Assignment Three - Self-portrait: Preparation and Execution

All images reproduced in this post have been included by kind permission of their original author.  The copyright remains with the photographer stated.  All other images are my own.

Preparation

Assignment Three asks us to keep a diary for a couple of weeks, and then to use that to develop a self-portrait drawing upon the examples studied in Part Three of this module.

My approach to this project was initially to follow the instructions and to keep a diary for a period of time.  I chose to start the diary on 25 November 2014 and had intended to update it twice a day during my train journeys to and from work.  I made single entries on 25, 27, 28, 29, and 30 November, and 1, 3, 5 and 8 December.  On 16 December I wrote a summary of my entries.  The biggest observation was that I have no available time.  I couldn't even find the time to make a diary entry every day.  For a start, I don't always get a seat on the train, and when I did, I was more inclined to look at images online than to write about myself.  I realised that I am so busy with going to work, being at work, doing my coursework, researching, and then all the boring stuff like laundry etc, that I have no time, nor the inclination for introspection.  Both at work and at home, my life seems to hurtle along at 100mph getting me through an enormous volume of work.  The days fly past in a blurred rush of confusion.  From one week to the next, I don't even remember what I've done.

To manage this, my life has become compartmentalised into little boxes on electronic calendars where everything I have agreed to do or have to do is mapped out.  My work and home calendars do in fact look very similar.  At work there are no gaps due to meetings and deadlines, at home there are no gaps due to photography commitments and traveling; the home calendar of course being a nice problem to have!  But, if I don't do the allotted thing at the right time, in the time that I have allowed, it either doesn't happen, or there is a knock-on domino effect and something else suffers.  Somewhere in the cracks, I see my poor husband, dogs, friends and rest of family.  It seems that time takes the form of an out-of-control all-consuming monster that has a mind and a course of its own that I have no choice but to keep up with; I certainly can't slow it down.  At night, I struggle to go to bed early (even though my alarm is set for a ridiculous time in the morning), as I feel robbed.  I want just a bit more time for myself before I have to sleep.  If I go to bed too early, I can't sleep anyway as my brain is still rushing.

To present this aspect of my life through photography, I wanted to make the most of a trip to Japan in December 2014 and shoot my images there and so progress the travel/street approaches I have been working on during this module.  Before leaving, I initially had in mind some ideas that I might be able to use:

• Shinkansen to illustrate the speed at which time rushes
• Mt Fuji to illustrate the volume of work to get through
• Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo to depict the tidal wave of stuff coming towards me at the start of the day
• Sushi boxes/fish crates to show the compartmentalisation of time idea - or the feeling of being stuffed in a train during the commute - or fish in a tank to show the endless movement of me and the cycles of going backwards and forwards to work
• Monkeys relaxing to show how I feel when I finally flop on the sofa at the end of the day

 I didn't want to plan it too much though as with travel/street photography I like to let it happen to me.  This is the only part of my life where I can be right-brained and I don't want to contaminate it with too much organisation!

I was also influenced by two photographers whose work I have been following recently on Flickr, who had both managed to capture sinister and confused elements into their work that I wanted to try to reflect in this assignment: Torsten Hendricks and Gareth Bragdon.

Torsten Hendricks, a German photographer based in Hong Kong, is also a Maciej Dakowicz workshop participant, but I actually found his work on Flickr before I realised I knew him from the workshop group.  The photograph that inspired me for this piece of work is this one shot in Mongkok, Hong Kong, during the recent riots:

Mongkok (c) Torsten Hendricks

The image is part of a series called 75 Days; Hendricks writes:

"For 75 days, Hong Kong was in turmoil.  It took only 75 days to change the face of a city.  A city which was known for its apathy in regard to politics, was becoming the centre of heated discussions. It was a cradle of tension, with families becoming estranged, political discussions erupting in offices and fights breaking out in the streets.  Seventy-five days was all it took to change the image of the former so-called best police force in the world into one of the least popular police forces in the world. Cops used heavy force against citizens.  Thugs and triad members were getting into fights with protesters.

The densely populated city became a centre of politics.  While the occupied zone in Admiralty was a heavily organised zone through various political parties, the occupied area in Mongkok was shaped by the outsiders, by the minorities, by the people unable to attend universities – in short, people without any representation.  It was the libertarian area of the occupied areas in Hong Kong, and it was in Monk Kong that the most violence, the most political discussions, the most heated debates and the most resistance took place.

During these 75 days, I went out with the camera to document the various faces of the “Umbrella Movement”, the fights, the struggles and the impact of the movement onto the citizens".

I didn't know this though when I first saw the image.  I liked the blurred effect creating confusion and the feeling that something is out of control, the angry character and aggressive position, and the framing of the central character between some stationary people.  It was the sense of confusion that I wanted to incorporate into my work.  I guessed that this was handheld on a slow shutter speed; I later checked with Hendricks who confirmed that that was right, but that he also uses film (not digital) and flash.

Gareth Bragdon is an American photographer based in Edinburgh.  I also came across his work came to me through Flickr, but I also saw his work at the Fotoura Street Awards exhibition last year, where Bragdon was one of the finalists.  Through the use of a flashgun and a low position, Bragdon creates an underworld that seems bizarre, sinister and ghoulish. The photo that particularly inspired me was this one:

(c) Gareth Bragdon

This is a handheld image shot through glass.  I felt that this image personified what I wanted to say about time in that it is a monstrous concept, it causes things to get stacked up without any gaps, and there is something sinister about it.  I had originally intended to use the snow monkeys to show my eventual relaxed state, but once I'd make a mental connection between Bragdon's manic monkeys and my own monkey shots, I realised that I could use a monkey to add to the monster I wanted to create (see Image 5) and in fact provide a dramatic end to my series.

Execution

While I was away in Japan, I let my photography take its own course.  I was after all on holiday!  But as I was shooting, I was of course aware of various images that I was taking that I could use for my submission.  The only image that was deliberately shot was the Shibuya Crossing image (see Image 1).  My original intention had been to set up on a tripod and blur the movement of people, but in fact I got an image I already liked during my location scout trip.

Over the two weeks, a story unfolded that depicted the self-portrait I wanted to produce:

 Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Rollercoaster

Image 4

Image 5

 
With the following meaning behind the images:

• Image 1 (Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo) - tidal wave of activity about to start at the beginning of the day
• Image 2 (Bar Buri, Ebisu, Tokyo) - compartmentalisation of time
• Image 3 (Dotomburi, Osaka) - despite my attempts at being organised, changing and multiplying priorities
• Rollercoaster (Fuji-Q Highland, Kawaguchiko) - time is rushing at 100mph - the day is disappearing, yet I feel stood still unable to keep up with it
• Image 4 (Miyaji) - need to finish my tasks before the deadline - otherwise it will blow up in my face
• Image 5 (Jigokudani Yaen-Koen) - finally, home, I can relax, but my head is still spinning.....

