Garry Winogrand

This short video highlights some of Garry Winogrand's work, many of his pictures are iconic and easily recognisable, by photographing everyday things around him he has created an historical record of life in America.  It is clear from his work that he was fascinated by people and their actions and reactions, knew his equipment thoroughly and was quick and comfortable when taking shots.  He also had a good eye, knowing instinctively what would make a shot work, was comfortable with composition and understood how light would influence how a shot was viewed.

NAPLES STREET PICTURES

None of these photographs have been put through photoshop

I saw this shot as we alighted from the coach when we first arrived in Naples.  We had walked across a plaza  full of parked cars and scooters and wanted to walk over to the Duomo ,(Naples cathedral) in the background.  I noticed that almost everyone was sitting with their backs to this fabulous view, it remindes me of a photograph  by Gary Winogrand .

 The sun was so bright I had difficulty with exposure and tried to get a balance between the bright background and dark foreground in anticipation that I would be able to correct in photoshop.  What I should have done was take at least two shots, one for each exposure level in order to blend them later.  I like the composition though with busy people adding interest in the foreground with a figure in the centre looking into the view.

World's Fair, New York 1964

Here all the interest is on the people, with the viewer eavesdropping on their conversations.  The 'eye' naturally reads a photograph from left to right and a slight drop off to the right keeps your eye travelling through the area of interest, drawing attention to the central figures by the 'frame' of the men at either end.

I loved the colour of these city buildings although bright sunlight has bleached out the facing building.  Here again exposure was difficult because of the bright sunlight and shadows cast by tall buildings.  It was the colour 'Pompei red' and repeated window decoration which I found interesting, I think the arches in bottom left draw you into the picture and the bright patch on sunlight takes you up to examine the pattern of the windows.

It was the taxis lined up two abreast with figures on top of the arches looking down that drew me to this shot.

Here taxis parked form a pattern, also using the rule of thirds to position towering pillars travelling up and figures forming a full stop at the top. 

It was a great day for washing.  Long sheets hanging emphasise the narrowness of the street and encourage you to look up into the view and examine the repeated balconies.

This building was really crumbling with age but had new additions stuck all over it, with a woman gazing out of a giant poster.  I liked the way she was placed in the bottom right with a white scooter in front. 

For sale signs stuck on a crumbling wall, it was the image of Vertruvian man with Leonardo printed over it that caught my attention.  Repeated posters form a pattern with their shiny covering of plastic contrasting with the crumbly texture of the wall.

There were lots of street vendors but I had to get a shot of Barbie on her bicycle, the trouble was they expected me to buy as well.

  A diagonal compostion seemed best here since Barbie was larger and would have obscured the figures from the other direction, by focusing on the nearest figures and letting Barbie fall slightly out of focus, I have encouraged the viewer to look at the focused area first then travel throught to top left. I thought this added more interest rather than a straight, full on shot.

More washing, with scooters caught in a strip of light.

Yellow topped bollards formed an avenue into the street with the action caught in a narrow strip of light between buildings.  Washing hanging draws you upwards with the strip of sunlight almost acting as an arrow to the focal point of the riders.

I suppose the strip of high contrast road and sky draws you into the picture, but I also wanted the people passing the time of day, standing in the shade.

I like his pink scooter, very macho.

The rider here is placed in the bottom third of the picture with his head slightly off centre and looking to the side, he forms a focal point for this street scene with towering buildings and sunlight behind pointing down to the action.

Lots of interesting local shops in the backstreets.

Although slightly underexposed, I like this shot of a street market,  all the action is happening in the bottom left with the vendor in his pink shirt being the main focal point.  The yellow building wall encourages you to look upwards and then down the shaft of light back to the action behind the vendor.  There are lots of textures here with leafy vegetables, smooth yellow wall and crumbling wall above.

This cafe in a very grand setting was patronised by lots of smart people.

It is interesting how the tables line up, pointing to a view, framed by an archway, of repeating patterns of windows. Here again I used the 'rule of thirds' in composition.

People in this shot illustrate the scale of the building, with arches and dome carrying pattern up through the shot.

Still Naples, with a couple of guys working on their boat.  The main focal point is the boat in the bottom left with figures slightly below and to the right of centre point.  Boats moored, hills in the distance any sky make up layers of interest and add perspective.

The beach is very much a part of city life with local people spending alot of their free time there since they have no private outside space.

I think the white chair forms a focal point, with the grape vine separating and adding perspective to the layers of boats and city buildings.

