Acceptance. Live a life by that, it’ll be a happier one, Scouts honour. A caveat to that: I wasn’t at any time a member of the Scout Movement, my word isn’t always my bond, perfidious Albion and all that, just minor details. I do accept that my photography hasn't been what we might call “productive” of late. I read recently that Dolly Parton on one afternoon in 1973 wrote ‘Jolene’ and after that composed ‘I will always love you’. Now, that’s what I call productivity and she wasn’t even ‘working 9-5’, more like ‘working 2-4’. Though not remotely on the same scale I thought the least I could do would be to write a blogpost. Admittedly the royalties for this will be slightly less, Dolly earned over $10 million for just one of those songs.
Accepting doesn’t mean that you have to allow everything and everyone steamroll over you. I can be a pacifist, but if some delinquent decides to mug me for my camera they’ll quickly discover that a punch in the face hurts a lot more than they imagined. What I can accept is that not everything is in my control, in fact barely anything is. It’s taken well over half a century to learn that. Blatantly obvious, I know. Just like making a salad, it’s not ‘rocket’ science.
Trapped in a time machine, somewhere in the far distant future. I’m dreading looking that old! Selfies are what I do when I’m not seeing anything or shooting crap. Arguably the selfies are crap too, just accept them as I do the ageing process. If we’re going to improve then we must practice and that means releasing the shutter. I’ve made another startling, that may be building it up just a little bit, strange discovery. It’s kind of a reverse validation. The less popular my photos are the more I seem to accept them as being okay.
In my last blog the shot above was buried in a grid at the end. My friend Jeff Chane-Mouye sent me a WhatsApp message about it, saying that the photo deserved to be full frame and prominently featured. Validation from photographers you admire is worth so much more than “likes” on social media. Actually, another reader of this blog photographer Gwen Julia backed that up and said; So many beautiful things to see, it needs to be in large format. When I opened the SD card from that session it was my favourite photo. I’m always banging on about posting what you like, shoot what you like. Bohemian shop, bohemian couple. Duplicate gestures from her and partner and he’s almost a doppelgänger for the portrait in the window. I did like it, no idea why I buried it away. On instagram it’s doubtful anyone would notice those details or ‘like’ this photo. I can’t say I blame them. Too much subtlety for the split second glance the billions of daily images receive and not nearly enough impact. I posted it anyway, a fait accompli no doubt.
The last couple of visits to Bath (everything featured in this post) have been extremely enjoyable and not the aforementioned fait accompli. Partly because I now accept that I’m not going to get very much. That takes away an enormous amount of pressure, it’s just not possible to get what you want all the time. Essentially you’re photographing for yourself and that’s a good thing. I chat to people and enjoy the process. By the way, I never feel like taking photos of the strangers I meet. 'Street Portraits’ as they like to call them aren’t my thing. I’m not against street portraits by the way, I like looking at other photographers work. I’m a portrait photographer after all, I sincerely appreciate the good stuff. My gut feeling though is that it’s not candid, inevitably it becomes staged and so can’t really be street photography. That’s just my opinion.
On my last visit I bumped into photographer Karl Budd. I’ve met Karl before, a really nice guy. We spoke previously about layers in photographs. I’ve realised that if I go for a street session and have something specific in mind, layers for example, I get better results. It concentrates the mind and eye, rather than looking for anything and everything. Instead my focus is honed in. Having said that Karl and I grumbled that there wasn’t much going on that day. We also spoke about how luck or kismet happens when you’re out with your camera. Matching colours is a classic one, not red because its everywhere. I mean strange combinations. Recalling when I was in Vegas once and there was a hoarding with a peculiar, quite hideous, greenish colour. No idea where they got that paint from. I stood contemplating it for a couple of seconds and a woman came by with a matching jumper. It is Vegas after all, there’s some strange attire at the best of times. Anyway, Karl and I parted our ways and as I turned to walk up the street:
Seriously, less than a minute after talking about it. I find that sort of thing fascinating. This lady went out to shop in Bath and must have thought; “Um. What shall I wear? I know! My blue coat, but I’ll match it with that purple hat I never wear. Okay, I’ll look like a bus and it’s seat material, but what the hell. I won’t go near any buses and even if I do, no one will notice. It’s not as though I’ll be immortalised or anything”! The shot below isn’t a ‘Street portrait’ incidentally. She just looked at me. I have this effect on women! Some street aficionados frown upon eye contact of any sort, I think it’s perfectly acceptable.
Let’s see what the press have to say regarding rules on photography for media. This has come up recently due to the furore surrounding the Princess of Wales’s (Kate) family mothers day photo and that it was changed or manipulated. A ‘Kill Image’ was ordered from the photo agencies. I wonder if we could adopt their rules to Street Photography:
For the press industry any kind of retouching or manipulation is not allowed. No obscuring or taking anything away. You can crop though. Basic darkening, lighting and sharpening only. Definitely no staging.
I’m off to Vegas next week, back for a few days and then on to Barcelona with my youngest daughter. I need a different approach for Vegas, from a photography point that is, obviously I accept that the gambling needs a serious review. My friend Kev has a huge collection of books on the subject of all things ‘odds’ related. I’be borrowed a couple of them this time. As Kev correctly says “Why after I get back from Vegas do I then pick up a book and learn it”. I’m preparing this time, for almost thirty years they’ve had my money, I’m getting it back, I almost pity them! The photography aspect will be a challenge, let’s see if I can produce something a little different this time (and a Royal Flush would be nice too!). Barcelona ought to be simpler, I haven’t been before and fresh eyes can help. Travel street street photography is a lot easier.
My city of Bath on the other hand is where the real hard work is, creating something new from somewhere you’ve seen a thousand times requires dedication. Lately you can’t seem to move for Street Photographers in Bath. The puesdo ones especially, walking around with zoom lenses and DSLR’s as though they’re on some kind of safari. It’s not something I can control. All I can do is accept it and keep looking for gestures, scenes, light and layers. It’s brutal some days, you end up with nothing, but once there’s acceptance that you’re not always going to come up with the goods the process is simple to repeat, as often as I can and enjoy every moment. Just like life, I’ve had to accept so many things over the last few years. The last two sentences I could have written at the beginning and saved us all some time.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are made using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm Lens fitted.
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