Forget What You Know !

The longer I shoot street photography the less I understand it !

I am beginning to wonder if I create the work or the pictures are something that just happen to me, let me explain . I took to the streets of Gloucester yesterday and was rewarded with nothing, I took a few frames of some faded signs as things were quiet,the usual little things that fire up my "Street" radar were not happening and the more I tried to make something happen the harder it became.

After 2 hours of nothingness I decided to call it a day as I thought I might as well head home and watch the live football rather than be tormented by the lack of opportunities in town. I switched my internal photo radar off and headed back to my car. Walking back to my car I thought how unusual the day had been as something usually turns up when I put this much effort in, but today it had not.

No sooner had this thought crossed my mind and I noticed a gull flying at waist hight towards me, I lifted the camera more in hope than expectation and shot one frame without regard for any other elements, background etc... As I have already said I was desperate to salvage a picture from the day so I could not wait to check the screen and see what my efforts amounted too.

The picture below has been cropped but other than that is a true representation of that fleeting moment, the real surprise to me is not the bird but the way the background, scene and colours have come together without a thought from me.

This image may well be credited to me but I don't think I had much to do with it ?

Keep it real !

Aintree Losers !

Organisers of the Aintree Festival introduced a policy of removing photographers from the course who appeared to have an agenda of showing "Ladies Day" in a" negative light", following negative reporting of the drunkenness and anti-social behaviour that took place at last years horse racing event.

This sort of media control is an interesting development as the organisers choose to control the togs rather than modify the behaviour of a minority of race goers who go overboard each year.

Any policy that interferes with reporting the truth in any media should never be welcome in a democratic society.

Organisers of events that need to control photographers in this way should take a closer look at the quality of their events rather than bring a Big Brother approach to media restrictions.

Bit by bit the rights of photographers to record the society we live in are being eroded.

What are you taking pictures for ?

I recently discovered an old Camerawork magazine from November 1977 that asked the question above, most of us have probably been asked the question many times by Police officers or other jobs-worths on the streets as we pursue our legal right to take photographs of strangers in public places, the question in my opinion is barely worth an answer however I  believe the question has greater value when we ask it of ourselves !

 Anyone reading this who is motivated to create Street Photography for anticipated financial gain is heading for disappointment, some might manage to earn from workshops and lectures but this should not be seen as an income from SP as this is an income from teaching. The old adage of those that can , do and those that can't, teach might be relevant here.

I have some reservations about teaching Street Photography to anyone as I believe that "street" should be a personal vision that is best left uncorrupted by "experts" in the early days of a photographers development. I have no problem with the teaching of the mechanics of photography to newcomers but I see no value in burdening new togs with do's and don't s and visual limitations as these new togs bring fresh eyes to the party and that is an increasingly rare quality amongst seasoned street togs !

I spent many years creating images for money, I like everyone else needed to make a living, with hindsight I regret not using photography as a form personal expression earlier in my life, the conflicting demands of personal photography, commercial shoots and life in general make a balanced approach difficult to maintain.

This question of motivation is a much easier question to ask than it is to answer, the question or more importantly your answer should help you discover a lot about yourself and your relationship with your own photography. 

What price are you prepared to pay to maintain your creative integrity and photographic independence ?

Street Photography With Social Comment

Every now and then I create an image that really resonates with me, at the time of capture I recognise the irony of the moment but with time the image takes on a deeper significance. Thankfully I am able to recognise these moments quickly but I must admit that I am unable to see the deeper social comment that my work contains until I have lived with the work for a much longer period .

The image published below was captured at a Thomas The Tank Engine event and I was attracted to the man in HI-Viz clothing going unnoticed by those around him. With time this image has taken on much deeper meaning to me and I believe it represents prevailing social attitudes.

The image was captured quietly and quickly and could of quite easily have gone unnoticed by me, I managed only one frame before moving on.  Some might argue that Street Photography with a social comment is better described as Documentary photography however I believe that the best Street Photography is good because of its social relevance and is stronger because it reflects society's attitudes.!

Subtle is allowed !

Keep it real !

Invisible Man, Gloucestershire 2014

Shoot A Series

It all sounds very grand, "shooting a series" yet it is little more than taking a number of images that are in some way related or even better contain a narrative that others can relate to. The world is full of photo opportunities and is perhaps an overwhelming challenge to represent in a series of say 25 pix. I would suggest that we need to break our series down to bite sized chunks !