Once I had my story, the next thing I needed to do was to think about presentation.  I wanted to set them to a poem or literary extract, and so started looking for ideas.  I particularly liked the suggestion from a fellow student to use an extract by Dr Seuss (reference to poem not known): 

"How did it get so late, so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn [sic]. How did it get so late so soon?"  

But in the end I wanted to use my own words to explain what I experience, but I decided to keep the first sentence of the quote as a title piece, as this sums up perfectly what I feel every day!

Finally, I needed to think about how I would treat the images.  They didn't look very frightening or monstrous in colour.  Plus the lighting and tones were inconsistent.  I wanted to make them look more sinister, more grainy, more like the monster I was trying to create.

I converted them all to monochrome, altered light and contrast where appropriate, and added grain.  As they were shot on different ISO speeds, I had to add more grain to some than others.  The only image I couldn't make work was the roller coaster - there was too much white in the image and I didn't like the composition.  The top diagonal white post was bothering me.  I had also tried to make a composite image for this scene that showed the car moving and the background still (instead of a panned shot) but it didn't work either - the car was too faint.  I decided in the end to leave this out as it made the series seem visually inconsistent.  It was an important part of the story, but the sensation of speed is present in Image 1 with the tidal wave and Image 4 with the notion that the thing will blow up if work isn't completed on time.

Please see my submission for the final images.
 
Websites:

• Gareth Bragdon on Flickr available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/garethbragdon/ [accessed 8 February 2015]
• Maciej Dakowicz Photography Workshops available from http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/photography-workshops/ [accessed 8 February 2015]
• The Art of Dr Seuss available from http://www.drseussart.com/ [accessed 13 February 2015]
• Torsten Hendricks on Flickr available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/purityt/ [accessed 8 February 2015]

Trevor Crone

Trevor Crone is a friend of mine from Crossing Lines.  Photographically, we have a few common interests: seaside towns, urban spaces, interpretation of place, exploring memory, street photography and we both admire the work of Dave Mason.  So you'd wonder whether our approaches to photography would be similar?  Well actually, they couldn't be further apart.  Polemic, in fact.

Mine is generally chaotic, random, often hurried, garish, looking for chance events and I'm on my feet for ten hours in a single stretch and may take 1000 images and generally need instant gratification.  Even if I plan a piece of work, it still all happens at 100 mph, only to find when I get back that I mis-framed something, got stuck on the wrong ISO and so on.  The biggest challenge for me is learning to slow down and look more carefully. 

Crone's approach entirely the opposite.  He showed some images at a Crossing Lines meeting at the start of the month of a series that he is working on entitled "On Common Ground" in which he explores the memories of his childhood on the Kent coast and time spent with his father.  The result of this is a series of beautifully composed and exposed images which are very delicately balanced, peaceful and calm. I really like the sense of space in this scenes; they provide such a welcome relief and escape from the chaos and clutter of my own life!

Crone's approach is as follows (quote):

"The camera is an Ebony SLW810 (made in Japan) and takes sheet film up to 8" x 10". My film preference is Ilford's HP5 Plus. I usually develop 2 sheets at a time in a drum processor. Once dry they are contact printed, trimmed and simply mounted as you saw at Crossing Lines. Contacted printing (by tradition) is probably the simplest form of printing as the light sensitive paper is just exposed to light (usually just an ordinary light bulb) and processed in standard print developing chemicals used in most darkroom set ups."

This is the camera:

And here are some of the images:

Epple Bay (c) Trevor Crone

Minnis Bay (c) Trevor Crone

Palm Bay (c) Trevor Crone

I really hope he shows them publicly one day!

Websites:

• Crossing Lines available from http://www.gold.ac.uk/cucr/vurbanism/crossing%20lines/ [accessed 17 October 2014]
• Dave Mason Images available from http://www.davemasonimages.com/ [accessed 17 October 2014]

Assignment Two - Preparation - Photographing the unseen

Sunday 5 October

The assignment asks us to reflect on what kinds of subjects might be seen as un-photographable and how we might go about portraying them using photography (around seven ideas), with the objective of developing one of those ideas into a visually consistent series of 7-10 images.  Here are my reflections:

1. The five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell.  You could photograph somebody actively performing a sense, e.g. a person sniffing something or walking with headphones on, but you could not photograph the sensation of experiencing the sense.  For instance, you would not be able to photograph what something smells like - you can only photograph the thing itself and hope that the viewer can imagine the smell.
2. Emotions: happiness, sadness.  You could photograph somebody's expression and hope that their face shows emotion, but can you really capture what they are feeling?  Can a photographer capture their own emotions?  In addition, the emotion conveyed also depends on the interpretation of the viewer.  For instance, I could capture a desolate landscape with mist and a lot of negative space, which one person might interpret as me feeling sad and isolated, but in actual fact, I would feel happy in such a scene, so it's relative.  The Dad Project by Briony Campbell is a very poignant example of a piece of work that has captured strong emotions in photography.
3. Anticipation: how would you capture anticipation?  You would have to set a scene so that it was obvious what was about to happen next?  How would you show photographically what you are anticipating?
4. Fear: you could capture fear by the expression in somebody's face, but can you really capture fear that you as a photographer are experiencing?  How would you show your own sense of dread, sickness, shakes?
5. Dreams: dreams are a unique and subconscious experience - each person's dreams are individual, personal and not seen by other people.  They could however be reconstructed in photography as a narrative, but I don't think you'd be able to just go out and photograph a dream, you'd have to stage a scene and be creative, possibly even surreal.
6. Needs: hunger, thirst.  Again, you could capture another person's hunger or thirst, but not your own.  You'd have to photograph things that conveyed the concepts of hunger and thirst.
7. Wonder: how do you capture the wonder?  Is it seeing something amazing for the very first time?  Could it also be applied to something sinister?  Sure you can photograph the thing or the scene itself, but how do you capture the reaction of wonder.  Is it excitement (or even trepidation) in response to a situation?  Is it more ambiguous than that?  Is it a state of confusion?

For Assignment Two, I am going to attempt the 7th idea, which I hope to execute in Varanasi in India.  Having never been to India before, I really don't know what to expect.  Sure I've seen other people's photographs, but how do I capture the concept of wonder, in a way that the viewer understands that from the output?

This will be an unplanned exercise, as the images will need to reflect spontaneity to convey the excitement and discovery.  I will be participating in an intensive seven-day street photography workshop with Maciej Dakowicz, so there is also the element of excitement of working with a photography hero and learning new techniques.  I have no idea how this is going to turn out as a finished piece of work!  All I know is that it will be in colour :)

Sunday 23 November

Once I'd completed all the exercises and set about finalising my assignment submission, I wondered about the inclusion of text.  The Assignment instructions did not ask for text or captions, and my feedback from Assignment One was that I did not need the captions in that particular context.  BUT a lot of the work that we did for Part Two was about text and the relationship between text and image.  Would it be an error to omit text on that basis?  Did I want to guide the viewer into a reaction or did I want the photos to speak for themselves?

