Part Three - Putting yourself in the picture: Project Two - Masquerades: Exercise - Self-portraiture

This exercise is about the work of Nikki S. Lee and Trish Morrissey. 

I have seen Lee's work before - I actually find it quite humorous.  I looked at various projects that she's compiled (online) and like the way she has added authenticity to the images by making them look like family snapshots - presumably using a "point and shoot".  Unfortunately, Lee does not appear to have her own sight, so I relied on a gallery site by Leslie Tonkonow.  And as the course notes say about Morrisey, as you scroll through the images, withe Lee you also get the impression of a single character with multiple personas, and in each one she looks as if she naturally belongs there.   
Morrisey, fortunately does have her own site, making it easier therefore to see the images; I looked through the images in the project called "Front".  Knowing the background to these, I also found them humorous at first, but then after a while, I felt unsettled.  Seeing her again and again, looking much more recognisable in each image that Lee's in her work, it got a bit weird.  And, I wondered about swapping clothes and particularly swimwear with someone...yuck...

In both cases though - I found the photography interesting - Lee's work more so as she assumes distinctly different characters in her work than Morrisey.  I'm not really sure what Morrisey is trying to say though - is it a commentary on the depth of family and whether relationships can be substituted?

The exercise asks us to answer some questions, as follows:

• Is there any sense in which Lee's work could be considered voyeuristic or even exploitative?  Is she commenting on her own identity, the group identity of the people she photographs, or both?  I don't think her work is voyeuristic.  To me that suggests that the people you are watching are not aware and that it's secret and perhaps something is happening that is sensational.  In her photos you can see clearly the happy participation of the subjects.  These are staged scenes, not candid, and they represent normal every day situations, not stuff that goes on behind closed doors.  I think she is commenting on her own identity and the group identities.  She is making the point that identity is informed by your surroundings and the company you keep.  We do not exist in isolation and most of us get a sense of belonging and settlement by being with people we share commonality with.
• Would you agree to Morrisey's request if you were enjoying a day on the beach with your family?  If not, why not?  Maybe, but definitely not swapping clothes.  A day on the beach for me would consist of me, husband, dogs, elderly parents, may be sister, brother-in-law, nephews.  Who would she swap with?  Most likely my sister - she's the youngest adult.  I could see it working out, but why would we want to do that?  It's like structured photo-bombing but with the fun taken out of it.  I can see the point she's trying to make, but in our collaboration, what point are we trying to make?  That we can allow a stranger to infiltrate our family and turn us into art? Why does that seem worse than my approach to Street Photography?
• Morrissey uses self-portraiture in more of her work, namely Seven Years and The Failed Realist.  Look at these projects online and make notes in your learning log.  The Failed Realist is very strange and the captions do not help.  The paint looks like child's face-painting gone wrong, which referring to Carol Street's article on the same exercise written up in her blog confirmed my fears, and like Street, I don't know what this series is trying to say.  Seven Years is very much like Front; Morrissey appears to have infiltrated a family scene and swapped places with somebody taking on their role; in this one, I think she has also swapped with men.  But, on further research, I discovered that she had in fact set up these scenes with her sister, to recreate traditional family photographs and also create imaginary ones.  Odd that they are not smiling.  Is this to recreate nostalgia?

I found this exercise interesting, but the work strange.  I would like to see more of Lee's work.  She is addressing a number of issues around ethnicity, stereotyping, social belonging, social inclusion, adaptation, and many other "-isms" and "-tions".  By blending easily into other ethnic groups and social situations, she is proving the point that labeling and compartmentalising of people is just nonsense, and even more so in an age where people of diverse and mixed ethnic backgrounds live in the same location.  Morrissey's work on the other hand, I don't really understand the motivation for.  I realise that she is interrogating the dynamics and roles of family relationships, but I'm not sure I understand the point she is making, or why.  And is this really self-portraiture - she is taking the role of another person - surely now she is the model?

Websites

• Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects available from http://www.tonkonow.com/lee.html [accessed 1 February 2015]
• Masquerades in Carol Street Context and Narrative OCA Blog available from https://carolstreetphotographycn.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/exercise-masquerades/ [accessed 1 February 2015]
• Trish Morrisey available from http://www.trishmorrissey.com/ [accessed 1 February 2015]

Part Three - Putting yourself in the picture: Project One - Autobiographical self-portraiture: Exercise - Reflection

I'm struggling now... I don't find self-portraiture that interesting, unless there is a surreal or fantastic element, as with Francesca Woodman.  I am 100% more interested in the world I inhabit, rather than the portrayal of my own being, and I think for me, I would only really be interested in self-portraiture, if I knew first-hand the author or artist and cared personally about their life...So I'm afraid to say that I don't feel very motivated to do this exercise.  Apologies now to blog readers if this seems a negative and unimaginative post.

