street photographer

Had this little beauty in my inbox this morning, an invitation to join a community, the Street Photography Now Project, in association with The Photographer's Gallery, London, and Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, authors of Street Photography Now. (Unfortunately, it involves posting our efforts on Flickr - why they didn't set up their own unique platform, I really don't know.) The gist is, they'll post a weekly instruction for you to take to the street, make an image, and upload it to their Flickr group. You don't need a squirrel monkey; just a camera, a town, and a lot of brass neck.

Here's a brief slideshow promoting Howarth and McLaren's new book which contains some fun, funny, and inspirational photos, and the kind of thing I imagine they're looking for;

Street Photography Now from Johanna on Vimeo.

Addendum: Seems to be a bit confusing over at SPNP's Flickr page. I've found this which seems to be where the prompts are. Then you have to marry it up to the right Flickr group. Why, oh why, oh why et cetera et ad infinitum....

sirkka-liisa konttinen and the north

BBC Four is back on form this month with a series on The North [of England]. As a ''Southerner'', I have to be careful what I say about The North. I mean, I don't actually get up there much but, from what I know, it's all right. Largely my experience of it has been through the media of film, predominantly black and white ones, and books. I'm pretty sure both of these skew the true nature of The North, and its folk, but, to its advantage, gives it an extra sense of romanticism and strength; it makes for good art.

The series introduced me to the work of Finnish photographer and film-maker, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. This is a photographer to know as he obviously knows about photography, its potential and its purpose. In the 60s she came to Byker, a working class area of Newcastle on the verge of being pulled down to make way for improved housing. The young Konttinen fell in love with the community she found living in the terraces and moved in. Then she began photographing her neighbours and their neighbourhood. Then last year she returned to make portraits of newer residents of Byker Wall, the estate which replaced the condemned Byker, this time in colour.

Her portraiture is a work of genius; she manages to capture the finest of lines between the formal pose and the candid. Only the genuine expressions of the ordinary people in her images give away the unstaged nature at that moment of capture, and what Cartier-Bresson must have meant by the ''decisive moment''. Have a look at the family portrait with their bull terrier, above. It featured very briefly in the programme, and it turns out to be her own favourite.

I love the structure of this composition, the way the subjects are placed in the room as if she was setting out to paint the scene, not merely snap them. Yet they seem, at that moment, to be totally unconscious of the artist: the playful interaction between dog and master, the open wonder in the upturned face of the young daughter set against the knowing gaze of her older sister. Perfect.

manu delago & the hang

If you liked the sound of Toumani Diabaté's kora, I'm sure you'll like the sound of the hang, played here by Manu Delagu. Not actually a drum as suggested by the title of the video, but an idiophonic instrument of serious complexity (I'll stop here because I'm well out of my depth). Designed in Switzerland, it's a long way from putting holes in cheese and the cuckoo clock. However, I'd be happy to have a hang on my wall though it'd be too tempting to stay there for long.

September

I've taken to walking at lunchtime, even though there's nowhere interesting to go in an hour and not much else to see apart from other offices and office workers. It's like Clonesville, but at least the weather is good; the slightest covering of cloud and a strong, fresh breeze.

In Ealing, West London, there are two great recreation parks separated by a crossroad in a quiet residential street. They are two of the largest, and oldest, municipal parks I'd known anywhere in suburbia. I used to work nearby and most lunch hours would complete a figure of eight around both parks by the perimeter paths, a walk which would take almost exactly the whole hour. It was a fine walk, especially if the weather was good.

A short time later, an old work-mate joined the firm. He was Polish and he came to England, via France, at a time when Poland was under communism. His command of English was really good though he still had an accent which added charm to his words and gave the simplest of statements an air of gravitas and wisdom. And he was slightly older than me, possibly by as much as ten years.

Our paths crossed in the park one day. It was mid-Summer. I'd made some remark about how good it would be to holiday in Britain, if the weather was as good as it was that day.
I remember he said immediately how, in England, in September and, sometimes, October, it could be good, also.

I wasn't aware of this at the time, in fact I was a bit dubious. I was young enough still to associate September as the month for going back to school at the end of a long Summer break. But in passing years I found my Polish friend was right. September is a fine month, also. In fact, I'm not certain it isn't my favourite month of the year.

inconsequential truths

I. The hazelnut doesn't do much for me. It's taste is vaguely reminiscent of the end of a pencil, and I don't expect it has as much nutritional clout. In order of preference in my daily nut mix;

• Brazil nuts - generally uncultivated, mostly gathered from the rainforest floor. A satisfying bite with plenty of flesh.
• Walnut - Californian (though I don't know why they couldn't be English). Slight resemblance to ossified brains of small critters so may improve mental health or the ability to climb trees. A difficult nut to extract (though in this case I didn't have to).
• Almond - a taste sensation, though thin on flesh.
• Hazelnut - mere ballast.

II. Buddhism is a religion least likely to be practiced by aspiring time-travellers. However, for actual time-travellers it could be the most likely followed.