In Snap Fingers and Whistle de Middel’s use of staging is less overt than in her earlier series, such as Polyspam 2009 (Tate P20839– P20846) and The Afronauts 2012 (Tate P82235– P82271), and the relationship to ‘straight’ documentary is more well-defined. (Unpublished artist’s statement for Tate, 2013.) I was looking for that real part in the movies, if any, exploring again the fluid border between fact and fiction through the very respectable street photography … Following the script of West Side Story, this series stands as a reflection on the basis of street photography and its relation to truth, restoring the icons on my ideas built an image of the city that never sleeps. I decided to document New York just according to what I expected from these over-reported streets. Describing Snap Fingers and Whistle, de Middel has spoken of the relationship between popular culture and reportage in the work: By using formal devices associated with the former – printing the photographs to look like film stills and displaying them as a sequence, for example – de Middel emphasises the cinematic and atmospheric qualities of this work, and evokes the New York of popular imagination. The place that de Middel presents in Snap Fingers and Whistle feels familiar, not only because of any personal experience the viewer might have of New York but because of how the city is experienced through film and music. The series exists in an edition of five, of which Tate’s copy is number one. A rainbow-coloured vinyl decal can be placed at the top-left of the grid, behind the first image in the sequence, to give the effect of a beginning of a cinema movie. The images are displayed all together installed in a grid, following layouts provided by the artist. In some cases this was orchestrated at the time of shooting, by de Middel asking strangers to recreate a choreographed move from West Side Story in others the intervention took place during post-processing, with de Middel digitally manipulating the image to obvious and surreal ends, removing a skateboard from a skateboarder, for example, so that he appears to float in mid-air. Featuring cars, passers-by and urban signage, the images in Snap Fingers and Whistle possess a fleeting look in the manner of traditional street photography, yet they are, to varying degrees, the result of careful construction or manipulation by the artist. The title is a reference to the finger snapping and whistles which characterised some of the musical numbers in West Side Story, the American musical written in 1961 about the rivalry between two teenage gangs on New York City’s Upper West Side in the 1950s. If you do this right, your ring finger should snap against the flesh of your palm immediately followed by your middle finger, making two quick (but separate) snapping sounds.Snap Fingers and Whistle 2013 is a series of twenty-eight square-format colour photographs of scenes of New York.Slide your thumb to your middle finger without letting up on the pressure, then quickly slide it to your index finger without pausing.Keep your middle and index finger close to it. Build up pressure against your ring finger.You must start on the ring finger - you can't do a double snap starting on your middle finger. Your thumb and ring finger should be pressed together, with your pinky folded down and your other two fingers lined up next to your ring finger. It's tricky to get the same level of volume with this technique, but getting the double snap sound itself isn't that difficult. When you've gotten the hang of doing one snap at once, try to make two. Keep practicing if you don't get it at first. ![]() If you're successful, you should get an extra-loud snap.Then, bring your elbow out and whip your hand down, turning your wrist so that your palm faces the ground. In one quick, smooth motion, bring your elbow in and turn your palm up.Your arm should be loose and relaxed from the wrist through the elbow. Turn your palm so that it faces to the side (in the direction of your torso).Press your thumb against against your middle finger (or ring finger, if you prefer), fold the ring finger and pinky down (just the pinky if you're snapping with your ring finger), and build up pressure. Be careful not to over-do the hand motions here - you can give yourself a sore wrist if you use too much force. ![]() ![]() Some people are able to get exceptionally loud snaps by essentially putting their whole arm into the snapping motion, snapping as they whip their hand down. ![]() Try shaking your hand to get a louder snap.
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