The idea of making work about myself doesn't fill me with dread, I don't mind being on the other side of the lens for souvenir/joke shots, and my life isn't boring either.  I just don't have anything to say about myself.  I want to explore the world, not my own identity (perhaps that is my identity!).  I'm more of a "get on with it" person; now I tend not to self-indulge in deep emotional torment - I have done in the past, but today I have a much more of a "live in the moment" and "look forwards" approach to life, rather than to dwell on stuff that I can't change.  I don't even use my own photo for my Facebook profile (because I prefer to find something funny to use - I like to laugh)!  It's not about denial of existence, or lack of self-value, I just literally don't have anything to say.  At the moment.  Perhaps I'm lucky?

But... onwards and upwards with the exercise, which is to reflect on the pieces of work discussed in this project, and do some further research.  I will however be brief!

The artists in question are:

• Francesca Woodman (see previous post) -portrayal of depression using humour to cope?
• Elinus Brotherus - work relating to failed IVF treatment
• Gillian Wearing - exploration of roles in family history

Elina Brotherus

When I started to research Brotherus, as is often the case now, I realised that I had seen "Le Nez de Monsieur Cheval" (image available from the artist's website) - I think in one of my many books... but also in an exhibition.  I don't quite understand this picture though...

I struggled to find information about Brotherus' work online. I can see by the email traffic from student blogs that I follow that I have missed an OCA artist's talk in Wapping, and although I might not like the photography, I do find it an interesting and learning experience to engage with other photographers (again..note to self..).  I have found a few big Scandinavian landscapes, where she is both nude and clothed in the shot.  I broadened my search to include the word "Annunciation" and found one image in the "Photography, Motherhood and Identity" exhibition at the Photographer's Gallery (and I also remembered seeing the OCA post about this).  The image in question shows a lost "Alice in Wonderland" type portrayal of Brotherus sitting on a sofa, pressing the remote cable release (resembling umbilical cord?).  Of course, knowing the background to the image of her failed treatment, this is very sad.  But I am genuinely struggling to persist with this research, I haven't had children myself (by choice), haven't had IVF, and can't relate to the experience.  I relate more to The Dad Project by Briony Campbell - see previous post, as this is a family relationship I experience (thankfully my dad is still alive, although ancient).

Gillian Wearing

Again, this exploration of roles within a family is something I would never engage in.  I just get on with it.  I looked at some of the images (in Google Images) and found them a bit strange.  Unlike Brotherus and Woodman, Wearing seems to be putting masks on.  Is she hiding?  What is she hiding from?  I do have a copy of Family Frames: Photography, Narrative and Post-memory by Marianne Hirsch, which I have read but not written about, which also explores the topic of family roles in photography, but I have never felt relevant to my photography.  The photographs I take of my family are souvenir shots.  But I have never wanted to document or explore family relationships in this way.  What I found lots more interesting, and which I have seen before, was Wearing's work on Signs featured in The Guardian online.  I found this interesting because as a society we all have a tendency to make assumptions about people based on their appearance: quick judgements without taking account of any context.  In Signs, Wearing effectively broke down those barriers to enable people to say what they are really thinking, for example the policeman, who is supposed to brave and ready to deal with confrontation, asking for "Help".  In this project, she is actually demasking as opposed to masking, and I find this more intriguing.