I searched other students' blogs for ideas, and came across Malcolm Burton.  He did use text to accompany his images for this assignment, but I felt that for my purposes it would give too much away and not leave enough ambiguity.

That decided, I realised that the images needed to speak for themselves and that I wanted amiguity.  Wonder by its very definition is ambiguous as it is not about certainty, so I therefore needed to preserve that concept.  The whole subject of wonder is interpretative and I did not to guide the reaction to individual photographs but more to take the reader on a journey - like peeling an onion - I wanted to strip off layers.  What I did do though was to include a brief introduction to set the scene by attempting a meaning of the word itself.  Fingers crossed.....

In terms of executing the assignment, it happened as I'd predicted: completely right-brained.  I did not plan these photographs, they were selected from my overall portfolio produced in Varanasi during the workshop I took part in.  I did have the subject matter in the back of my mind while I was there but I was not consciously shooting for this assignment.  I then selected the photographs afterwards using the usual star system in my software for editing.  The pictures I selected for this assignment are the best of those I considered illustrated the theme metaphorically and I also aimed for similar colours and tones (cool, apart from the orange in the first one chosen to punctuate the start of the journey and the wonder of every new day).  I put them together in a sequence of what you can image is the start of a positive experience of wonder, through to confusion, looking in to another scene from the outside (but not really being able to see what's going on), followed by a sense of alarm, and then on to something more sinister, ending with possible fear.

See here for my submission.

References:

• Campbell, B. (2011) The Dad Project [online] available from http://www.brionycampbell.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/The_Dad_Project_Briony_Campbell.pdf [accessed 11 October 2014]

Websites:

• Maciej Dakowicz available from http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/ [accessed 5 October 2014]
• Burton, M. (2014) Context and Narrative Learning Blog: Assignment Two - time goes faster as you get older available from http://malsblog322.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/assignment-2-photographing-the-unseen/ [accessed 23 November 2014]

Part One - Photograph as document: Project Three - Reportage: Research Point - Post Script

Since completing my original post on Project 3 - Reportage - Research Point I have come across another piece of writing that would have been helped me in my original research provide a more balanced article.

The article in question is written by Anita Strasser, who is a fellow member of Crossing Lines, and is studying for her MA in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths University of London.   In 2013, Strasser wrote an assignment paper entitled Re-re-conceptualising Street Photography:towards a more reflexive definition, which included an account of her own experience in entering a street photography competition with restrictions on non-candid images.

Strasser argues in her reasoned and thought-provoking paper that due to the popularity and impact of the In-Public style of Street Photography, the genre has moved away from the traditional role of documenting social and historical contexts in the street and towards the representation of the "funny and bizarre" using a shoot and run approach that I stated as my Street Photography practice in my previous post.  She further makes the point that the now current exclusion of the traditional approaches and purposes of Street Photography has no purpose and also undermines the real value of Street Photography in opening social debate.   Strasser reinforces the point with the example of the Museum of London exhibition and book in 2011 of Street Photography from 1860-2010 (see previous post), which excluded the work of Markéta Luskačová (to be reviewed in a later post). 

Strasser is of course right in her views.  Street Photography in the traditional sense has played a significant role in documenting social, economic, and "providing historical insights into cities and peoples" and it absolutely must continue to do so.  There is clearly a place and purpose for this kind of photography, and what street photographers are capturing now will be of significant interest to people in the future; there is no denying this.

In In-Public's defence, and these observations are anecdotal from my experience of attending their workshop (I have not sought to validate them with references):

• There is very little, if any, commercial gain in their type of photography.  Yes a few of them have published books and hosted workshops, but this is not how they earn a living.  They all have real jobs, either in photography, or in some other field.  And in fact, Matt Stuart told me that the workshops are mostly loss-making.
• They do not profess to be offering any social, political or historical value, or in fact any significant purpose at all. 
• At the In-Public workshop I attended, we covered the history of Street Photography as each photographer spoke about their influences.
• The objectives of this type of photography are not to ridicule or humiliate people but to capture random events that manifest together in a frame usually to provide a resonance or contrast, in such a way that an unique and spontaneous scene presents.  If the outcome is comical, that is a bonus.  When you engage with a subject, and move from candid to non-candid, that unique moment is lost.
• The final image is a truth - at that moment in time.  Of course it's heavily influenced by the angle, framing, perspective etc, but isn't that true of all photography?  Aren't all photographic images representations of what the photographer saw and excluded during that moment in time?
• And what of another In-Public photographer, Maciej Dakowicz?  His work is sometimes engaged, sometimes candid, sometimes about the random events but not always, has strong travel/documentary/reportage themes, and can be serious and funny.  
• This type of photography is extremely hard.  It takes a certain kind of thought process, lightening speed reactions, and extreme dexterity to make it work. 

In my defence, I am interested in both types of Street Photography: social documentary and In-Public style.  My limitations with practicing social documentary are that once I have worked a full week, kept up with my OCA studies, seen my neglected family, friends and rescue animals, there is very little time left and certainly not enough time available to start engaging with communities.  I enjoy In-Public style street photography as a way of letting off steam.  It allows me some freedom of movement away from computers/offices, fresh air, visual stimulation, I can jump into it without doing any planning, and to be honest it's fun.  I am also extremely right-brained in my approach to photography (and I make no apology for this -it's instinctive), which goes hand-in-hand with the In-Public style of looking for these random events and springing into action.  Is it shallow?  Yes of course it is, but I think there is enough meaning in the rest of my life to afford me this escape.  Long-term I realise it has no real future for me as a photographer in terms of career development, and I am still searching for what that path might be, but I hope it will always remain at least in the hobby part of my photography.

So what is the answer?  The conclusion of Strasser's essay is a call to redefine Street Photography.  If that was the case, would we have two new categories: street documentary and street random manifestations?  And what about street travel?  A lot of street photography to me also looks like travel photography, e.g. in APF (because it is an international magazine and I see it from an English point of view), and I consider this also to be in a documentary style rather than In-Public style.   There is also a similar boundary, although perhaps more obvious, between nature and wildlife photography: the former accepting and the latter excluding captive animals; but surely both can provide pleasing studies of animals and both are acceptable in the right conditions?

I am actually not sure what is required, as there is sufficient work around Street Photography that does not include the In-Public definition, to make me believe that not everyone considers that this is the be all and end all of Street Photography.   For instance, on the LSP course I attended (see July and August posts), the In-Public style was not mentioned once during the eight days, and nor was it mentioned in the Michael Freeman book I reviewed.   In fact, I really wonder why we need genres, labels and so on.  Part of the problem I have is that in searching for a path to follow, it seems that I should be expected to drop other interests.  Why do I have to chose between wildlife, travel, street (In-Public style) and more conceptual work (e.g. for OCA assignments)?  I enjoy them all.  Why do I need to be labelled?  Surely I am documenting life in a variety of situations?

