‘Evolution’ may not be the correct title, perhaps an alternative could be ‘How to become happier with your work’ or even, and this is a stretch, “Why you should take up Street Photography”. If we want to improve our photography we need to evolve, makes sense I suppose. Didn’t Charles Darwin have something to say, ‘The Origin of the Species’ and all that. Perhaps Revolution is a better word. We’re overthrowing a system, replacing it with a possibly improved version or maybe we’re just going around in circles. Right, I hear you, “What the hell are you babbling on about?”. My immediate response is that I’m not sure, anyone who reads this blog will know I never really am. What triggered this off was looking through old photos in my archive and I was wondering whether or not there was any improvement or change over the years, had I evolved. Arguably Neanderthal Man and John Harper are one and the same, ask my wife, there’s little progress been made as far as she’s concerned. We’re talking photography here though. As much as I was delighted to make that opening photo above and also have it published in the print version of “Black & White Photography Magazine” where it won a prize, at the time I can remember feeling a need to move forward. I was becoming bored of shooting the same stuff in the same way. That was over five years ago, I wonder if that much has changed. I know that I used to shoot all sorts of subject matter before that, I even found shots of some flowers and a golfball in the files…holy mother of god! I wouldn’t be doing that now so we could conclude that I’ve improved and the world of photography is a much happier place without flower pictures. Here’s some from the good or bad old days. I used Canon or Fujifilm cameras :
You might say it looks like business as usual. The ones featuring the kids maybe. Putting to one side the flowers and golfball, I can see that I’ve been influenced by social media since these were taken. They’re from before the days that I began posting on Facebook or Instagram. These were all framed vertically or portrait. Heaven forbid! Nowadays I shoot everything in landscape, okay, I prefer it in most cases, but there are times when portrait is the best way to frame and yet I don’t because it’s not particularly social media friendly. Here’s a few more that were randomly picked, mainly because the whole of my archival system is random in any case. Mostly using a Canon 5D camera some are seven or eight years old:
I don’t dislike any of these old photos, they even provoke a thought to begin taking some landscapes again, no people for a change. It was a successful formula, I was never sure if it was the direction I wanted to continue with, there wasn’t enough challenge. Of course I still take photos of the children and often the results are going to be very similar to the way they’ve always been made. Nowadays I get satisfaction from much different components in a photograph. They’re not very popular if we’re to judge by Social Media, I suppose they have a lot less immediate impact and therefore don’t attract attention in the microsecond it takes to scroll past. Here’s an example of a more recent photo, well, a couple of years ago. I found it immensely satisfying to both see and take this shot. What it lacks in impact it makes up for with details:
There’s a yellow theme, a gesture and those repeating sunglasses. Everyone has them, even the mannequins in the shop windows. It’s satisfying because at the time I was looking for recurring components to make a photograph. As a side note it’s strange how if you think of something before you begin your Street session it often presents itself. Do I honestly believe that many people on Instagram will take the time to take all that detail in? No. Of course not. I don’t blame them either. So it’s not popular, but we evolve through that “Please like me, please like me, please like me…” stage and a tiny revolution takes place. We begin making photographs for ourselves.
Street Photography takes a huge amount of effort, it’s complex, frustrating and often there’s very little to show for all that extreme concentration. When you do get something it’s so satisfying, those small details that you were intent on looking for suddenly appear. It causes us to look and frame our photographs in different ways, we try new things. I’ll promise you one thing it won’t be popular and another, you’re highly unlikely to make any money out of it, but your photography will improve. Okay, enough of that. I’ve just realised that as I write I’ve managed to paint myself into a corner. Now I have to provide some examples of improvement and that’s going to be highly subjective. Take the yellow/sunglasses shot, I see it as an improvement and I offer that as proof, others might see it as absolutely crap. Let’s look at my efforts so far for the merry month of May, with no judgement. Although I quite like this next one. It’s much more complex than my old methods, not that long ago I was merely taking shots of people walking along and in some misguided way proclaiming it Street Photography:
My visits to Bath have been few and far between so far this month. One of those trips entailed me sitting in the car because we couldn’t find anywhere to park, Sam and the kids got a milkshake and we went home again. They haven’t quite finished lifting restrictions and yet we can already see evidence of a huge amount of pent up demand for the shops. During my ‘drive-by shooting’ a protest came along, they were protesting about protesting. Of course I had my camera with me. You might notice in the third photo I’ve attracted the attention of a Copper on the far side of the road. He must have been frustrated…What do I do? Watch for trouble with the protestors, look out for Covid rule violations or hang on, there’s a bloke driving by taking photos surely I should ‘nick’ (arrest) him. He’s not in control of the car or the camera:
I really need to have a long session in Bath or Bristol soon. A trip to somewhere different too, down to the coast, that always seems to inspire me. It’s true to say that no matter how many times you visit a place there is always something new to see and document, sometimes I need a change, you begin to see the same people doing the same things…the subject matter often doesn't seem to evolve very much. At the moment I’m simply happy to have any opportunity. Here’s some from another quick session in Bath:
So, we’ve seen that guy with the violin on the tightrope before. That takes a huge amount of dedication and practice, not too dissimilar to Street Photography. As Tim from Tim Huynh Photography commented on Instagram “This guy is doing amazing tricks and people just walk past not showing any interest”. My reply to Tim was “He’s a metaphor for Social Media”! Incidentally, Tim Directed/Produced a feature film about Street Photography, it’s well worth a look and is called “Fill The Frame”, please click here for a youtube preview. I strongly urge you to watch Tim’s film, if nothing else it’ll inspire you to either take up Street Photography or to get back out on the Streets. Oh yes, here’s our friend on the tightrope from a year or so ago. Nothing much changes, he’s got an audience of one at least and he’s having his strings pulled…another metaphor perhaps!
Okay, let’s wrap this up. My involvement with Street Photography has caused my photography to evolve, despite seemingly going around in circles, that’ll be the revolution then. I think it has improved, but the jury is still out. The beauty of photography is that it’s always, or should be, a work in progress. The challenge of trying new things is what keeps us fresh. I still resort to formulaic images when all else fails, however I’m constantly on the look out for fresh ways to capture the Streets. You’ll see that in these last set of photos from my trip to Bradford on Avon last week. It’s just down the road, nothing much happens there, I find that a challenge.
As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are taken using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm or 35mm Lens fitted. The older photographs used either a Canon 5d or Fujifilm X.
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