Wait in the Magazine

This is one of two of my Wait pictures which were published in the latest LIP magazine. You can find it on sale at the Photographers’ Gallery and a handful of other places in London (see list on first link). It’s hard to be too excited about this because aside from the fact that the two chosen pictures don’t make a lot of sense on their own, they edited my text, without any discussion, including adding a line of observation at the end (”I do see them as still figures surrounded by bustling street life”) which I didn’t even make. Sigh. You can see more pictures from this series here along with my original text (which doubtless would benefit from editing but by someone else).

The recent Street Photography Workshop generated this gallery of pictures from the participants. [Pic]

This entry posted in Digital, People, Wait | Wed 20 Aug '08 | Comments (2)

Whenever You Can

According to this survey digital cameras are the most confusing gadget and 46% of us don’t read the manuals. I spend a fair amount of time teaching people how to use their DSLRs so don’t find any of this surprising. Compared to the simple, manual only, film cameras that I learnt on, the modern digital camera is incredibly complex with a horrible interface and for the novice, an indecipherable manual. [Pic]

This entry posted in Bollards, Digital, People | Sat 9 Aug '08 | Comment (0)

Turbulence

I’ve recently rebuilt this site and a lot of the older blog posts are currently a bit broken. Apologies also if you got a dump of recent posts in your RSS reader today. Let me know if you spot any other oddities. Things should be straight again by next week.

This entry posted in Digital, People | Thu 10 Jul '08 | Comment (0)

Street Photo Workshop 2008 - no. 2

The first running of this year’s Street Photography Workshop is underway but there are still places available on the next. [Update: We had to change the original August dates and it is now due to run on the 13th & 27th of September]. Details should be on the Photofusion website soon.

This entry posted in Digital, People | Fri 4 Jul '08 | Comment (0)

Disney and Other Hyenas

I was confused by the title of the current Tate photography show and after my first visit last week I’m thinking I still don’t quite get it. Street and Studio: An Urban History of Photography is actually about portraiture and claims to highlight “…the crossovers between the genres [Street and Studio] and their influence on each other.” So, sounds interesting but women under hypnosis? I’ll need to read the blurb to see where they fit in.

Not that I didn’t enjoy it. There was plenty I hadn’t seen before as well as some old favourites. The picture that had the strongest impact was this one by Pieter Hugo. I’m a little worried that I’m just impressed by the size of the hyena. I thought hyenas were more reasonable, dog-sized creatures (Max agreed and said this was because we’re informed by Disney films). They had the book of Pieter Hugo’s series (I don’t think the web gallery shows them very well) which I just about managed to resist buying. The printing looked great and even the non-hyena pictures seemed to have a strong other-worldly quality.

The show is on until 31 August so plenty of time to revisit.

This entry posted in Digital | Sun 1 Jun '08 | Comment (0)

Summer Street Photo Workshops

I’m running a Street Photography Workshop in London next month. The format will be the same as last year - two Saturdays with a weekend in between (28 June & 12 July). Photofusion are hosting as previously and you can read more details on their web site, or you can contact me if you have more questions. If this is of interest, you might also enjoy this new video which shows Bruce Gilden at work on the streets of New York.

This entry posted in Digital | Mon 19 May '08 | Comment (1)

Sigma DP1

My favourite carry everywhere camera was probably the Yashica T5 but it’s hard to imagine having a digital as good and simple to use as that. My latest substitute is the Sigma DP1. The previous, Lumix LX2, is ~~now on ebay~~ sold. The Sigma is fairly clunky in lots of ways and the colour is pretty weird but I’m enjoying the struggle. Above is a shot from the new camera.

This entry posted in Digital | Sat 19 Apr '08 | Comment (0)

Another Word for Coincidence

Coming out of the Photographers’ Gallery I was encouraged by the light ahead. As I squatted down to fish a camera out of my bag I noticed something moving in the distance - a thumb on a film advance lever. It’s funny how things like that stand out in a crowd and I shouldn’t really be surprised when another photographer also spots the light, especially near the Photographers’ Gallery.

As I started to get up, the thumb turned, to reveal Matt Stuart. Ha! I don’t often meet people I know when strolling around London but towards the end of an enjoyable wander with Matt we also ran into Stephen McLaren.

Anyway, back to the light. That junction has six roads branching off making for a relatively large open space that often seems to have a fair amount of reflected light. I can’t think of any good pictures that I’ve taken there but I like this one that Jawed took with a battered 6×9 folder of mine. Maybe it’s a place where I should spend more time shooting but often I’m happy to just look.

Here’s what Matt was looking at (from a different position with a longer lens). The man with the blank green sign was promoting McDonalds but only if you approached him from behind. It did look strange, running at 50% effeciency, but I had to wonder if blank signs were on the long list of things to avoid, with shop mannequins and homeless people. I was tempted to clone out the Selfridges text on the yellow bag to make another blank thing but it didn’t seem worth the effort and I settled for cloning some of the clipped highlights.