Whilst I strongly sympathise with Strasser, and I think in her shoes I would have had the same reaction, in my view, what is important is that boundaries or requirements for competitions, exhibitions, pieces of work are clearly defined, so that entrants and audience alike understand what they are in for, i.e. it must be made very clear, so that there can be no doubt, whether the work in question relates to engaged documentary or to candid observational photography.  At the end of the day, Street Photography is such a broad topic that some refinement is needed to define the precise purpose of a body of work be it to engage in social reflection or quite simply to provide some light entertainment.

References:

• Strasser, A. (2013) Re-re-conceptualising Street Photography: towards a more reflexive definition [online] available from https://www.academia.edu/7931001/Re-re-conceptualising_Street_Photography_towards_a_more_reflexive_definition [accessed 4 October 2014]

Websites:

• Art Photo Feature Magazine available from http://www.artphotofeature.com/#sthash.uychs4cB.dpbs [accessed 4 October 2014]
• Crossing Lines available from http://www.gold.ac.uk/cucr/vurbanism/crossing%20lines/ [accessed 4 October 2014]
• Goldsmiths University of London available from http://www.gold.ac.uk/ [accessed 4 October 2014]
• Maciej Dakowicz available from http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/ [accessed 4 October 2014] 
• Markéta Luskačová availble from http://www.marketaluskacova.com/home [accessed 4 October 2014]

Own work referenced:

• Adcock, A. (2012) London Street Photography 1860-2010 by Mike Seaborne and Anna Sparham. TAOP Blog [available online] http://jointheaa-taop.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/london-street-photography-1860-2010-by.html [accessed 4 October 2014]

Part One - Photograph as document: Reflections

Well - what a jam-packed experience this has been!  Probably largely due to the amount of off-course activities I've been doing as well, but also from the increased momentum in undertaking more academic work than actual photography.  During Part One, I have (in no particular order):

• Conducted some thorough research into Street Photography
• Understood the difference between Street Photography, Documentary and Reportage
• Learned more about and tried out Photojournalism
• Photographed the 2014 Pride and the Naked Bike Ride
• Considered my own feelings on war porn
• Investigated the nature of the neighbourhood I live in
• Created my first and last composite photograph
• Reviewed eight exhibitions
• Read nine relevant books/articles
• Met Dougie Wallace, Matt Stuart, Nils Jorgensen, David Gibson and David Solomons
• Caught up with Dave Mason
• Taken 311 photographs for Bleeding London
• Understood that I am a right-brained photographer (and successfully resisted peer pressure to keep a sketch book - what's that for??? - I would never be able to plan a photo like that!)
• Taken part in an LSP course on Street Photography and Photojournalism
• Taken part in an In-Public workshop.

No wonder I'm tired....

The highlight of the course, despite my reservations about not being able to produce 60 photographs that meet my interpretation of street photography, was in fact my day out in Brighton for the Project 3 Street Photography Exercise.  This was an amazing day and my favourite kind of day; I loved both the shooting and the editing afterwards, and I wish this had been the assignment brief!

Assignment One - Two Sides of the Story - Preparation and Execution

Assignment One asks that we choose a theme and prepare 5-7 images for each of two sets of photographs telling different versions of the same story.

23 August

For my theme, my first idea was to show life in a zoo park from two different perspectives: outsiders looking in, and animals looking out.  The idea for this has come from two different sources: firstly because I want to try out my D810 plus new lenses on animals (it has only been used for street photography so far!) and particularly to test whether the ability to handle dynamic range i.e. black creatures in midday sun, is better than the D5000 I was previously using (and for reasons of time I need to multitask!), and secondly I'm intrigued by the image taken by Count de Montizon in 1852 in London of the Hippopotamus at the Zoological Gardens, Regents Park, see Bate, 2013, p24 (which I first wrote about during Digital Photographic Practice - see here for a summary).

Bate uses the image to demonstrate the that there may be different points of view within a photograph.  In this instance, we know from our general knowledge that it is extremely likely that the hippo is the one in the cage, however, looking at the photograph, the onlookers appear to be in the cage.  There is a realism that we know to be true, and then there is doubt about where the viewer is placed, and indeed where the hippo is placed in relation to the viewer (Bate, 2013, pp37-40).  It asks the question whether humans been imprisoned by nature.

So, I'm going try to take 5-7 pairs of photographs showing the perspective of the animal, or the viewer inside the cage, looking out, and the perspective of onlookers looking in, to produce representations of the juxtapositions of these two worlds that are forced to co-exist.

I don't know yet whether these will be colour or black and white, or square or rectangle format.  Being right-brained, I will decide later!  A lot will depend on the lighting, background detail, what stands out.  I suspect the outcome will be colour and rectangle landscapes, but we will see.

24 August
So I tried to put my idea into practice at Drusillas and realised very quickly that I would end up with 5-7 photographs that all looked the same and which would not demonstrate any great technical or creative ability...so idea abandoned. 

But, on a spontaneous trip to Worthing on the way back from Drusillas, another idea came to mind.  I could try to show two different perspectives on English life - "This is England or is it?", with one perspective being themes that are quintessentially English and the contradiction being themes whereby due to the framing (e.g. a palm tree against a hotel) could be from somewhere that is not England.  Back to Worthing tomorrow to try it out!  Themes could include (and not necessarily be tied or limited to this):

• Ethnic diversity
• Food
• Plants
• Buildings
• Restaurants
• Street signs in different languages or the London tube map / Hong Kong tube map in Newport Court in London WC2
• Customs e.g. tea and scones / drinking starbucks coffee  

Inspiration for this partly comes from work by Martin Parr and his portraits showing English life and images of English things.  Other photographers that also come to mind that show a truly English perspective also include Paul Russell from a satirical perspective!  Venues for shooting include central London, Keswick and perhaps a September trip to the seaside if the weather improves....

7 September 2014

I missed the boat on the last idea.  The season for people eating ice creams on the pier is really over.  I love the theme of English summer and Englishness, so I will save this for another occasion.  But, fortunately, another idea has come to mind!  Through my participation in the Bleeding London project, I've got to know my local area, Feltham, very well.  And I've noticed that there are two very distinct sides of the same story.  The area is typically run down, lacking investment, rough, dilapidated and so on, but there are pockets of more attractive qualities, which if photographed selectively and shown out of context, would present a very different story and also present a distinct series of contrasts:

• confinement vs space (Young Offenders vs the open space in front of it)
• dilapidation vs regeneration (building opposite Macdonalds vs the new academy being built)
• struggling economy vs booming economy (empty restaurant vs full (and happy) kebab shop
• neglected front garden vs elaborately tended front garden (multiple gardens to chose from full of junk vs the lovely one with the amazing happy hedges in Cedar Road, which although awful just makes me smile)! (see photo below taken earlier this year - to be reshot though)
• rowdiness vs peace (outside the Weatherspoon Pub vs the cemetery)
• crowded living space vs beautiful house (blocks of flats with railings vs original beamed house on Ashford Road)
• angry scary people vs happy people (people at bus stop vs people exercising dogs)

Cedar Road

My intention is to process the positives in colour, and the negatives in black and white (to enhance a gritty and more documentary feel and reduce the risk of colour/light making it seem more positive).  My only reservation on that is that I have been told many times not to mix colour with b&w in the same project/series, so I'm taking advice on that from fellow students/Crossing Lines members. 