The exercise asks us to think about some questions about these pieces of work (note Wearing refers to the family masks work - not the signs work):

• How do these images make you feel: Woodman - intrigued; Brotherus - sympathetic; Wearing - disinterested
• Do you think there's an element of narcissism or self-indulgence in focusing on your own identity in this way?  Woodman - no - I think this is a coping mechanism; Brotherus - initially no - again a coping mechanism, but how long did the project last - there may come a point where it would start to become self-indulgent?  Wearing - no - it's an exploration of relationships and dynamics
• What's the significance of Brotherus's nakedness?  I have no idea, not something I've ever wanted to do.  Is it to get rid of everything - to declutter the mind and body to expose the inner being?  Is it a reference to a newly born child?  Is it to do with lost innocence, awakening, the realisation that your life will never be the same - like a rebirth?
• Can such images work for an outsider without accompanying text?  For Woodman, yes, these are interesting images in their own right.  Brotherus and Wearing, no, I think you need the text to understand the images.  They have specific context, meaning, story, and research elements.
• Do you think any of these artists are also addressing wider issues beyond the purely personal?  I think Wearing is addressing the issue of role and identity being linked to appearance - she is questioning whether by changing appearance we can step into someone else's position.  Woodman, I don't know - I think she is more primarily dealing with her own pain.  Brotherus - yes I think she is - she is tackling the whole subject of grief, and how hard it is not being a mother (if that is what you want), and documenting the impact of such an invasive process.  Would people go through with IVF if they knew already what it is like?

Websites

• Elina Brotherus available from http://www.elinabrotherus.com/news/ [accessed 1 February 2015]
• Home Truths at WeAreOCA available from http://weareoca.com/photography/home-truths/ [accessed 1 February 2015]
• Photography, Motherhood and Identity at The Photographer's Gallery available from http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/photography-motherhood-and-identity [accessed 1 February 2015]
• Private lines: Gillian Wearing's signs in pictures available from http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/mar/04/gillian-wearing-signs-in-pictures [accessed 1 February 2015]

Part Three - Putting yourself in the picture: Project One - Autobiographical self-portraiture: Research - Francesca Woodman

The first research exercise of Part Three asks us to examine the work of Francesca Woodman and to make a commentary on Bright's analysis (OCA, p74):

"It is difficult not to read Woodman's many self-portraits - she produced over five hundred during her short lifetime - as alluding to a troubled state of mind.  She committed suicide at the age of twenty-two".

The first place I looked to find some of Woodman's images was at the Tate: here I found 18 images showing some of the self-portraits described in the statement above.  My initial reaction was that I agree, they are compulsive: I was drawn by the surrealism initially.  As I looked closer, I saw a portrayal of tension between vulnerability and a desire to self-expose.  As if Woodman wanted to be seen (or heard), yet was uncomfortable doing so.  We mostly see sections of her body in strange situations, for example, naked from the waist down, or curled around a bowl containing an eel.   We hardly ever see her face, and therefore, hardly see her soul?  I tried to look without reading the captions as I wanted to see what I could draw from these image without being prompted.  I felt that it's as if Woodman wants us to see her, but only controlled parts of her, not her entire being.

Interesting that her images are all square format, which to me means that they are deliberate and to the point.  She is not giving us the context of a rectangle with more detail about the environment - we are permitted to see just a brief and neatly framed section of the scene.  There is no additional or superfluous information.  I also like the pseudo "Polaroid" format with hand-written annotation - did she mean these to represent snap shots?  Brief glimpses of her life?  Is this consistent with my earlier thought about the desire to show the self, but only a tiny bit?  Only the bits she wants us to see?  What is she hiding?

I found another site showing more of Woodman's work at Victoria Miro (gallery).  The first image shown on this webpage (untitled) shows Woodman's hands and wrists wrapped in birch bark.  My first reaction was that the texture and shape of the bark around her arms creates the appearance of self-harming scars.  Would I have thought that had I not read the above statement and just seen the image with no context?

The third place I looked was at the Guardian.  Annoyingly, I found out that there had been an exhibition at Victoria Miro in the autumn last year.  I would have liked to have seen that.  Note to self....pay more attention to The Guardian!  The article recounts conversations with Woodman's friends and family, and so provides greater context around her photography.  The biggest surprise in this article, is that her mother Betty states that Woodman's work is funny.  It's about angles (I can see that), hence the name of the exhibition "Zigzag", but also humour; the birch tree bark image, is about recreating finger-less gloves.  This then begs the question, how much of our conclusions and interpretations are primed by a biased viewpoint of somebody else?  Or is a mother (understandably) trying to cover up and protect a daughter's vulnerability and darkness?

In the article, Cooke quotes Woodman's friend Betsy Berne:

"In the past, Woodman’s suicide – she jumped off a building in lower Manhattan – has been linked to a funding application that had been turned down. Berne disputes this. “She had an illness: depression. That’s all there is to it.” "

This is a first-hand account that Woodman was troubled; as Bright says, she had a troubled state of mind.  I think this is clear from her photographs.  Why does she hide beneath a door?  Why does she kneel naked in a pool of paint?  Why does she appear to seduce a giant fossil?