INSPIRED BY BANKSY

Here are some of my first street photographs, everywhere we went around the Bay of Napoli we found images of the saints and particularly Virgin Mary, on buildings, walls, rocks and at the roadside.  We also found graffiti which seemed to echo these in a strange way.  None of the images have been put through photoshop.

Canon EOS 5D MK2 with polarising filter & 24-70mm lens

F10, 1/1000sec, iso500

There is a shrine to the Virgin Mary on the wall to the right of the picture as well as a smaller icon below the window.  These attracted my attention as well as a pair of trainers airing on the windowsill.  I like the washing on the balcony which we saw everywhere in the region, and the couple gazing out to sea.

F5.6, 1/15sec, iso400

I do not know why this shrine was situated on the rock face but I thought it was quite beautiful.

F5.6, 1/2000sec, iso400

The top of this shrine was in heavy shade whichever way I tried to photograph it, I took a shot anyway in the hope I can do something with it in photoshop.

F7.1, 1/250sec, iso400

This piece of graffiti was quite close to the last shrine and seemed to copy it in some weird way, anyway I thought it was quite an interesting piece of street art.

STATEMENT OF INTENT - STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

NAPOLI STREET LIFE - EVERY STREET A STAGE

Intention & professional application

For this project I intend to produce at least 10 images of street life captured in Naples, Italy and the surrounding area.  These will form the basis of a portfolio,  which can be used to illustrate Social Documentary comment for the media industry, be that on the internet, papers, magazines and books or televised.  They could also be used by the travel industry to illustrate and advertise Naples and Italy as a destination.

Stimulus & Influences

My stimulus for this project has been  my desire to capture the essence of street life, in a vibrant and exciting Italian city, which was first founded by the Greeks and has seen and absorbed  many cultures since ancient times.

My influences come mainly from photographers such as Martin Parr,  who is a master at capturing the comedy of life and turning everyday events into a pictorial history of life, making the mundane interesting and arresting.

I am also familiar with the work of  Brassai who photographed street life in Paris between the first and second world wars and Henri Cartier-Bresson whose protographs from locations all over the world, before travel was available to everyone, shaped  our idea of life abroad.

Going further back than this I remember searching intently, paintings by Peiter Bruegel, particularly 'The Hunters in the Snow' and 'Winter Landscape',  printed on Christmas cards, for people carrying out everyday tasks, which seemed fascinating.

Equipment & Media

Since I want the versatility to take portrait and landscape shots as well as street and travel photography whilst I am in Italy, I will be using the following equipment;

Canon EOS 5D MK2 with 24 - 70mm lens and circular polarising filter

This is not the ideal camera for street photography since it is rather bulky and noticeable, but I am unable to carry my Lumix Panasonic G1, due to luggage weight restrictions, which would have been much smaller and more discreet.

I will be publishing my finished photographs on the internet, since this type of media will reach a wider audience than prints.  I have yet to decide what form this will take, it may be on my blog or a dedicated website, or on one of the photosharing sites available to everyone.

Techniques

I intend to capture everyday scenes of street life and will therefore try to capture images that best illustrate the daily life and surroundings of Neopolitans.  It is an ancient city with most of its inhabitants living in tenement buildings with no outside space, but usually a balcony.  It has many grand buildings of all styles but the Neopolitans go about their daily business with insouciance taking these and the many camera weilding tourist in their stride.

I will have to be quick to capture the scenes as I see them, before the players move on, and hope to be discreet, so I do not influence their actions.  Apart from this I do not intend to use zone focusing or shooting without using the viewfinder since I am not practised enough at this and cannot be sure of getting the image I want.

It may be best to stay in one position for a time and set up the required F stop, so I am ready to take my shot as events happen, but due to the limited time I will be able to spend in Naples, I will also have to move about to see something of the city.

Lighting conditions

Since we will be in the city late morning and early afternoon I am expecting the sun to be very high and bright,  this should give good light in the back streets between the high tenements, but since they run on a grid pattern and I will be moving about to explore, I will have to be careful to obtain the correct exposure and avoid flare.

I may be able to get some dramatic shots since the bright sun and high buildings should lead to some high contrast conditions.  I will be able to use a fast shutter speed, to halt the action and help avoid camera shake.

Health & Safety

Since I will be using my camera in a public place, I will not need any special permissions, however, it is only natural curtesy, if I am taking pictures of people, to be aware of their right to carry out their daily lives in dignity.  I do not intend therefore to use anything that could offend and if someone objects to having their picture taken I will move on.

