Hold it! Hold it!
Here is a photograph from the Magnum Blog:
And here is the anecdote that accompanied it:
I took the picture of these two Yakuza in a Ginza coffeeshop. I had a hard time not to find them but to keep an interpreter. I went through at least four, all women, because each time they agreed to do it but then gave it second thoughts and retracted for fear of the Yakuza! What I was thinking and saying: Can you please light up the cigarette again, again, again… Three times! And then I kept saying: “Hold it! Hold it!”
Fantastic.
The photographer responsible is Bruce Gilden.
For some reason it has always majorly irked whenever I saw so-called photojournalists use the “Hold It” phrase. It happened on various stories I was working on (usually, if not always, the people I’m speaking of where newspaper shooters) and I’ve always find it borderline moronic.
I mean, if you can’t manage to get the action the first time around, maybe you should start thinking about another trade.
Or maybe I’m just too critical (or hypocritical, whichever way works best). Maybe it’s the Pessac-Leognan 2004 talking, too.