I’m retired so for me Street photography is a way to exercise. Though I’ve had one camera or another since childhood, walking around with one at hand for the specific purpose of photographing my locale is a relatively recent development. The desire to see new things and by trying to find and capture moments that may have been missed by fellow pedestrians is addictive. As a consequence I regularly walk longer than I need to. But that’s a physical benefit, I’m told, at my stage in life. My brain too benefits as I use the resultant images as hindsight prompts of places visited. I like walking in relative isolation into the unknown, no matter where, at home or away. It makes me imagine being on Space Street Enterprise exploring new possibilities in different time moments. I like to capture in the ordinary, the thing that, in it, I think isn’t. So I take Street photographs as a way of understanding myself and my position in this place through a visual form. As a result I see the ordinary and unique fleeting moments with greater clarity, empathy and compassion.
1- Are you a professional photographer? No, I'm not but I have no regrets in having done the things I have. However, I'm glad to have this opportunity now to do something I've been interested for for a very long time. It has given me new purpose, passion, reason and direction. A gift for a new productive life, if you like.
2- Why street photography? To bastardise a JFK quote, not because it is hard but because it is easy. The easy is that all you need to do is get out with a camera in hand and walk. The hard is finding the moment when your heart and eye combine to recognise the instant you are seeing as unique and special to you. Miss that perfect, transient moment and it’s gone forever as life on the street can’t be staged, rerun or replayed just because you have slow reflexes, a wrong setting, weren’t ready or you didn’t anticipate the instant you should have clicked. The French have a saying, ‘c'est la vie.’ I know it as ‘stiff cheese’ or to be more precise here ‘the missed intersection.’
3- What do you look for in an image? Something that moves me? No, better expressed in this context I’d have to say something that stops me for a longer look. I look for an image with a compelling narrative, relevance, educative power and artistic beauty. Something deep and meaningful rather than pretty or shallow. I love the way a picture can speak and in the many ways it does; across time, culture, status, gender and boundary. In my humble and meagre work, I flounder to find those, I try and so I guess is the reason why I walk the streets almost daily.
4- Where in the world would you most like to photograph? The Australian outback. Australia is massive, a continent with vast empty spaces and tiny outback towns, peopled with its first inhabitants on their ‘country’ and ancient land, on their terms, would be a dream.
5- Who would you most like to photograph? If I had the power of hindsight, resurrection and time travel then a comrade and his long suffering wife with her walking stick, The Honourable[s] Gough and Margaret Whitlam. Both were towering, wickedly funny, insightful, no nonsense, characters who sadly, when I had a chance, I didn’t!
6- Your favourite street image of your own to date and why?
I WISH I HAD That image was taken on a return bus trip to the CBD of Melbourne. The girl in the photo got onto the bus the stop after me. When we pulled into the stop here, I almost missed the shot I was so astounded by the similarity between her and the poster. I could hear the door closing as I took this my only shot of the two. I angled the camera down rather too quickly which attracted her attention and she looked at me. That was ‘the money shot,’ I missed. That’s the reason for the title of the photo. I’ve learned then that in some situations it is a good idea always to have the camera at the ready and sometimes to have the camera shutter sound high. Hopefully, so it may attract the subject’s attention.
PS having the shutter sound on in some situations has worked to my advantage! Have a look at I’M READY
So this image because it taught me the hard way to think ahead as a photographer.
7- Your favourite piece of equipment? My camera, ready and in hand and it happens to be a FujiFilm x10 with its added thumb rest. I know it’s old but then, so am I. [Oh, and I don’t suffer camera envy or for add on extras -even in my dreams.]
8- Is photography art? Yes, when the captured moment screams, speaks, whispers or sings to you and no if it’s mindless, self-indulgent or narcissistic and yes too, when shown the image can stand on its own merits and it’s presented at its best.
9- Black And White Or Colour? I like both but not both at the same time. Each image has a dominant character and I like to think of one as introverted and moody and the other outgoing and joyous. Which rendition then depends on which I react better to at that particular moment or what I want to present or what to highlight.
