Posted on

don’t take boring pictures

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”
Posted on

hitting 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.

Continue reading “hitting the streets”