They Were Looking Back

I was visiting my daughter in New York, and we were getting ready to walk into a Thai restaurant when I turned around and saw this bus.

The bus was what I intended to photograph.

I raised the camera and pressed the shutter.

What I didn't notice was the driver.

At almost exactly the same moment I made the photograph, he was looking directly toward me with a broad smile.

My daughter saw him before I did.

She mentioned it to me after I had taken the picture, so I looked back at him and waved in recognition of the gesture. The funny moment captured by the camera continued for a little while after the photograph itself had been made.

Looking at the photograph again years later, I see something else that makes the moment even better.

The driver is looking at me.

The woman beside him is looking toward me.

And because of the advertisement attached to the front of the bus, Stephen Colbert appears to be looking at me too.

I went to photograph the bus.

Apparently, everyone was looking back.

They Were Looking Back began as a straightforward observation of a New York City bus but became something different during the fraction of a second in which the shutter was released.

Colón's conscious subject was the bus itself. He did not notice the driver's expression while making the exposure.

The driver's broad smile therefore belongs to Discovery rather than Intent.

The photographer's daughter noticed the interaction immediately afterward and brought it to his attention. Colón then looked back toward the driver and acknowledged him with a wave, extending the interaction beyond the instant preserved by the camera.

The composition contains an additional accidental visual relationship. The driver and another transit employee appear above an advertisement for The Late Show featuring Stephen Colbert's eyes. The resulting arrangement creates three apparent gazes directed outward from the bus.

The humor of the photograph was therefore not constructed. It emerged from several independent elements occupying the frame at precisely the same moment.

There is something about this photograph that I understand differently now.

When I made it, I saw a New York City bus.

My daughter saw the driver.

The camera saw both.

That distinction matters.

The driver's smile happened during the fraction of a second when I pressed the shutter, yet I did not consciously see it until my daughter pointed it out.

Then I looked back.

I saw him.

And I waved.

The photograph ended, but the human exchange continued.

Years later, another detail makes me laugh.

The driver is looking at me.

The woman beside him is looking toward me.

And Stephen Colbert, from the advertisement on the front of the bus, somehow seems to be looking at me too.

There is another reason I look at the driver differently today.

My son-in-law is a Transit Authority bus driver.

Because of that connection, I have developed a greater appreciation for the people who spend their working days behind these windshields, moving through New York and dealing with everything that comes with the job.

I cannot know anything about what this particular driver had experienced that day.

What I know is what happened between us for a few seconds.

He smiled.

My daughter noticed.

I looked back.

And I waved.

The camera preserved the part I almost missed.

They Were Looking Back was photographed in New York City on September 4, 2015, while Colón was visiting his daughter.

The visible destination display identifies the vehicle as Bx24 toward Country Club, and the bus carries fleet number 4425.

Colón and his daughter were preparing to enter a Thai restaurant when he turned, noticed the bus, and made the exposure.

The photographer's original intention was to photograph the bus. He did not consciously observe the driver's smile during capture. His daughter noticed the gesture and called his attention to it immediately afterward, after which Colón acknowledged the driver with a wave.

This distinction makes the photograph an important example within the Studio archive of the difference between photographic Intent and Discovery: the camera recorded a human interaction occurring within the frame before the photographer himself became consciously aware of it.

The photograph also contains a period advertisement for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, adding an unintended third apparent gaze to the composition.

The photographer's present-day respect for New York City transit drivers is informed in part by his son-in-law's work as a Transit Authority bus driver. This connection belongs to later Reflection and is not presented as part of the original capture intent.