The answers to these questions are of course unclear, and sadly, as Woodman is no longer alive, they can never be answered with certainty.  It's clear she suffered mental anguish, from both the photographs and her suicide, but I wonder if her mother is also right - are the photographs meant to be comical?  Is this Woodman's way of coping with depression - to create comedy?

Anecdotally, many of our brilliant comedians also suffer from depression, for example, John Cleese and Stephen Fry.  Are depression and humour inextricably linked?


References:

• Bright, S. (2010) Auto Focus: The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography, London: Thames & Hudson, in OCA Context and Narrative Course Materials (2014)

Websites:

• Francesca Woodman available from http://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/7-francesca-woodman/ [accessed 1 February 2015]
• Francesca Woodman 1958-1981 available from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francesca-woodman-10512 [accessed 1 February 2015]
• Searching for the real Francesca Woodman article by Rachel Cooke in The Guardian (2014) available from http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/aug/31/searching-for-the-real-francesca-woodman [accessed 1 February 2015]

Street Photography Research

In the feedback I received to Assignment Two, my tutor recommended I also look at the following street photographers:

• Joel Sternfeld
• Stephen Shore
• Saul Leiter
• William Eggleston
• Helen Levitt.

Joel Sternfeld

Sternfeld's website doesn't appear to work, so I had to look around through google images and so on.  No doubting the artistic qualities of Sternfeld's images, but the people shots looked posed to me, not candid.  To me this makes the photographs more documentary than street.  To understand them, I would therefore need some context about their story, why they were being photographed, connection with their environment.  Not really what I'm looking for in street photography.  

Stephen Shore

To research Shore, I looked at his website.  Now I'm confused, I wouldn't describe this as Street Photography either, although the American Surfaces images could be.  I did like the Israel/West Bank series though, as having read the book Extreme Rambling by Mark Thomas, which documents his journey along the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank, and have been wondering what it would be like to repeat the exercise and document the differences in people's lives.

Saul Leiter

I am familiar with Leiter, in fact, Matt Stuart once said that one of my images of Piccadilly Circus looked like one of his :)  (see https://www.flickr.com/photos/alisonadcock/14045898482/), which is nice!

Leiter, who started out as a fashion photographer, was a great pioneer of colour and abstract Street Photography;  he does not seem to have his own site, and sadly he passed away in 2013.  So I turned to lensculture magazine for material to look at.  I like these images; I particularly like Snow (1960) published in The Guardian in his obituary article: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/29/saul-leiter.  I love the colour, condensation, sense of cold, simple palette, sense of fleeting moment; and you can see this influence in Nick Turpin's recent work "Through a Glass Darkly", beautiful but calm and peaceful images.  

William Eggleston

Eggleson's own website doesn't show his images.  I saw a couple of other articles and got the sense that he was a great pioneer of colour photography also (how many pioneers do we need?) but in the end, I turned to Eric Kim's Photography blog for some information.   Like Kim, I looked at the pictures of seemingly banal everyday subjects and wondered what....?  I can see the lessons are important, photograph where you live etc, I tried this with Feltham, my local neighbourhood, both for the Bleeding London project (which I got really tired of) and Assignment One.  I didn't like doing it.  I want to make images that are funny, confusing, perplexing, even surreal, but not banal and everyday.

Helen Levitt

Briefly looking at Google images before I tried to find a specific website, and I saw instantly that her work is more akin to what I can relate to, and bears similarities to that of Vivian Meier.  Also sadly no longer with us, and not having a website of her own, I turned again to lensculture magazine to an article entitled New York Streets 1938 to 1990 showing both her black and white image and super saturated colour shots.  The image of the girl by the green car taken in New York in 1970 I had seen before at the Question of Colour exhibition at Somerset House a couple of years ago.  I like her work and have put Slide Show on my Amazon wishlist!  I think that looking at a collection of Street Photography that has built up over a period of time is very interesting - it shows society, history, culture and change.
Websites:

• 10 Lessons William Eggleston Has Taught Me About Street Photography in Eric Kim Photography available from http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/04/01/10-lessons-william-eggleston-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/ [accessed 25 January 2015]
• Helen Levitt: New York Streets 1938 to 1990s in lensculture magazine available from https://www.lensculture.com/articles/helen-levitt-helen-levitt-new-york-streets-1938-to-1990s [accessed 25 January 2015]
• Nick Turpin: Through a Glass Darkly available from http://nickturpin.com/portfolio/winter-bus/ [accessed 25 January 2015]
• Saul Leiter: 1950-60s color and black-and-white in lensculture magazine available from  https://www.lensculture.com/articles/saul-leiter-saul-leiter-1950-60s-color-and-black-and-white [accessed 25 January 2015]
• Saul Leiter Obituary in The Guardian available from http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/29/saul-leiter [accessed 25 January 2015] 
• Stephen Shore available from http://stephenshore.net/index.php [accessed 25 January 2015]

Own work referred to:

• Cartier Bresson: A Question of Colour 11/11/2012 in Alison Adcock Scrapbook blog (as part of TAOP) available from http://jointheaascrapbook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/cartier-bresson-question-of-colour.html [accessed 25 January 2014]

Dana Popa: Not Natasha

As part of my feedback for Assignment Two, my tutor recommended I look at Dana Popa's "Not Natasha" series as an example of getting deeper into one subject.

My first reactions looking through the images were about shock, horror, how appalling that situation is (beyond appalling), but also how sensitive the images are.  Not Natasha is a series about sex trafficking in Eastern Europe and the impact it has on the victim's lives and their families.  More information about the series is available from lens culture.

Looking through the images you see evidence of how young the girls are, how unhappy they are, the damage they are suffering (scars from self-harming), how cheap their lives are, how they have been objectified, abused, tortured, how their families are ripped apart, their lives devastated by the kidnappings, some are even betrayed by their families (one girl was sold by her fiance) and to be frank, it's sickening.  Sickening that human beings can be so depraved and vile to other human beings.  In some images you see the victims, in others you see their environment, and evidence of their existence (traces) or their situations.  And although these images have been sympathetically shot, there is no doubt that Popa is engaged and on some level also feeling their pain, I find them chilling.  It is a horror story equal to that of conflict photography. 

In terms of photographer's engagement - it's clear that she had researched her subject, and spent a lot of time with the girls getting to know them and their story, traveling to do so.  She must have also taken many risks with her own safety to do so.  She spoke with seventeen different women to gain an insight into their lives and in doing so must have had been able to show a protective, sympathetic and supportive approach.  To get people to open up on a subject like this must be very challenging emotionally, for both subject and photographer.  I wonder if Popa needed emotional support herself to be able to produce a body of work that is subjective, but also stands up as a solid documentary.

One thing I noticed, which contradicts the advice I have been given about putting a series together is the format of the photographs.  I have been told repeatedly that a series should be visually consistent, which this is in tone/colour/subject/emotion - but not in format.  She has mixed horizontal/vertical rectangles with squares, some with a white border, some with no border, some with text, some without text.  What does this mean?  It's obviously deliberate.  Is it a commentary on complexity?

How does this relate to my work?  Why was this recommended to me?  The recommendation came as a result of my work for Assignment Two which was street/travel photography in theme.  My approach to street photography is not a documentary/reportage approach like this, but a spontaneous and impulsive exploration of random events looking for twists and irony in every day life.  I like to combine it with the travel element as this gives me a fresh and curious perspective; I notice more when I'm abroad than I do at home.  It's new, different and exciting, and to be honest, I get an adrenaline surge from doing it.  Even planning the trips gives me a rush.

So at the moment, I can only relate to this work coming from a position of both deep sympathy and appreciation of the amazing photographic skill and engagement.  I have thought a lot about where my photography is going over the past couple of years, and I'm happy with the direction it's heading at the moment.  I'm having a lot of fun with it, and for me, right now, that's what I want.  After a 50 hour working week, 15 hours of commuting, squeezing in friends, family and degree work (see Assignment Three for that context!) - all nice problems to have, but I do need to let off steam (not make more steam).  I realise that as this degree progresses, I may need to dig a lot deeper than I am at present, but I don't think I could take on something as committed and engaging as this right now.  BUT as time goes on, I'm sure I will, particularly once I have retired or maybe even once I've found something that I desperately want to document.  I can see myself in the future, once I have more time, making documentaries/reportage articles about animal conservation and protection issues.  That's why I'm dabbling in Wildlife Photography as well! 