These images are most likely to be viewed in an academic context only, so by my tutor, the assessors, other students, and also members of Crossing Lines.  I think I will be unlikely to show these images to people in a social context or to print and hang them on my own walls, although with any photos I take, there is always a chance that they will be entered into an exhibition!   

Am I taking any risks with this?  In a word, yes.  Walking through Feltham with a DLSR is always a risk, and especially with a D810 (it is insured!); taking the pair of street photographs of people might be tricky....might get punched.... ;-)

15 September 2014

So my thoughts are evolving - along the lines of the above, I'm thinking of looking for contrasts that I can shoot by being in the same position and pivoting 180 degrees - and also finding resonance and contrast within each pair in the process:

• weapons bin / cash machine
• dilapidated building / new look shop
• pub / church or cemetery
• young offenders / open space
• garden opposite / garden with hedges

22 September 2014

In the end, I went with the option described on 7 September 2014 above, but with the colour option only.  I decided it was too cliched to present the negative concepts in black and white.  I wanted to present the opposite views with resonances also and colour would help significantly with that.

The objective of this exercise was really to see if by careful framing, I could produce a convincing series of the better qualities of Feltham.  This illustrates the point made by Susan Sontag (2003) about a photograph:

"It is always the image that someone chose; to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude".

What I would be doing is, as photographers do with every shot, presenting a selective and subjective view.  Hopefully by looking at each set, the viewer would be able to form an opinion of the area dictated by choices I made.  I will comment on whether this is successful in the reflections post.

I tried the 180 degrees option described on 15 September 2014, but found very quickly that this wouldn't work with the sun shining in my face...and I didn't have the time flexibility to make two trips to each point.  Unfortunately, I didn't get my hedges - the sun was in the wrong place at the wrong time, plus there were cars parked outside the house each time I went to have a look :(.  But I did get seven sets of contrasts:

• weapons / cash machine
• dilapidated building / new building
• end of life (cemetery) / new life (conkers)
• bust business / thriving business
• abandoned toy / rescued toy
• cramped living (flats) / detached living ground (house)
• confined (young offenders) / open (green space)

The execution took place during two days towards the end of September - one day with beautiful light, and I also used four pictures taken on the previous day which was dull and flat; this accounts for the different lighting in the series, which would not have been my preference, but it is what it is.

My approach to editing and processing is very simple.  For a start, I did not have to make many choices, all the good light photographs were deliberately shot, and the four with flat light (pairs B and E) were in fact chosen from a bank of Bleeding London photographs taken on the previous day that were better in terms of concept and composition than two of the pairs intended.  All were shot with Nikon D810 body and a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G lens.  Processing took place in ViewNX 2 and followed a simple routine: straighten, crop, exposure adjustment, shadow protection adjustment, (in same cases picture control reset to Landscape) contrast, colour boost and sharpening.  As the lens is new there were no blemishes to remove.  That's all I do.  I'm capable of a little more in Elements, but for this piece of work, there really was no need.

All pictures submitted are in square format.  This is a personal preference from a creative perspective, which I can't really explain.  I just really like square images!  Matt Stuart told me that I need to be able to answer this question if I'm going to continue to use square format, so it might be because I like pictures that are straight to the point and which exclude unnecessary information.  But I can't be certain of that theory!  In some cases, I prefer rectangle pictures (landscape), so it just depends.  I tend to avoid vertical rectangles if I can.  In any case, for this submission, square format seemed to work well in terms of composition, so I will be interested to see what the feedback is.  In addition, I think square format works for viewing on personal devices.

These photographs were mostly taken for the purposes of the assignment, with the exception of pairs B and E, as previously mentioned.  It is likely that they will only be seen by my tutor, fellow students and the assessors, plus the Crossing Lines group that I'm going to show them to (on account of their interest in urban conditions).  Pairs B and E are online on the Bleeding London submission site, and hopefully will be included in the Bleeding London exhibition (if they are selected).

See submission for the final results.

References

• Bate, D. (2013), Photography The Key Concepts, London: Bloomsbury Academic
• Sontag, S. (2003), Regarding the Pain of Others, London: Penguin Group

Websites

• Martin Parr (2014) [online] available from http://www.martinparr.com/ [accessed 24 August 2014]  
• Paul Russell (2014) [online] available from http://www.paulrussell.info/ [accessed 25 August 2014]

Part One - Photograph as document: Project Three - Reportage: Research Point - Street Photography

All images reproduced in this post have been included by kind permission of their original author.  The copyright remains with the photographer stated.  All other images are my own.

Introduction

The course materials ask us to do some research into contemporary street photography.  To be perfectly frank, I've been doing this for a while, for over two years in fact.  And my summer this year has been nothing but street photography, having participated in an In-Public workshop and a four-day LSP course on Photojournalism and Street Photography (see: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four).

And later on this year, I will be participating in a week-long street photography work-shop in Varanasi, India with Maciej Dakowicz.  Plus, I should mention my own extra-curricular efforts (see various related albums on Flickr) .... although more miss than hit at the moment (not sure I'm blessed in this department......).

So having been exposed to so many sources and descriptions of street photography, I feel that I'm in quite a good place to be able to write up a summary of the contemporary street photographers that inspire and influence me.  I'm also going to write this from the point of view of preparation for themes for the street photography exercise also for Project Three.

(Click the "street photography" label below to identify all work related to street photography during this Context and Narrative module).

Background

I discovered street photography by accident.  I bought my first DSLR (a Nikon D5000) in Hong Kong in December 2010, and without knowing anything about a) how to use it or b) anything about photography at all, I just started shooting random tourist shots of things I liked, and on a trip to Macao produced a couple of images that really kick-started my interest in behaviour and moments in time in public situations:

It was then during a conversation with my then TAOP tutor, where I mentioned that I just liked taking photos of situations in the street, that he recommended I get a copy of Street Photography Now, on which I posted a review in July 2012.  This was really the epiphany moment!  And it was from the revelation of this book that I got to know the work of many of the photographers whose work I now follow (some mentioned below).  After that, there followed two years of some unstructured experimenting and reading, until this summer, where in the quest to find my own style and meaning to photography, I decided to take some courses and workshops specifically in street photography (incidentally, I am still torn between street, travel and wildlife photography...and getting to the point where I think I just like to photograph "life" irrespective of genre....why does it need a label?).

What is Street Photography?

I have found over the past couple of years, that a much debated question is what exactly is street photography?  What does it mean?  What is the point of it?

It seems to me that different people have different perspectives on street photography.

