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.

decent exposure

Libraries are automated now which makes it easier for the borrower and, I assume, allows librarians to get on with better things. The best use of this system is when returning: no more waiting in queues to hand over armfuls of books; it's a five second job. I don't even mind when you have to put each returned book on the appropriate trolley. I mean, there's only the two trolleys and the machine assists with a bright green, flashing arrow. The bonus is, rather than recent returns disappearing behind the librarian's back, they can now be seen on the trolley. It's curious what some people borrow, rather like eyeing up the contents of supermarket trolleys. You can't tell a thing about a person that way but it doesn't stop you trying.

Anyway, to cut an unnecessarily long story short, I found a good book on photography amongst the returns last week; Understanding Exposure, by Bryan Peterson. Now I've gone through loads of these bibles and handbooks and for the intermediate photographer, which I am and I imagine most people are, they're mostly if not all hopeless. Either they're too basic or over technical and too dull to interest anyone but the technical fanatic.

Peterson's book is better because it cuts to the chase. It's the exposure, stupid. He makes it all so obvious, which it probably is but you couldn't be arsed to find it in the dry and lofty ''Advanced Photographer's Bible''. Instead, this one takes you directly to the nitty-gritty, enlightening you with such useful concepts as the holy triangle (shutter speed, aperture, and ISO); the 18% grey illusion; and the handy tricksters, Brother Sky and Mr. Green Jeans. If only they'd have printed a notebook sized edition, it would be a must. Nevertheless, get a copy from your automated librarian today!

the coin-operated horse

I've put this image up for Steve. It's me, probably around four years old, riding on a coin-operated horse. I don't know where it was taken: the coin-operated horse I had in mind, when I commented on a photo of Steve's wife as a little girl riding a rocking horse, was out front of a beach shop in Newquay, Cornwall. This wasn't it; it's an entirely different one. I really must have had a thing about mechanical horses.

Riding the horse, and wanting to ride them when I saw them, is one of the few memories I have from pre-school years. It may be the only one. I have to be careful not to dwell on this memory too long in case it gets corrupted. Memories are delicate things, and I don't really know how pristine this one actually is. I'll put it away now.

on photos: wall, web, or book?

Tomorrow I'll go to The Photographers' Gallery. On their forum, which now they appear to have taken down in favour of a new Facebook page (!), they had asked which was best for showing photographs; wall, web, or book? I'm undecided but it does show that photography is the odd medium; no one could dispute that art is best seen in the flesh.

Here's David Wilson's work. He's a Pembrokeshire landscape photographer. We've just come back from a weekend B&B there and found his book of black & white landscapes in the sitting room. It's a great book: not only are the images fantastic but it's instructive too, the accompanying words and the technical bit at the back teach more than most photo handbooks I've read.

I looked out for his work thinking I might have one on the wall at home. His work was everywhere you looked but I never found the one image that I liked enough separated from the rest. His work worked better in a book, as a collection.

What about the web, then? Well, you can make your own mind up but I was interested to read the opening lines from this press review. It's a book, then.

missing the point

The Beauty of Wind Power. Nice!

vs.

Rubbish Photography. Er, nice too.

The camera always, always lies.

go self-signify yourself

I expect most writers like to tell you something new. It isn't entirely necessary. Even when they tell us what we already knew, they usually tell it in a better way. That's their craft, assembling the right words and putting them in the best order. I admire writers.

I see Bryan Appleyard.com has written an introduction to his links explaining favourites and blogrolls. He says they are ''character attributes'' and ''self-signifiers''; we say we knew this all along; but he puts it a lot better.

He doesn't mention that it's a two-way process: knowing the compiler - or random collector - gives significance to the links. Normally, I would look down that list and think pah! (or uh?), but, no, I reckon they must be cool, despite appearances.

Like, New York?! This made me smile.
~

Btw, I like the idea of searching for images for this blog. On my other blogs I've been mindful to use my own images but as this blog isn't specifically for images, making appropriate images is a drag. Besides, searching for images is educational.

Helen Levitt's NY street scene is evocative of Cartier-Bresson and that's exactly why I was drawn to it. No surprise to find he was one of her influences. I don't know much about Helen Levitt. Finding out she died less than two months ago is strangely sad, almost as this blog began.

Btw2, I also found this ''reverse image search'' which is interesting. TinEye. You upload an image and it searches for identical (or near enough) images on the web. Good for telling who's using your images without permission.

peter funch

Art has always had a mongrel cousin in photography. This is almost certainly down to the latter's provenance in technology; it has been its millstone all along. People who take photographs can't help discussing cameras and lenses, photographers can't keep f-stops, focal lengths, and illumination to themselves. In contrast, artists and art pundits hardly bother in the slightest about brush bristles, the tooth, or what paints they have and what they cost. It's all about the expression.

The flood of cheap digital cameras and the rise of the world wide web hasn't done the cause much good. Sure, it has made photography incredibly accessible and democratic, which must be good. But it's also made it homogeneous and insipid, unconscious prescriptive expression. Few try; I wonder how many Flickr members know about Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Peter Keetman, and others, or have checked them out.

I still like photography though it's almost too frustrating to actively search out good work. Occasionally by chance, you can stumble across someone who's looking for a new angle on expression or experimenting further with old concepts. Yesterday, while following a series of links about ecology, I found the work of Danish photographer, Peter Funch mentioned on one of the sites. I love his subtle montages of urban street life collectively called Babel Tales; they are fun, some are hilarious and a few quite surreal. It's a simple idea - why didn't I think of that? - but expressed with a certain genius. Worth checking out.