10-What are your thoughts on editing? It’s important and usually it’s necessary. If an image is to be presented at its best, very rarely if ever am I satisfied with what comes out of the camera in its virgin state. I’ll work on it until I think it is the best that I can make it. I believe that the digital age has made some of us pompous and pretentious just because an image can be retrieved after being recorded. I’ve seen and heard sanctimonious claims that in camera settings and its software editing is fine but very little if anything to acknowledge that for the camera to achieve its result teams of creative artists, photographers and software writes collaborated sometimes for years to replicate, refine and modify a certain desired [film] look. To step back into the analogue or film age for a moment, what did a photographer have after releasing the shutter assuming there was a frame left on the film? [ ] So what needed to be done? Certain chemicals needed to be combined; the film needed developing for a certain period. The film also needed time to dry before it could be handled and placed under the enlarger. Then the paper needed consideration. Was it for black and white or colour or slide? Brand, type, grade, size? Then the enlarger came into play to crop, size, shape and manipulate light in combination with precious seconds of time. Too long or too short just wasn’t an option unless you were sloppy. Get it right or not and the time spent in the darkroom was counted in hours. In the process your fingers, eyes, lungs, nasal passages and the environment paid the price for that finally revealed, fixed, satisfying or not image. If photography is to be considered an art form then editing an image to present it at its best and bring it to life is a must. Otherwise it’s an irreverent scam. You are cheating your audience and undervaluing their intelligence. Why? I think I know the response of some; ‘my camera did it for me, isn’t it great!’
11- Why do you share to Progressive Street and who would you like to see showcased from Progressive Street? I share with Progressive Street because it has in it people who don’t just act as a group but as a helpful collegial team of individuals whose work is passionate and inspiring and each is a photographer I admire. As a relative newcomer to ‘street photography’ I’m interested in learning and being shown by example and through valuable feedback how to consider and so achieve that which otherwise I would not. Progressive Street does all that within a friendly and helpful environment and then some.
Camera Thoughts The use of a camera shouldn’t be seen as Rocket Science. Though reading a manual and applying it one needs a degree in patience at sloth pace. My first camera, a SLR, had three things for me to master and apply to take a picture. I can’t remember an exposure bias dial, if it had one it wasn’t used much, if at all. The other consideration was the choice of film; brand, b&w or colour, slide and speed and that caused me more angst than everything else combined. The film chosen in turn modified the way two camera functions needed to be monitored, aperture and shutter speed. So I can well understand why some current photographers now are drawn down the analogue film path. I liked the beauty of looking through the viewfinder and when the image became sharp and the eye was comfortable with the light you literally clicked and locked the light onto the film. Pure magic. My Street camera settings reflect my understanding of any analogue SLR. In Aperture priority, it sits on the lens’s sweet spot. In Shutter priority it is on or just above a hundredth of a second. The focus is mostly pre-set other than when used at close range. Manual priority is ignored as I don’t see how it could be used to advantage in Street photography. I use Program priority as a last resort if I don’t mind high ISO noise sprinkled across my image.
If I were to be asked by camera maker Brand X for a camera body of choice. Here are my, just over a handful, humble ideas of advice.
Keep the analogue SLR camera basics for Brand X. 1. One dial to select either Aperture, Shutter and Program priority, 2. A forward angled Shutter release button with a lever to lock, on or off, a focus range, 3. The main camera On & Off switch next to the shutter button ringed by the Exposure Bias ring, 4. Super Live mode TTL view finder and no LCD screen at all, 5. No mirror, 6. Carbon fibre body with hand grip and the largest capacity battery it could hold, 7. A Menu dial for Film type linked to ISO choice ala analogue film of old. And finally, 8. No brand marking or logo anywhere other than the baseplate, called why not, Brand X.
The Brand X Lens A single, three segments snap to focal length choice lens: 18, 28 & 35mm [No zoom and each selection to be and act as a prime lens.] The above combination of X body and X lens, I’m certain would become more popular than chocolate and coffee combined.