An academic viewpoint is that expressed by Paul Halliday in Defining Street Photography, which is an all-encompassing all aspects of the narratives of the street.   And in fact, an awful lot of what I see on the internet and in publications described as street photography includes portraits, urban landscapes, travel scenes, and street scenes in general, as generally examined in Freeman, 2011 (see previous review).  However, and contrary to Halliday, I enjoy a different contemporary branch of street photography that focuses on the funny and the strange, as described below and which is consistent with the In-Public perspective on this, (bearing in mind that the boundaries with travel photography can be blurred as in Dakowicz (2011) Pillow - see below).

In my own work I try to make a distinction between social documentary, portraiture, landscape and street photography - although all of these can of course be executed in the street and are recognisable as forming part of the broader street photography genre.  For instance, I would describe this photograph taken in July 2014 in Camden Town as a street portrait (albeit candid), rather than street photography:

because, apart from the beautiful subject, light and colours, there is not a lot more to it.  But perhaps this photograph taken in Worthing in August 2014, which, although also a portrait, is more street photography because it tells a story and has a sense of irony (funny or sad depending on how you look at it) about the last days of summer (Last of the Summer Wine?):

What I have gained from general reading, exhibitions, meeting other photographers and my participation in the In-Public workshop, is that firstly, street photography does not need to have been taken in a street.  For instance, Nils Jorgensen recreated the legend of the Underwater Gnomes of Wastwater (2011) in Cumbria reported by BBC News, although he was nowhere near a street at the time!

Underwater Gnomes (c) by Nils Jorgensen

Street photography also does not need to include animate objects, for example Matt Stuart's capture of an apparent peacock in New Bond Street (2006) (also features on the back cover of Street Photography Now):

New Bond Street (c) by Matt Stuart

In my view (formed by wider reading and attendance at workshops), and this is how I try to form my own practice, street photography is the manifestation and capture of one or more of the following events in a public context:

• incongruence between two or more elements in the image, i.e. a situation that is absurd in its context, a twist, a strange juxtaposition
• resonance between two or more elements in the image
• something comical (but it has to be more than a person dressed in a funny costume....), i.e. interaction with a background
• something comical that has a deeper social meaning
• social commentary
• something completely unexpected
• irony / satire (akin to Far Side situations)
• order out of chaos
• extraordinary use of light
• interplay of colour
• portraits provided they are candid and tell a story or present the subject in a comical or other emotive, or cultural perspective
• a situation made funny by the title and composition, as in Jorgensen (2011) Underwater Gnomes above (this particularly works well with dry humour or the art of understatement!).

People always say that you should know why you are taking a photograph and be able to answer questions about what the point is of what your image?  I think that once you have established the boundaries of street photography described above, the answer to that is clear: to make people laugh or to support a social dialogue.

I think of street photography as almost the photography equivalent to jazz music.  It has its own rules (i.e. it breaks the traditional rules of composition), its own rhythm, it own timing and its own direction.  The right-brained approach to its execution suits my spontaneous nature.  You can plan street photography as much as you like (i.e. locate a suitable background and wait for the right subject), but it is highly dependent on random events coming together in one scene or sequence.  Personally, I love that moment of panic when you realise that you have a situation in front of you and you've got to grab it then and there.  It's an adrenalin rush when it happens and even better if it works out!

In the next sections, I'll look at a few of my favourite images by some of the contemporary photographers (listed in alphabetical order) that I find inspiring, and will comment on why the images are interesting and what the edge is that makes them street photography, rather than just a captured scene.

Maciej Dakowicz

Dakowicz is a now Mumbai-based reportage and street photographer.  He has previously lived in the UK in Cardiff, Wales, where he shot the images for his monograph Cardiff After Dark, a collection of 99 colour photographs depicting scenes shot in streets in Cardiff once the pubs had shut and the party had really begun.  At first glance, these photos are hilarious: funny people doing funny things after a "few too many".  The feat of this collection, and the commitment to its production, should not be under estimated: "...he photographed the same few streets in Cardiff on a Saturday night for five years" (O'Hagen in Dakowicz, 2012, p9).

You can take these photos at face value (i.e. without social judgement) as just people having fun.  However, you could also read a deeper social commentary into this about the British way of life, our apparent obsession with alcohol over-consumption, and the lack of shame when we do it.  I however prefer to enjoy the former (as I know I've been there too!), the sheer hilarity of these situations.  Is Dakowicz taking advantage of people in compiling this work?  Are these photographs gratuitous?  I don't think so; a) its within his photographer's rights and b) in my mind, if you've put yourself in such a situation in public then fair game! I would describe this kind of street photography as fitting into the something comical that has a deeper social meaning theme mentioned above.  You could also describe it as reportage, as it belongs in a collection providing an insight into a situation.

Picking out one photograph from this collection to illustrate the point is not easy.  They are all relevant, but I am still drawn to the very first one I saw when I originally looked at in Street Photography Now, and which had me in stitches (for the sense of normality and concentration in the subject's expression); it is published in Dakowicz, 2012, p39 and in Howarth et al, 2012 p32; the photograph was taken in 2006:

Pink Hat (c) by Maciej Dakowicz

There is however another side to Dakowicz's street photography and a significant portion of this kind of work has been shot in Asia.  And I think this is where the boundary between street and travel photography, and indeed reportage, become blurred.  One image that really demonstrates this for me is:

Pillow (c) Maciej Dakowicz

This is street photography, because it is a comical (although also slightly sad) image shot in a public place.  It contains a sense of irony (enhanced by the title).  You can read a social commentary/reportage into this i.e. about the stray dogs of India, and of course it is also travel photography because it's providing an insight into the way of life in another country.  I actually don't really care that it is any of the above.  I'm drawn to this as an emotive response as I have seen my own dogs put their heads in strange and uncomfortable looking places.  I also wish I'd taken it!

Melanie Einzig

Like most of the other contemporary street photographers I'm familiar with, I first came across New York-based Einzig through Howarth et al, 2012 pp 40-43, in which she is described (p40) as a "whimsical anthropologist".  Interesting that she says her best photographs are taken on the way to and from work; my brain is usually too broken to be able to do that, but I should try harder.  Einzig's photographs are bright and colourful, and the one I particularly like is shown on Howarth et al, 2012 p43 of a gentleman on the New York subway wearing yellow crochet doing his knitting.  Hilarious.  And I think, from my proposed themes above, this would fit into the category of something completely unexpected.  And of course, what really makes the photo is the fact that the other passengers on the train seem completely oblivious to the gentleman in yellow!

Unfortunately, the only online source to this image that I can find is this one: http://pikdit.com/i/he-didnt-choose-the-knitting-game-the-knitting-game-chose-him/ [accessed 25 August 2014].

