I spent last weekend with "the Beatles". Not the real Beatles.... but the street photography equivalent; four photographers from the street photography collective "
In-Public" - a group of photographers whose objective is to promote Street Photography and to explore its endless possibilities. Not only was I privileged enough to participate in this workshop, but the four tutors were four from my contemporary street photography "greats" (I am also meeting another one, reportage and street photographer
Maciej Dakowicz, at a workshop in Varanasi in October this year):
Each one has a unique style, but all bring a sense of comedy, which is what draws me to this particular genre of street photography.
Some colourful examples:
Here are my notes from the workshop (in no particular order):
- Find a way of getting constructive feedback (i.e. not friends/family)
- Make sure pictures have connotation
- When piecing together a narrative make sure there is a strong start and a strong end
- When putting together a body of work, make sure the pages are linked (like a visual word association)
- Try removing the ground when photographing reflections
- Pre-focus distances
- Learn exposures (so it comes naturally)
- Get subjects ("victims") used to the sound of the camera, so that you blend in to the background
- Find good backgrounds and wait ("casting") - like "Far Side" scenes
- Believe that you are invisible
- Look for arrows and road markings
- Get up high and look down
- Look at shadows and profiles of faces in shadows
- Work on projects/themes
- Take sequences
- Always take 2-3 photos - work the scene - different angles, aspects, perspectives, frozen actions
- Look for words/signs - and either make them work with the scene (interaction) or remove them
- Get familiar with http://www.photographersrights.org.uk/
- Balance corners
- Aim for different expressions across the frame
- Don't waste space
- Know why you are taking a photograph
- For easy fast shooting - use Programme mode and turn off the LV (to stop yourself checking each shot) - learn to frame correctly
- Be really disciplined about what the interesting part of the shot is
- Be aware of everything in the frame
- Eliminate everything in shooting that doesn't have a purpose in the frame
- Move on to another project if you find it difficult to make the current one work
- Within a project - get rid of duplicates - ask what each picture says about the project
- When starting a project, list the objectives and what you are going to cover and not cover (shoot/avoid), what emotions you want to capture, and also parameters e.g. colour, landscape, 35mm
- Be very selective and deliberate about what you are going to include in a project/portfolio
- Find your style in editing - don't mix square/rectangle or colour/b&w in a portfolio or project
- Avoid photographing people in funny suits - there needs to be some interaction that is unexpected or out of context
- Get in closer
- With poster board backgrounds - include some context of the wider frame
- State the intention of the photograph more clearly
Photographers to study:
The workshop was organised such that the Friday evening was presentations and introductions by Gibson, Jorgensen, and Stuart. What was interesting is that none of them make a living from Street Photography - they all do other photography work as well. Then on the Saturday we were divided into groups and each spent some time with each of the tutors. Then on the Sunday we had feedback both from the Saturday and also from previous work, and Solomons gave a presentation about how he has put together his
Up West Project.
So how did I get on? Well I had two comments that really resonated and gave me hope: they'd like to see more of my work as time goes on :-) (although probably just being nice...) and that some of my previous photos look like journalist or reportage style photos (so not street photography - but this was actually really helpful as I'm trying to find an avenue for the future and thinking about photojournalism!). Here is an example of the more "reportage" style taken on 28 June 2014 at the London Pride march.
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| London Pride |
At the workshop, on the Saturday, the first part of my day was spent with Solomons. He took us on a walk from Piccadilly Circus, along Piccadilly, up Bond Street, along Oxford Street and down Regent Street, with a focus on shopping as a theme. I found it hard taking photographs in a group as if someone got to a scene first, I didn't want to do the same, so I missed out on a few shots. BUT Bond Street will be a great location for Project Three - Reportage)
From this outing, I got this scene in Bond Street which got good feedback in the review part of the workshop: (for the resonance with the two heads)
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| Bond Street |
Solomons also taught us crowd photos (manual focus 2m) walk into crowds
and capture expressions. This was a disaster - no photos to show! BTW - I called this strategy "Crowd-surfing technique"!
This second photograph below was a good idea, but executed badly. I should have framed the poster, so that more of the surrounding was included (instead of trying to make it look out of context), and also frozen the cyclist.
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| Bond Street |
The next segment of the day was a lot of fun and for me opened a new avenue. Jorgensen took us on an adventure of the target rich environment of the tube. Lots of tubes in fact. It was chaotic, fun, crazy and on this occasion, shooting in a crowd was an advantage a it confused the passengers and made it easier to get closer. Jorgensen convinced me, despite my better judgement to crank up the ISO and shoot on Programme mode (or P for Professional as he says!). I've never used this before, but it was actually liberating. The only trouble was that in some shots, I had elements softer than I would have liked, but I can work on that by paying more attention to the focus point in the viewfinder.
Shots that worked well:
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| District Line |
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| X |
Shots that needed better execution:
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| Westminster |
In Westminster, I took a portrait because I liked the dog. This is not street photography! Stuart suggested cropping into a square so you just see the dog's flayed arms and legs, but the ISO was too high on my camera (Nikon D5000) and the result too grainy. I don't really think it works though with this crop. But it gave me an idea for a project: Underground Dogs!
The other picture that I showed to the group that had potential but needed better framing was this one:
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| Circle Line |
What caught my eye was the sea of yellow (hair and poles) but in editing, I saw the light patterns and converted to b&w. During the review, I was advised to crop in to eliminate all the faces so it was just backs of heads and the one looking back. I then decided to leave in colour to bring back the yellow theme.
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| Circle Line |
After lunch, the next session was with Gibson. Gibson wanted to teach us abstract and graphic patterns, and so took us to Trafalgar Square and the walkway above Villiers Street where we would have opportunities to look down. Although this isn't a style that I particularly want to pursue, these pictures were well received during the review session:
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| Trafalgar Square |
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| Trafalgar Square |
Not so successful was this - not enough in the frame:
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| Villiers Street |
I also took this in Trafalgar Square, which although outside the brief of the exercise, I liked, but was not so well received - not enough going on - needed a union jack flag, and rain, or something. Pity - I like the faces and expressions!
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| Great British Summer |
The final part of the day was spent with Stuart. This was the hardest part of the day - by then I was tired and confused. I felt like I had boxing gloves on and no longer understood street photography or knew how to use my camera. Stuart made us stand in strategic points around Piccadilly Circus and rather than move around, let the photos come to us. This was not very successful at all. All the pictures I showed from this part of the day needed dramatic improvement. The only one that conceptually was the right idea was this one:
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| Lion King |
Stuart suggested trying this again with one person in the frame so that it's clear that the person is being poked by the fingers in the poster and to crop right in in the shooting so that everything else is eliminated.
We also got the opportunity to have previous photos reviewed. I had mixed reviews on various photos, as you'd expect from four different tutors, but the overall winner was this one taken in April 2013. I did actually enter it into LPOTY last year but didn't get anywhere :( BUT really pleased to have one picture unanimously liked by all four tutors. It's not comical in the street photography sense, but nicely abstract and pretty (quote Gibson)!
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| Piccadilly Circus |
All in all this was a fantastic experience! And one thing is clear - street photography is hard. Really hard. You need the luck of the devil (or Matt Stuart) to be good. But, I'm comforted by the encouraging feedback I got, with some clear advice from Stuart to find a style and work hard at it. Colourful squares stood out for him as my particular trait, so a good tip to pursue.
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