Michaël Protin’s Best Photograph

In 2016 I lived in Portugal for a couple of years. Porto is a small, very walkable city so that’s what I always did: walked everywhere, camera in hand, always, and I was probably taking 20 plus photos a day. Portugal is a great country for street photographers, and when I lived there the country was changing fast, very fast; thanks to cheap flights and Airbnb, it had become a top European destination and tourists came by the truck load.

As an English-speaking Belgian I quickly found a job as a tour guide, and was soon walking the streets even more: eight, 10 hours a day, always shooting, I made friends with the homeless, cops, everyone – I was one of them – always shooting because there was always something to shoot. But even though the country was changing, it was still very traditional – the old lady selling fish on the corner, the men playing cards, a couple dressing up for Sunday church, those were my bread and butter.

This photo was taken at a bus stop. I was about to cross and saw these four people standing on the other side, waiting for the bus. We read a lot of comics in Belgium and I immediately thought about the Dalton brothers, the fictional characters in the Lucky Luke Western comics series, so I aimed and shot. I’m a fast shooter and most of the time people don’t notice or notice late and I am gone but that time the street was wide and open, they were all staring at me; the man got mad and started swearing in Portuguese but it was too late, I was walking away.

Later that evening I discovered how good that photo was: I love the composition, the leading lines, the decisive moment loved so much by Henri Cartier-Bresson. But more than anything, the nostalgia from reading Lucky Luke and the Daltons.

Michaël Protin is a London-based reportage photographer | michaelprotin.com