David Gibson

I met London-based Gibson at the In-Public workshop mentioned above.   Like many of the other contemporary street photographers mentioned in this post, Gibson also captures absurd situations and visual puns.  I particularly like this image of some children waiting in the street by the No Parking sign taken in 2008, featured in Howarth et al, 2012 p52 and in Gibson, 2014 p53.  It's funny, the subjects are interacting with the background in an incongruous way, and there is also resonance in the gestures and expressions of the children.   In addition, Gibson has brought some order into a potentially chaotic situation: 

London (c) David Gibson

Another example of Gibson's work, where the subject is interacting with the background, can be seen in this image from Gibson, 2014, p87 taken in 2010 of a woman who looks as if she is about to propel herself from the mattresses; this reminds me of the position static line parachute jumpers have to assume in order to launch themselves from the plane doorway:

London (c) David Gibson

Gibson's other styles go beyond my interpretations of street photography into the realms of abstract imagery, as featured in Gibson, 2014, pp 116-117 and 126-129.  And on the workshop I learnt from him about looking for abstract shapes, gestures and pattern repetitions within street scenes.  Although this is not a direction I particularly want to go in at the moment (I prefer the comedy situations!),  I have ventured down this route in the past and I am not dismissing it as a future option either.

Nils Jorgensen

I also met London-based Jorgensen on the In-Public workshop.  Jorgensen's style is to capture absurd and comical moments, but his approach is quite different.  For a start he carries a professional camera (rather than trying to remain hidden and inconspicuous) and he also favours a frenetic approach (rather than stealth) to riding the London underground and capturing the comedy to be found below.  Gibson descibes him as "tenacious" and some who "takes photographs on the way to taking photographs" (Gibson, 2014 p 90).  I particularly like this image, taken in 2006, again interaction between foreground and background, which looks as if there is a line of heads peering out over the woman reading the newspaper (similar to people reading over your shoulder on the tube!) :

Tight Squeeze (c) Nils Jorgensen

Dave Mason

I got to know London-based Mason's work through my first ever street photography workshop I participated in held by him in Greenwich in November 2012.  Aspects I really like about Mason's work include his ability to capture funny events while no one else in the scene is paying any attention at all, (extraordinary within the ordinary) and also the layering (as does Dakowicz and Wallace also) that he introduces into the frames.  I've seen three photographs by Mason quite recently that have really grabbed my attention (read three among many!): "There's never a number 11 when you want one" and "Refurbishment", both shot in 2014, and "Greenwich" shot in 2012 (during my workshop :) ). 

There's never a number 11 when you want one (c) Dave Mason

I particularly like this image because of the layering of the different subjects, but also because of the comedy of the person reading the bus time-table without realising what's going on behind him.

Refurbishment (c) Dave Mason

In this image, the comedy is derived from the title referring to juxtaposition of the person and the building.  In this, and the image above, Mason has found a funny situation (he actually found lots!) in an event, whereas my photographs from both the 2014 London Naked Bike Ride and the Pride festival were of a more journalistic style, so I was able to learn from these examples.

Greenwich (c) Dave Mason

This image is another example of interaction between subject and background.  Mason has humorously arranged the scene to make it appear as if the display is actually part of the queue.  

Shin Noguchi

Based in Kamakura and Tokyo, Japan, Noguchi's style is quite different to the other photographers mentioned in this post.  Noguchi also aims to capture life's extraordinary moments, but in his images, he also injects beauty and grace.   In his project, "Sorry, you'll never walk alone", he looks at contradictions between human nature and what he refers to as the "essence of society"; this project documents the inability of humans to walk without carrying something in their hands.

Some of his images remind me of Far Side scenes - the extraordinary element is sometimes quite subtle - and you are faced with an intellectual challenge to work it out! With Noguchi, I know that if I haven't got it the first time, I need to look harder, as the sense of irony is definitely there.

But in addition to the contradictions, Noguchi also captures an extraordinary use of light with high contrast and spotlight on the subject, for instance in this image of a gentleman carrying his dog wearing a winter jacket in the streets of Kamakura 2012.

Komachi, Kamakura 2011 (c) Shin Noguchi

When you view the "Sorry, you'll never walk alone" series as a collection, you really appreciate the benefit of executing street photography on the basis of a theme; the images really hold well together and from one to another.

Another of Noguchi's images that I have noted recently is this one from his Colour 50: Something Here series taken in 2011 in Guam, showing a child carrying a pool inflatable walking into a room with suspended window cleaners looking through.  This is an example of the juxtaposition that is inexplicable (although may also be a commentary on the US territory of Guam that I'm not aware of ?):

Tumon, Guam 2011 (c) Shin Noguchi

Finally, on the subject of contrast (colours), resonance (chameleon tail shapes), this image taken in 2014 by Noguchi is a great example that poses almost confusion and leaves you thinking; it's hard to see where the check layers actually lie.

Ginza, Tokyo 2014 (c) Shin Noguchi

David Solomons

London-based Solomons is the third photographer I had the privilege of working with on the In-Public workshop and is another photographer whose work I think is sometimes also quite "Far Side".  Solomons is also a photographer who works in terms of projects, this one below (which I would put into the funny and absurd themes from above) is from "Forty Winks":

Leyton (c) David Solomons

Another image by Solomons that also stands out in the funny / incongruous category is this one taken in 2009 from the "Up West" project showing great contrast between Tesco and Reiss, and the bored (assume) husband dragged along shopping for ladies clothes:

Oxford Street (c) David Solomons

Matt Stuart

I think London-based Stuart (also a tutor on the In-Public workshop) was probably the first exposure I had to street photography, as his 2007 image Trafalgar Square graces the front cover of Street Photography Now (and is also included in Seaborne et al, 2011 p110), and which I believe has sparked a trend in photographing pigeons amongst Stuart devotees:

Trafalgar Square (c) Matt Stuart

This image illustrates the point made above about resonance (legs), plus also appears absurd and disproportionate.  It also introduces the concept of framing, with legs being framed within legs.  It's also funny that the pigeon is leading....

However, there is another photograph by Stuart that I also like taken in Aldersgate Street (date not known):

Aldersgate Street (c) Matt Stuart

And that's most likely because of the dog - but also the clever framing to make it appear that the dog is in the driving seat!  Finally, I think that for Stuart, it's worth mentioning his shots showing interaction with backgrounds with the comical High Holborn (date not known):

High Holborn (c) Matt Stuart

Many of Stuart's images contain themes of resonance, apparent absurdities and interactions with backgrounds as illustrated above.

Dougie Wallace

Last but not least, a photographer that has recently come into my world is London-based Wallace (aka "Glasweegee").  I first came across Wallace earlier this summer when I attended the launch party for his book Stags, Hens and Bunnies.   Very similar style to Cardiff After Dark (and a response to?), however I think Wallace takes this to another level of what can only be described as British behaviour.....  As with Cardiff After Dark, I think these images fall into the theme of comedy (hilarious) but with a deeper social message.  Set in Blackpool, England, in this case, the social message is not just about the excessive consumption and outrageous behaviour, it is also about the tension Blackpool faces every weekend: "hen night central or historic family seaside resort?  It can't be both" (Wallace, 2014, p9).  This is as much about the economic tension, as anything else: would Blackpool survive if you took away the night-time economy?

