Dougie Wallace - in yer face - BJP January 2015

I was really pleased to see Dougie Wallace get a mention in January 2015's BJP.  Not only because he is a great (in my opinion) social commentary / street photographer, but also I often hear negative opinions expressed about this kind of "in yer face" photography - including its lack of ethics, imposition on people's privacy and space, shallowness, lack of engagement, shock tactics, and so on (none of which is true, by the way).  So it's reassuring, if nothing else, to see this style of photography recognised in print.

In the article, Armstrong describes Wallace's approach: like Maciej Dakowicz in making his social commentary Cardiff After Dark, Wallace spends years, weekend after weekend, immersing himself in the environment: for Stags, Hens and Bunnies Wallace made 30 trips to Blackpool over two and a half years and Shoreditch Wild Life was shot over ten years.  And I know that Wallace is currently going backwards and forwards to Mumbai shooting for a forthcoming publication Road Wallah.  

Wallace's images are fun, garish, bright, close, revealing; I imagine that alongside the hard work, he had a lot of fun shooting them.  But the article is actually pretty poor and I'm surprised by this.  Armstrong has not written to BJP's usual standard.  For  a start, she has not even mentioned Road Wallah, yet four photographs of from this series were included in the article.  So for somebody not familiar with his work, this would be confusing.  And I really don't understand why, when writing about a contemporary photographer, would you not mention their most current work?  Street photography is such a spontaneous event, that the present is surely the most interesting point of where a photographer is?  And then a separate piece of work about differences between Knightsbridge and Glasgow (untitled) was mentioned, but some photographs from a series called The Omnibus were included in the article.  Are we supposed to make the connection?  Incidentally, that series is not called The Omnibus, it's called:
Glasgow; Second City of The Empire. On the run up to the Scottish Referendum.  Armstrong, do your research!!

And by the way, Harrods is not on the Kings Road, it's on Brompton Road.

So, poor journalism aside, how does this relate to my work and where my photography is heading?   At the moment, my street photography is totally random.  I go out as often as I can and take what I see, mainly practicing different approaches and techniques still.  And I know from looking at other street photographer's work, e.g. Pushkar Raj Sharma's Faceless series, that a good theme is a great way to build a portfolio.  And since I first looked at Cardiff After Dark, I have wanted to produce a monograph.  Trouble is, I don't have any ideas yet, well at least none that are going anywhere.   One idea I had was a series on street photography in Cumbria, the twist being the unlikely destination for street photography!  However, perhaps easier to shoot and along the same theme of drunken revelry as the work by Dakowicz and Wallace, I am also thinking about a City/Canary Wharf idea - maybe on Thursday and Friday nights.

I ordered my flash unit from Argos this weekend....


Reference List:

• Armstrong, E. (2015) Dougie Wallace - in yer face. British Journal of Photography 161 (7831), pp.48-51 

Websites:

• Dougie Wallace Glaswegee available from http://www.dougiewallace.com/ [accessed 22 February 2015]
• Maciej Dakowicz available from http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/ [accessed 22 February 2014]  
• Faceless in So Many Photos So Little Time by Pushkar Raj Sharma available from https://pushkarrajsharma.wordpress.com/streets-stories/series-faceless/ [accessed 22 February 2014]

Bibliography:

• Dakowicz, M. (2012) Cardiff After Dark. London: Thames & Hudson
• Wallace, D. (2014) Stags, Hens and Bunnies. Stockport: Dewi Lewis Media
• Wallace, D. (2014) Shoreditch Wild Life. UK: Hoxton Mini Press