When Our Legs Tell Our Story

Still photography aiming at telling a story about people relies heavily on their facial expressions. Street photography, however, aims at capturing people’s attitudes in an impromptu way while attempting to not always reveal the identity of the people. Because it is not important who the people were in a photo – what counts is the story they tell that can be understood and interpreted by the viewers.

A street photographer aims at capturing moments with which viewers identify, and avoids identifying the subjects of the photograph to the extent possible.

So, I took this photo last week. The three persons, their hands and legs were perfectly aligned and self-composed the shot. Yet they were distinctly different in their line-up. As I was looking through the viewfinder of my 1970s Nikon F2, I wondered if their postures reflected their characters and attitudes.

And, as I often become curious about body language, I did some research about what the positioning of legs is believed to tell about the person or the message they are sending with different ways of placing their feet toward another person or the object of their attention.

I was amazed that there is a lot written about this topic in the sociological literature. Distilling the proposed interpretations to a manageable set, here is what seemed of interest to me as a photographer:

1.     Managers who interview applicants are often trained to “read” the body language of the interviewee. It seems that when a person answers untruthfully to a question, they make unconscious leg and foot movements.

2.     Crossing the legs seems to tell what the person is open to or reluctant to do. There is the “standing- leg-cross” implying defensive posturing in company of people we do not know well. There is the military “legs-apart” showing dominance; there is the stereotypic “cowboy stand” with legs apart, feet pointed outward, and thumbs in the belt with the hips pushed out.  There seems to be the “European/British leg cross” where the left leg is crossed over the right one.  And, there is the “American Figure Four” leg cross, which is a modified version of the cowboy stand, this time sitting down but still pushing the pelvis out and placing the hands on the crossed leg!

3.     Not only legs, but ankles also tell a story…The “lock ankle” position, both in men and women is believed to be equivalent to “biting the lip”! It is reported that people in courtrooms lock their ankles, and that more people lock their ankles when dealing with the tax professionals than they do when in the dentist’s seat…

4.     Finally, there is the “parallel legs” with one foot’s toes gently locked upon the other leg’s ankle. This is the ultimate femininity expression, and one that every man on our round globe will recognize and appreciate!

Ok. So now I was very curious to look through my photos and see if I had, purposefully or not, captured some body and leg positioning which may tell a story about the person. My interest in this topic is not new (https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2014/09/street-photography-from-dogs-perspective.html) but I felt that now I have more of a scientific template to use when looking through my photos.

So, here is a sample.

St. Patrick’s Day. Two of an Irish band’s musicians taking a break. Is this the “cowboy” posture? In fact the man on the right seems to have more of Greek demi-god feel of the moment….

On the boardwalk looking at sailors in a passing boat. I do not see any reserved or reluctant body language here.

In Paris, looking like a sailor. The hands on the hip, a look that says “few discoveries left”. Too bad I did not have her legs in the frame to make a complete analysis…

Man, woman and poster, Singapore. It all seems to fit together.

A street embrace. One does not need to read the sociological literature about body posture to understand this photo.

Cowboys and Saloon ladies, Arizona. This was an enactment yet I find it interesting that both ladies have crossed their right legs over the left ones. Is this the “anti-European” cross?

The dreamer posture. This time the toes are inward. Is this the “I do not notice those around me” posture?

After looking at the last photo, I remembered one taken by someone else of me on the stage with a colleague in Taiwan. This was during my “previous life” as an academic as I had just finished my talk at a conference. 

I could not resist including this picture, as my feet seem to be placed in the most non-nonchalant way, while her toes are turned inward. I did not know that I place my feet this way, and now have to do some research on what this means about my attitude to life!

June 8, 2016

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016