So what of the photos?  There are simply crazy; no other words to describe them.  Here is just one relatively tame example displayed in Wallace, 2014, p17, with wonderful contrast between pink and yellow, but as with Dakowicz 2012, you just have to see the book to get the full impact:

All the Fun of the Fair (c) Dougie Wallace

Conclusion

The contemporary photographers presented here show a cross-selection of themes based on my analysis above.  I have selected individual photographs and these have been shown out of context to illustrate specific points, but in context you see that all these photographers do in fact make use of all the themes I described above in different situations.  What remains to be seen now is whether I can put it into practice for the exercise!


Research Point Questions

• What difference does colour make to a genre that traditionally was predominantly black and white?  The only black and white image I looked at above for my research was Greenwich by Mason.  I'm guessing he excluded colour to reduce distraction and to make the figure in the display blend into the queue more easily.  On the whole, I prefer colour street photography, and I think that most of the work I've shown here is dependent on colour, especially work by Stuart, Wallace and Dakowicz.  Wallace's work in particular has the same colour/light feel about it as that of the seaside photos of Martin Parr (see website).   Trafalgar Square by Stuart is almost monochromatic, but the pink of the pigeon legs really make those legs stand out!  I find that black and white in street photography adds a timeless and almost documentary/journalistic feel; it makes it seem more informative, as seen in various images in Seaborne et al, 2011.  Colour adds a more contemporary, brighter, modern feel to the image.  For instance in Seaborne et al, 2011, p96, there is a photograph of a homeless person sleeping rough.  The image is dated 1997 so many decades after when colour photography became popular, and although the subject is juxtaposed against a background in an interactive way, the image still appears more documentary than it would have done had it been produced in colour.
• Can you spot the shift away from the influence of surrealism (as in Cartier-Bresson's work)?  To be honest, no I can't!  I think the work illustrated here borders on surrealism - it's just a more modern interpretation, and I think more surreal than Cartier-Bresson.  For example, the selective framing of Leyton by Solomons, London (2010) by Gibson, Tumon, Guam by Noguchi, and Aldersgate Street by Stuart, are all quite surreal.  I think the shift over time has been away from a documentary style, e.g. as represented in Delaney et all, 2012, and more towards this style of comedy, irony, incongruence and surrealism.
• How is irony used to comment on British-ness or American values?  I think Pink Hat by Dakowicz and All the Fun of the Fair by Wallace are great examples of this.  From these images an outsider would suppose that the British value this kind of behaviour and promote an excessive culture of consumption, and that that is normal.  Another example is Refurbishment by Mason; we value freedom of speech, behaviour and to be yourself without suffering prejudice, yet here Mason has presented a scene that is ironic as a result of the juxtaposition.

Exercise

This research was all in aid of preparation for an exercise on street photography (course notes page 33).  We are required to take 30 colour and 30 black and white photographs in ONE street.  I would consider myself lucky if I got 60 good street photography type images (according to my interpretations) in a whole life time, so 60 in one street is a tall order....... Clearly the OCA has a broader view of street photography than I do.....

One aspect of street photography that I really like is English seaside images, which I haven't really covered much above.  I think you see some great street photography moments in England's seaside resorts.  For instance Barry Island by Solomons taken in 1994:

Barry Island (c) David Solomons

and the Lladudno series by Parr. 

[24 August] So I think for my street, I'm going to have a go at the street that runs alongside the seafront in Worthing on 25 August (fun fair, food festival, pier) - called various names in different places, but I will walk the length of the seafront along Worthing using my themes defined above, but incorporating a documentary / satirical style of seaside portraits inspired by Parr.  I don't know yet how I'll tackle the black and white - I'll work that out later.  I can always go back another day to finish it off.

[25 August] Plan thwarted by amber rain alert... not the kind of rain that blows over and is followed by bright colours against beautiful dark skies and amazing clarity - but non-stop torrential rain.  No point in going to Worthing as a) my camera will get drenched and possibly damaged, but b) people are unlikely to be outside.  Strong risk of getting there to find an empty promenade!  Back to the drawing board.  Other options include my original plan of Bond Street (New and Old together) as it has excellent backdrops, tourists, and so on, or I can try to get back to the seaside during September if the weather improves.....

[13 September] In the end I went to Brighton for a day of seafront people shots.  Not quite consistent with my "In-Public" definitions, but a documentary nevertheless of Brighton's residents!  See street photography exercise also for Project Three.


Photographers mentioned websites:

• Maciej Dakowicz - http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/
• Melanie Einzig - http://www.witnessx.com/
• David Gibson - http://www.gibsonstreet.com/
• Nils Jorgensen - http://www.nilsjorgensen.com/
• Dave Mason - http://www.davemasonimages.com/
• Shin Noguchi - http://www.shinnoguchiphotography.com/
• Martin Parr - http://www.martinparr.com/
• David Solomons - http://davidsolomons.com/
• Matt Stuart - http://www.mattstuart.com/
• Dougie Wallace - http://www.dougiewallace.com

References:

• Dakowicz, M. (2012) Cardiff After Dark, London: Thames & Hudson, p39
• Delaney, H. and Baker, S. (2012), Another London, London: Tate Publishing 
• Freeman, M. (2013) Michael Freeman's photo school street, Lewes: ILEX 
• Gibson, D. (2014) The Street Photographer's Manual, London: Thames & Hudson p53 and 87
• Howarth, S. and McLaren, S. (2011) Street Photography Now, London: Thames & Hudson, front and back covers, p32, p40-43
• O' Hagan, S in Dakowicz, M. (2012) Cardiff After Dark, London: Thames & Hudson, p9
• Seaborne, M and Sparahm, A. (2011) London Street Photography 1860-2010, Stockport: Dewi Lewis Publishing, p110
• Wallace, D. (2014) Stags, Hens and Bunnies, Stockport: Dewi Lewis Media, p9

Websites:

• BBC News (2012) [online] available from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-20066683 [accessed 23 August 2014]
• Einzig, M. in www.pikdit.com [photograph] [online image], Six Train available from http://pikdit.com/i/he-didnt-choose-the-knitting-game-the-knitting-game-chose-him/ [accessed 25 August 2014] 
• Halliday, P [n.d.] Defining Street Photography [online] available from http://www.critiqueofstreetphotography.org/defining.html [accessed 28 September 2014]
• Martin Parr (2014) [online] available from http://www.martinparr.com/ [accessed 23 August 2014]
• Martin Parr (2014) [online], Lladudno, available from http://www.martinparr.com/recent-work/recent-work-4/ [accessed 24 August 2014]
• The Far Side on Wikipedia (2014) [online] available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Far_Side [accessed 23 August 2014]

Source Websites for images uploaded:

• Dakowicz, M. (2011) Pillow [online image], Maciej Dakowicz on Flickr, available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejdakowicz/sets/72157629211011287 [accessed 23 August 2014]
• Dakowicz, M. (2006) Pink Hat [online image], Maciej Dakowicz on Flickr, available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejdakowicz/174547136/in/set-1391696 [accessed 23 August 2014]
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