Street photographers could well argue that a series of street pictures would hang well together and this may well be true, however a photographic style alone is not enough, as it may contain various styles within itself, a broad range of random  subjects would also weaken the collective strength of a series. Take a look at many Flickr pages and you will see realms of street pix that appear unrelated and weakened by images that are reactive captures and collected with a mind set that is not dissimilar to indiscriminate litter picking. Should you pick enough litter and focus your eyes firmly on the ground eventually you will pick up a five pound note or two but this is not a reliable income stream, more importantly having to view everything as viable is not efficient, a policy of only bending down to pick up five pound notes should be cultivated.

Once your series policy has been established within your own mind, you will discover that life has just become easier as not only are you aware of the subjects that are relevant to your  visual policy (series) but you now filter out subjects and locations that do not contribute to your now established photo agenda. The agenda you choose might evolve over time, this is not a bad thing as you should not feel creatively trapped by your project, you might even go off piste now and then, these moments will probably sow the seeds for your next series. The important thing is to maintain your focus on the series you are already working on.

The "Another Day Off" series that I am working on now consists of more than 100 images now, I have taken an overview of these images and identified a number of areas I want to improve. The important point to make here is that the decisions are based on the overall strength of the series and how they relate to each other, not the merits of the individual images.  When complete I expect to edit 150 pix down to about 50 pictures that should be viewed as a series not 50 individual pix shot around the same theme. I hope the images will flow and compliment each other.

A judicious editing policy at both the capture and post production stage appears to be the key to pulling a series together,  good luck !

Keep it real !

Intervention in street photography

Real street togs would never think of corrupting a moment they are about to capture by intervention, this could be staging a moment, introducing flash or using props. The problem I have with this statement is that it ignores one vital aspect and that is that sometimes the photographer is part of the moment and through shadows or reflections can actually become part of the work.

I have seen images presented which include togs using flash through cafe and bar windows which are supported by words of justification arguing that the photographer and the flashgun are part of the moment, a huge highlight in the centre of a piece is just plain bad photography especially when the highlight was caused by an artificial light source introduced to the scene by the photographer.

As a "old Skool" photographer most of the time I try to eliminate my presence from the scene I am trying to capture but this principle was challenged recently when I was separated from a subject I wanted to capture by a huge plate glass window. I discovered that if I included my own reflection in the scene the subject became clearly visible and in fact with a little care could be made to appear as if his head was attached to my silhouette. This is the first time i have ever used my presence as a pictorial element in a photograph other than the humble selfie's  I take now and then and have to admit to being pleased with the outcome.

As a rule I still prefer not to influence the images I make with tell tale signs of my presence but now and then it might be okay to take a lesson from Alfred Hitchcock and make a cameo appearance in the works I make.

Keep it real !

Sirkka Liisa Konttinen

This week I took delivery of a great book by Sirkka Liissa Konttinen entitled "Byker Revisited", this is a follow up of her legendary "Byker" book and is well worth a look especially if you are not familiar with her work.

Sirkka is originally from Finland and became known for her work documenting the reshaping of a community in the East end of Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1970's. She lived in this working class community,  and went on to create a series of images that does more than record and document this place before demolition. These images contain a narrative of life and warmly records the lives of the people who inhabited these terraced streets that eventually gave way to the Byker Wall, a experimental housing project that still stands today.

I was fortunate enough to photograph Sirkka in 2018 when she spoke at The Martin Parr Foundation.

Byker Revisited depicts the new population of Byker which includes a true reflection of English Society that could represent many northern towns and cities. These colour images contrast greatly with the original black and white images that have remained in my memory for years. I lived in the neighbouring district of Walker during the 1970's and have first hand memories of many of the views and people in this book, the images from the original project have aged well and seem even better with the passage of time.

Those of you who think that this is little more than a plug for a Documentary photography book should think again as much of this work might of started out as Documentary photography but in my opinion should be viewed  as Art Photography. This work is relevant to Street Photographers  today, the "Girl On A Spacehopper" picture is a street photography masterpiece !

My exposure to the original Byker project in my early teens is partly responsible for my passion for Street Photography today , it helped me realise that everyday life is the most powerful subject for photography, especially when viewed with an emotional connection.

Sirkka Liisa Konttinen is a founder member of Amber Associates who still run The Side Gallery which is just off Newcastle's Quayside..

Keep it real, check out the work of of Sirkka Liisa Konttinen.. 

Byker, Writing in The Sand, step by Step & Byker Revisited.

Is the decisive moment dead !

I've never really bought into the old HCB "decisive moment" nonsense but I must admit its one hell of a memorable one-liner. My photography appears to consist of indecisive moments in fact I'm just grateful for whatever I can get.

As I write this I'm having an indecisive moment, as I look out of the window, the greyness of this English day is making me wonder if I should venture out in search of "moments" or not. Would my time be better used catching up and editing the back-log of images that seems to always be waiting for me.