I have also been thinking about documenting journeys along barriers, e.g. Israel/West Bank and making comparisons between people's lives.

Websites:

• not Natasha by Dana Popa available from http://www.danapopa.com/gallery.php?ProjectID=218/photos/gallery/not_natasha_for_the_website_32-2.jpg [accessed 25 January 2015]
• not Natasha in lensculture magazine available from https://www.lensculture.com/articles/dana-popa-not-natasha [accessed 25 January 2015]

Practising Street Photography

I recently spent two weeks in Japan (over Christmas and New Year) which gave me a fantastic opportunity to practice my Street Photography - and what an amazing location to do so!  This was the first real opportunity I'd had since returning from my Varanasi trip on a Maciej Dakowicz Street Photography Workshop.  I didn't have an agenda for my Street Photography in Japan (apart from shooting Assignment Three if I could); I just took it as it happened - which is how I like to practice anyway.  And I think that subconsciously I was trying to practice the approaches I had learnt in Varanasi:

Exposing for highlights

Tokyo

Capturing a "moment"

Tokyo

Layering your subjects with no overlaps

Tokyo

Getting close to take portraits

Hiroshima

Finding humour

Tokyo

Putting the subject inside frames

Osaka

Creating a mystery

Hiroshima

Spotting an illusion

Osaka

Using backgrounds

Tokyo

Putting the focus point in the correct place (subject of story)

Jigokudani

Using colours effectively

Tokyo

And two additional approaches:

Echo

Tokyo

Abstract

Tokyo

The overriding observation is that the results of these outings are very similar in style to my photos from Varanasi, however this is not surprising given that this was the first chance I'd had to practice.  And I am really pleased with the results!  But they are of course also quite similar to the style of other people's who have just done their first workshop with Dakowicz.  In March I am going to Myanmar for my second workshop; aside from getting better at these basic styles, my objective for my next trip is to find a more original style plus also to improve my framing (still relying on cropping but don't tell Dakowicz!).

The full set can be found on my flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alisonadcock/sets/72157649453566929/

p.s. I also got some nice wildlife from Jigokudani on this trip!

Feedback and response to Assignment Two: Photographing the unseen - Wonder

Fantastic and encouraging feedback to Assignment Two from my tutor :)

I had fulfilled the brief and produced a tightly edited set that illustrated various conflicting interpretations of the concept of "wonder" in street photography style, with a recommendation for future work to explore the idea of focusing on one aspect of an idea and pushing deeper within the same idea, rather than laterally around the idea (I will try to do this for Assignment Three).  My tutor recommended I research Dana Popa's "Not Natasha" series for a deep and personal insight into trafficking to get an idea of researching deeper into a theme, which I will in preparation for Assignment Three.  She mentioned the risks of choosing a travel theme for an assignment but this had been a consistent approach.  I will however be attempting this again in Japan for Assignment Three?

From a technical perspective, the feedback I received was that the images are strong, with colour and depth of saturation making them stand out.   The focus is good and detail unusual for this stage of my development in street photography, with compelling compositions and the impression of being close to the communities I photographed.  The tight editing had worked well and something to remember and keep up for future assignments.

To be honest, this is better feedback than I could have hoped for!

The only picture my tutor did query was Picture 6 - the dog and the shadow:

With this photo, I was trying to achieve a sense of mystery.  While I was shooting it I had held the position for about 15mins over the real dog - I was practicing exposing for highlights against shadows, and was waiting for something interesting to happen while watching the shadows change.  Finally a second dog came into view, but of course all you can see of the second dog is its shadow, which at first is confusing as it looks like the real dog has its shadow in the wrong place.  But, at the time, when this great dog-shape came into view through the view finder, it actually felt quite sinister - it completely changed the light for one thing, but it also felt like the shadow dog was creeping past the sleeping dog.  When I then put together my series and paired it backwards with the policeman looking alarmed and forwards with the child hiding behind bars, I was trying to get a sense of a frightening aspect of wonder across.  I do have some other mystery shots I could substitute - but I felt that this one worked the best in terms of the peeling onions and transition from positive to negative concept of wonder.

Finally, to explore street photography further, she recommended researching further:

• Joel Sternfeld
• Stephen Shore
• Saul Leiter
• William Eggleston
• Helen Levitt.

I'm already familiar with Saul Leiter, although I haven't previously mentioned him in my blog, but the others are new.  I will certainly research these photographers!