, street photographer

Riding the bus, waiting for the bus to empty a bit, so that Danny could take his pics of Frits.

My slogan was: ‘I am not a tourist because I hang out where the locals hang out with my BFF who is also a local.’ So my shoot took place in uber-cool Haji Lane, my favorite street in Singapore.

Haji Lane

The shoots took up half a day. The request was: look natural, relaxed and smile. Frits session went easy and smooth. He feels comfortable in front of the camera and has an open smile. With teeth, as I call it.

My shoot was a disaster.
Danny and I struggled with each other What was the problem? Well, he insisted that I smiled With Teeth and that is not my natural smile in front of a camera.

No, no, this is not a good smile. I want to see teeth!

The more he insisted, the more uncomfortable and self aware I became. Up to the point that I did not know how to be relaxed nor smile in whatever way anymore.

Really? But that’s not natural to me. I cannot do that on command!

Look, it really needs to be done this way. I insist. I want to see teeth!!!

Opening my mouth that much on command felt terribly forced and awkward, but in the end -after what felt like 1.000 shots- I succeeded to produce a smile Danny could live with.

Ok, we are getting there.

A while later, we both received our ‘picture-campaign-poster’ that you can see here. How ironic that in the end he chose a shot from Frits without teeth!!!

Anyhow, it was a fun day (minus the part where I got stressed out) with a nice billboard poster as a result. The pictures later appeared in glossy magazines and in town at busstops and so on. Cool!

At busstop.

The website and I were never a very good match, by the way. I found it messy and I did not like the way it worked. It turned out such a hassle to get my content on the site, that at one point I dropped out.

Anyway, last year, walking from one train to another in the MRT (subway) I came across Danny again on this big billboard for a camera-brand. It was evident that he was still rising as a photographer. Cool!

A couple of months later, I stumbled upon an announcement for an exhibition from Danny Santos II and I decided to go to the opening.
Can you imagine how I had to laugh when I read the title of the exhibit? ‘Don’t smile’. Hahaha….

His subjects for this project were partly strangers that he photographed on the streets. The other ones had responded to an invite on FaceBook (and Danny has sooooooooo many followers; it’s unbelievable!) to come over and pose. And to Not Smile!

This picture and the following in color are all from strangers on the street.

And these are the people who came via FaceBook and posed for Danny.

So guess what the first thing was that I said to Danny at the exhibit…. ? ‘Danny….Don’t Smile. Are you kidding me? Why didn’t you say that to me back then?!’ To which he -almost apologetically- replied:’Yes, but my client (SingTel) really insisted on that!’. I know, Danny, I’m just kidding. It’s just too ironic!

Such a nice guy.

Anyway, the pictures are gorgeous, the exhibit is done nicely and the brochure is beautiful.

One of Singapore’s TCC’s is dedicated to the arts and this is where the exhibit is held. Danny’s pictures are on all the walls, also on the second floor. I really recommend this place for having a coffee and some delicious bites while being surrounded by Danny’s pictures. The exact address can be found in one of the pictures above. Please note that it ends in a couple of days, so be quick, if you want to catch this exhibition!

And remember, don’t smile….or do…with teeth…our without teeth…whatever;-). I just hope you are happy!