My interpretation of the famous HCB quote when stripped back is that you have to make your exposure at the best time for the image you are trying to make, sounds more than a bit obvious to me ! In short if you decide to make an image of the winning goal being scored in the FA cup final then its no good trying to achieve it by sitting behind the goal in January as you'll have a long wait for "the decisive moment" !

Joking aside the point I want to raise today is the growth in popularity of the time-less deadpan images that suggest that the moment captured is anything but "decisive" !   I wonder if the growth in street photography has played a major part in diminishing the value of "The decisive Moment", after all the viewing public must be fed up of seeing silhouetted children jumping off bridges from every continent in the world and there are only so many balloon covered faces a man (or woman) can take.!  It appears to me that a growing appetite for images where         the viewer is left feeling that the time either side of the image capture would look exactly the same as the moment being offered are growing in popularity.

Could the Street Photography community be developing a taste for a "documentary" style approach in the creation of Art Photography as it matures and realises that current approaches to "Street" are leading to a creative cul-de-sac ?

While on the subject of current photography trends I would like to beat the drum for the  inaugural British Life Photography Awards Exhibition which opens at The Mall Galleries in London next week, (as the organisers appear to be doing a great job of keeping it a secret), for those of you like myself who are unable to see the show a book will be launched next week..

I intended to ramble on a bit more  in this post but my pet Galah is taking a hissy fit and is demanding my attention,I have also decided to try and search out a few moments today (decisive or not) so I had better get a move on.  I have included a indecisive moment of my own below .

Keep it real !

The Palace 2015

Digital Photography Detox

Detox diets and drug detox rehabilitation appears to be a growing part of the society we live in, I wonder how many street photographers might benefit from a digital detox ?  Could a short session of digital free photography help togs move away from pixel peeping and help them see the bigger picture ?.

Let me make it clear that I come from a pre-digital photography time which probably makes me a dinosaur in the eyes of many reading this ! I don't want to turn this into the old film versus digital debate because that debate is as tired as my old Yashica-Mat , what I am hoping to highlight here are the creative opportunities that film cameras offer over the strict digital workflows that we all follow slavishly in order to achieve images that appear to have the same photographic DNA. 

Set yourself free and escape your comfort zone every now and then, my guilty secret is the 120 Holga I carry around and even use when I discover what I think is a Holga-listic moment, these moments are much more pre-visualised and planned than my more spontaneous street style and to be honest is far removed from the Lomo ethos of shooting from the hip, in fact  the attraction of  plastic cameras to me is that the thought process is completely different from our auto-everything digital everyday street capture's. I have learned to embrace the flaws of my "plastic" workflow and enjoy the "dream-like" (soft) look of the work that seems to have a more fine art photography feel.

If you have started the year a little more sluggish than you would have liked and are finding it hard to find the mojo needed to get your photography moving, dig out an old film camera and have some fun !

I  wonder if I can persuade those brave souls who are prepared to give up digital now and then to try lens-less photography . Pinhole photography is the most extreme digital detox I am aware of but it should be approached with caution as this level of serendipitous photography is truly addictive

World Pinhole Day takes place on Sunday the 26th of  April this year and might be a good time to give up mega bites .and lenses for a day.

I have enclosed a picture of my "Geordie Leica" below, the tape and over spray are all part of the refinements !

Keep it real !

Award-io No Thanks-io !

I saw an interesting post on Street Shooters UK yesterday and uploaded 3 pix to be included as part of the Greenwich Gallery's call for entries for its "Crowds" project, the call for entries are all done on-line via the Award-io platform which is a tool for curators to solicit photographic entries for exhibitions all over the world.

The advertised fee for entry was penny's less than £15 for a portfolio of 3 pix and the prize offered was to have your work exhibited at the gallery in Greenwich, London for 2 weeks.I had no problem with the Greenwich Galleries prize but became less impressed by the Award-io platform.

The fee for 3 entries was almost 30 quid not the £14.95 advertised, the other thing that surprised me was that below each image opened on the site a button appears offering the viewer the chance to "SHARE" your entered image on Facebook or Twitter. I am aware that any image posted on line is easily copied and posted elsewhere but I'm not sure that a site that claims to champion photographers should be actively helping others breach hard won copyright rights.

The images I uploaded were still on view the last time I checked despite my efforts to delete them, its less than reassuring to know that Award-io will archive my images forever on public view.

Apart from the money stuff this Award-io platform does not appear to be well considered, it appears to offer the greatest opportunity I have seen to ensure that your images become copyright orphans of the future.

The Greenwich Gallery appears to be using the platform to curate an exhibition and is not to blame for the problems I discovered,  however I think it should pick its partners more carefully. 

 Keep it real-io !