As far as my own safety is concerned, I will have a companion with me who will be taking care of my equipment bag and we will both be very aware of our surroundings.  We will be careful of anyone taking an interest in what we are doing and carrying and be aware of the movement of traffic, trip and slip hazards and will not put ourselves at risk in any way.

Street Photography London Pt 1 (by Ronya)

LECTURE - EDWARD SWINDEN

I attended a lecture at Burton College today given by Ed Swinden a young photographer, based in Manchester, who has recently won the first  'Shoot the Street' competion run by British Journal of Photography and the Format Photography Festival in Derby.  He has a solo exhibition of his work running till April 2011.

He is exhibiting a series of photographs featuring a single person, going about their daily lives, caught in a strip of illumination, creating an almost abstract image. 

Using the strong contast between light and dark as a metaphor for our daily lives, often oppressed by the system, as in the towering surroundings.

Ed came to photography after dropping out as a physcology student and going into journalism, writing for various newspapers and the BBC.  He soon found out he preferred photography and went freelance about 6 years ago.  He has worked as a photographer for the BBC on Doctor Who, NME magazine photographing various bands and Haymarket magazine photographing celebrities and various work for University  of Manchester.

Ed enjoys street photography because it is fast, discreet and interacts with people, which I find a bit difficult to understand, since if you are fast and discreet you do not have much time to interact with the subject, surely the purpose is to capture the image before it changes, unless of course you have set up the shot, you would then have to interact with the subject to get them to repeat their actions.  He says he does not use image manipulation in his photography, for example he has not inserted the figures, however, he used one photo to show how a mundane shot was turned into something more graphic and exciting, by underexposing a large part of the image, giving it a large black area.

However, I do agree that street photography is a good way to train your eye as a photographer, searching out the juxtaposition of objects and illustrating the comedy of everyday life.  Ed wanted to capture the in between times, when nothing much was happening, which is often most of the time, and looking at this series of shots, I agree, this is what he has achieved.

I admire the technical expertise and discipline needed to achieve a set of images in this vein, but for myself I prefer more information in my pictures.  I could benefit from being more concentrated and training myself to be more disciplined and paring things down somewhat, but I just find everything so inspiring, especially when I am travelling, that I just want to capture it all.

Ed offered some good advice for people wanting to make a career of photography;

- look at lots of good and rubbish work and remember the names of the great photographers,

- practice, so that technical stuff is automatic,

- know what is current and 'in' but don't copy everyone else,

- try every technique and genre to see what you are good at and enjoy,

- use yourself as a model to practice lighting techniques,

- learn how light works,

- have projects going forwards,

- network, make the most of your contacts.

SOURCES - Lecture by Edward Swinden at Burton College 20/10/10
                   - web sites, photo.net
                                     edswinden.co.uk
                                     formatfestival.com
                                     bjp-magazine.com

Banksy, graffiti artist

RESEARCH & INFLUENCES - BANKSY

Through my research into Street Photography and after becoming interested in Street Art following my trip to Naples in Italy, I have been studying the work of Banksy the street artist.

Street Art is any art work carried out or displayed in a public place and can include graffiti, stencil work, sticker or poster art,  performance art and even flash mobbing, but usually refers to work not sanctioned by the authorities, as in graffiti.

Artists have challenged art and the art establishment, by carrying out their work in public places as opposed to art galleries.  They see this as subverting the establishment, often by altering satirically existing images and business logos.

It also gives the artist an opportunity to reach a much larger audience and put across alternative views about our environment, politics and any other subject which may be topical and current.

Banksy is considered the invisible man of graffiti art, he started as a freehand artist but had trouble finishing his subjects, due to the clandestine nature of the work, and realised that stencils would speed up the process, this distinguishes him from other graffiti artists and he is now somewhat accepted and feted in the artworld.

His work  can be bought via the internet and can be seen decorating  buildings and walls throughout the world as well as being shown in many art estabishments and galleries.  Banksy has even displayed his work in the British Museum and New York by hanging works himself, clandestinely, which has not been spotted by the custodians and hung for several days.  Some galleries have even accepted this work into their displays after discovering them.

Banksy usually records his work, which can often be fleeting and transistory with the use of photography, however this is only a by-product of his art work and has enabled him to publish books and prints which sell universally.

"There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover" - Metropolitan Police spokesperson - taken from the back cover of  'Banksy Wall and Piece'.


