an occasional blog about framing, photography, art, and living with an analogue mind in a digital age…
Personal projects are funny ol’ things. You start with all good intentions, and run through multiple phases of varying activity, and it’s a lottery whether they ever see completion.
Here’s something that I’d had “pinballing” around my head for a little while, that I’m delighted to say has come to fruition.
Visiting a friend for a couple of days back in August, we happened to inadvertently drop into Lincoln in the middle of the city’s steampunk festival.
I’d heard the term “Steampunk” before, but really only had a vague understanding of what it meant. I had no idea that it was such a big movement, and how much effort folk put into being steampunks. And how serious they are about it, and how much fun they obviously have with it.
For those who don’t know, steampunk is a creative style melding Neo-Victorian fashion and technology with science fiction to produce a retro-futuristic aesthetic. Jules Verne could never have imagined how his influence would play out in the 21st century. (Note: this is my interpretation, not a definitive description).
Continue reading “is it a bird, is it a plane, no it’s a steampunk”As an addendum to the previous set of posts exploring my thoughts on “street” photography, I just wanted to throw a light on one of the best.
Tony Ray Jones’ brief career left an important mark on documentary photography.
Much has been written, so there really is nothing I can add without resorting to plagiarism, but if you’ve not seen his work, please do seek it out and absorb it. His eye for composition in a documentary setting remains unparalleled 50 years after his untimely passing.
Continue reading “don’t take boring pictures”I never expected this theme to run over three posts, but as I considered my self-posed questions, the stream of consciousness flowed and could so easily have continued to more. But I’m going to close with this post where I find myself wondering if anything I do can be considered “street”.
As someone who finds it exceptionally hard to photograph people, even people I know, street photography, in its widely accepted guise as (mostly) candid observations of people in public situations, is perhaps a challenge too far. So, back to my earlier question: how do you define street photography? Can I remain close to my people-free comfort zone and still be a street photographer? Or must I step outside my comfort zone and take a more people based approach?
Continue reading “surviving the streets”In the last post, I began by pondering, “how do you define street photography?”
Since then, I’ve considered at length but have only been left with more questions.
I considered whether street photography is an evolution of documentary, but I don’t think it is. Not all street is documentary, and not all documentary is street, they converge and diverge like overlapping oscillatory wave patterns. If I were to photograph people at a demonstration marching through the city, I’d like to think I was making documentary photographs, but if I turned my back on the marchers to find images of people sitting in a pavement café watching the goings-on, then perhaps I might be indulging in some street photography.
Continue reading “living on the streets”Street photography… It’s a genre that’s become very popular. Search “street photography” in youTube and you’ll be spoilt for choice. The good, the bad and the ugly of street photography will be paraded before you to delight and disgust in equal measure, but it’s a genre that I confess to being a little perplexed by. Now, forgive me for lapsing into a middle-aged film-shooter stereotype, but I grew up with film photography. I’ve probably devoured thousands of magazine articles over the years, and have been fascinated by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Tony Ray-Jones, Elliott Erwitt, Fan Ho, and many others… and I don’t think I ever heard any of them referred to as a “street photographer”. Reportage, yes… Documentary, yes… but street, no… not ever. At least, not until recently, when they may have been retrospectively labelled thus.
“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare”
With apologies for opening a post with a repeated quote, but I think it’s entirely appropriate.
The last year or so, in an attempt to escape the various lockdowns, we’ve taken to walking.
Not just walking, you understand, I mean, we’ve been walking ever since we moved on from the toddling stage, but proper boots-on, follow-a-map type walking.
“What is this life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare”
It seems that for many, time to stand and stare is now plentiful, but maybe there’s precious little to stare at. Social distancing and isolation may be entirely necessary at this time, but it can feel, well, isolating… even for those of us lucky enough to have a garden, standing and staring at the same familiar surroundings as the days draw into weeks can be frustrating to the creative mind.
The internet is awash with articles listing “things to do” during the lock-down to keep busy, creative and prevent the dreaded cabin-fever, so I don’t think I have much to add… I’m sure you’re all intelligent people and have your own ideas on how to pass the time.
Continue reading “the new leisure?”Continuing my occasional series on the cameras in my collection, it’s time to focus on the olympus xa.
“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” ― Robert Hughes
I imagine many of us occasionally have those feelings that we’re out of our depth, that we don’t know what we’re doing, or we’re out of control and being carried along against our will or judgement. Most of the time these feelings are momentary. We attempt to regain control and move on, but what happens to our creativity during these periods of doubt? And what if those periods are not fleeting, but consistent, long term and debilitating?
Following on from the previous post which described the darkness that Don McCullin feels from his years of bearing witness to the worst of humanity, and how those dark feelings are alleviated, just a little, by photographing the land, or creating classical still life compositions, I wanted to explore a little more the idea of how our mental state might affect, and be affected by, our photography.