SOURCES - http://www.banksy.co.uk/
                'Banksy Wall and Piece' (book)

RESEARCH - STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Street photography is a type of documentary photography capturing subjects in  public places such as streets, shopping malls, beaches etc.  It can be practiced 24/7, 365 days a year, unlike photojournalism for example, which needs an iconic moment of action or emotion to report, street photography needs the common everyday exchanges between people to show the mood of a busy city or town, or the tranquility of village life.

It captures an individual moment in time, is spontanious, not set up or staged and provides a detailed record of street culture, the daily life of its inhabitants, by using 'pure' or 'straight' photography.  That is, it attempts to show a scene as realistically and objectively as possible without the use of manipulation.

The final viewer of the photograph can often see more events in the picture than the photographer originally intended, since lots of action is happening all the time in a city street and the photograph freezes a moment in time, making this type of photography very exciting and dynamic.

dog fight in the street outside

photographer in top right hand corner

Street photography has been popular from the time of the earliest introduction of  portable cameras, as in the Leica used by Henri Cartier-Bresson.  Leica's are still very popular with street photographers since they are robust, small and unobtrusive with 'fast glass'.  Fast glass refers to a pellicle mirror, (pellis - skin or film), which is an ultra thin, lightweight, semi-transparent mirror, used to cut a light beam in an optical instrument in two, this enables multiple uses.

In slr cameras this allowed through the lens exposure measurements and reduction of camera shake, also it enabled fast series photography without the delay of the movement of the reflex mirror, at the same time maintaining constant finder vision.

pellicle mirror

A reflex mirror in a slr camera directs the light beam from the lens to the focusing screen in the viewfinder, this is flipped out of the way when an exposure is made causing the viewfinder to go dark.  This adds to the delay between pressing the shutter release and exposure of the film and blocks the photographers view of the action.

Any type of camera can be used however, so long as it is portable, DSLR's, point and shoot, and now mobile phone cameras are increasingly used, however, Rangefinder cameras were popular before these became available and are still used by many purists today, who feel that a bulky Dslr with a zoom lens puts too much distance between themselves and their subject and affects the subjects attitude and actions.  I certainly found that my bulky Canon dslr was at some disadvantage, since it was very noticeable and difficult to use in this situation unobtrusively.

Leica M7 (Rangefinder)

A Rangefinder camera, has a range-finding focusing mechansim, using a pellicle mirror, which workes by showing two images of the same subject, these were brought together by turning a dial and the distance then read off and set by the photographer, by turning the focusing ring to the required setting, allowing for sharp images.  Cameras without this facility could have a range-finding mechanism fitted to the accessory shoe.  Later designs had the rangefinder combined with the viewfinder and coupled to the focusing system, so when the images were combined the lens was focused correctly.

Example of unfocused and focused image in rangefinder window

Digital imaging technology was applied to rangefinder cameras in 2004 with Leica releasing its first model, Leica M8 in 2006, however some features of dslr's are lacking such as, movie recording, face detection and live preview.

(click below for U Tube video)

Leica M8 (Digital Rangefinder)

Another drawback of the rangefinder is the offset viewfinder to the lens, making it difficult when focusing close-up on a subject, since you do not see exactly what the lens is seeing.  However, the viewfinder often has a larger field of view than the lens in use, allowing the photographer to better anticipate action and capture that special moment in time.  In addition with no mirror to move, shooting is quicker, quieter and the camera is smaller is size and less obtrusive.


Zone focusing can also be used in street photography to allow for fast shooting, cutting out any delay in autofocus.  This is the practice of setting a fixed focal distance, with no autofocus, and often fixed aperture, thereby fixing the depth of field, (the zone), and taking all pictures at this distance, without the need to compose in the viewfinder, referred to as 'shooting from the hip'.

Since I do not have a rangefinder camera available to me and I wanted to take a more versatile camera with me to Italy, most if not all my photographs will be taken used a Canon EOS 5DMark2.  Although not as compact and lightweight as a Leica M8, it should be capable of capturing the type of photograph I aim to achieve.  Unfortunatley, I cannot spare enough space to take along my Panasonic Lumix G1 which is smaller and more lightweight, but operates on the micro 4/3rds system, which is a much smaller sensor.

I have added a short video from the internet which helps to illustrate and explain street photography.

street photography illustrated

SOURCES - INTERNET SITES; Wikipedia/Street Photography, Rangefinder Cameras,
 Chris Weeks on
http://fz01.deviantart.net/,
http://www.markushartel.com/ blog (zone focusing),
www. dpreview.com/articles/leicam8 (review Leica M8)