No matter where I am, and last week saw me shooting in Bournemouth, Bristol & Bath, there’s this unrelenting feeling that I’m producing very similar and formulaic shots. I suppose it’s a classical style and I’ll struggle to change that, if indeed I want to. Take the photo above for example: three people because that’s is the magic number in photography, some layers, a scene, everything perfectly aligned. To make a statement of where I am there’s a Banksy in the background, on the wall not the guy with the hat (although it could be!), a “Raised in Bristol” bag carried by the woman in the foreground. Predictable stuff, doubtful that it’s going to set the Street Photography world alight. There’s a reason I’m telling you this, which will be revealed shortly and by the way, regardless of anything else I really enjoyed taking that photo. I invested a part of me, we all do as photographers. There’s a lot of effort and thought behind every shot. Whether they’re any good or not is a moot point as far as I’m concerned, it is and always will be purely subjective.
Another from Bristol. One I hope my very good friend Jeff Chane-Mouye might appreciate. He likes that slanted horizon look to give energy, there’s a scooter entering the frame, the boy with the skateboard on the poster. Jeff was recently interviewed by Alex Coghe for his Street Photography Channel, you can watch that interview here. I’ll warn you though that it’s pretty lengthy, 1:30hr run time. I was pleased to see that it’s not only me who rates Jeff as one of the top Street Photographers that every photographer should know.
I often walk past this window. It’s at the side of “The Old Duke” which is a famous music venue/pub in Bristol. I rarely see anyone stop to look, even a passing glance. That woman in the reflection was one of many who passed by and suddenly became fascinated because I was stood there with my camera. Plus of course I’m like a Greek God and always attract attention! Someone, and I don’t know who, put a huge amount of effort into that display. What I’m doing here is attempting to explain each photograph I make, putting some context to them, which I think is something that’s extremely difficult to do, practically impossible to put into words. Jeff had to do this during his interview with Alex, I admire him for trying that. I will be doing something similar on a YouTube Channel soon. Here’s some more from Bristol without any context…hold on, I just said they’re in Bristol, essentially that’s all the context you need. Who can explain what and why we’re compelled to release the shutter.
Let’s go to Bournemouth, everyone likes a day out to the beach…
Remember when I wrote that blogpost ‘Everything else is just background’? I still stand by that, it’s all about the people, where you are is irrelevant. True of Street photography and life itself. However, I like a change now and again. Man alive I contradict myself constantly on this blog. Bournemouth has changed over the last few years. It’s getting rough, fights in the streets most nights, stabbings. Whilst I was there around four police cars had sectioned off a street because of a stabbing. Such a shame, I went there as a teenager, mostly for the club scene. I can’t remember there being any trouble whatsoever. I stood outside the namesake of one of my abandoned projects Happyland and as I do, began chatting to the owner and her friend. A very nice lady who confirmed all this to me and more. Bournemouth isn’t safe anymore apparently. It didn’t bother me too much, I just wanted to take some photos, which once again could have been taken anywhere. You’d never know that I was actually at the beach. I wasn’t in ‘Happy Land’ with the results, apart from that image above and perhaps to some extent the one below.
Always a better proposition is to head a couple of miles up the beach to Boscombe. The lady from “Happyland” said ‘Oh, don’t go there, it’s where Bournemouth sends all the homeless and drug addicts”. I suspect that they’re a lot less trouble than some of the visitors to Bournemouth. There seems to be some resentment, or pent up frustration amongst the youth. I can’t say I blame them, they’ve been cooped up because of the pandemic, however doesn’t mean to say that we have to all go out and have a fight about it. Actually now I think about it the ‘Mods’ and the ‘Rockers’ used to meet up in Brighton for a punch up in the 1960’s, maybe things haven’t changed that much. Anyway, if they want frustration take up Street Photography, it’s a long ride on my motorbike down to Bournemouth to not get very much I was happy with. Boscombe is usually more forthcoming from a photography perspective.
I chatted to lots of people down by Boscombe Pier. A photographer who told me she was doing a course with the ‘Royal Photographic Society’. We discussed lenses and more importantly learning to see. She told me that “people would pay good money to hear what I had to say”. It was a very hot day and I can only imagine the sun had affected her brain function in some way! As we stood there talking I clicked a few:
So, as is often the case with Street Photography the effort was huge, attainment not so great. Two hours to the coast, three hours there and two hours back in boiling hot weather produced about four shots. Never mind, next up was a trip into Bath…
Now, I quite like that shot. I nearly got what I wanted, but needed a little more space to the right of the frame. We can follow the cyclists right hand as it leads to the left and our eye meets the boy’s expression on the right of frame. Plus the viewer has to decide what it is the cyclist has stopped for and looking at. As is always the case in Street Photography not very much, we’re simply trying to make the ordinary, everyday life if you will, into something slightly interesting. Or we’re looking for someone interesting or different than the crowd.
or as in that shot and the one that follows gestures. Here we see a photographer explain his approach and philosophy to photography whilst his girlfriend wonders what the hell she’s doing going out with him in the first place. I’m still giving context and reasons for why I took a photograph and we’re going to come to that in a moment:
or maybe we spend time looking for colours. Red is always an easy one to find, sometimes replicating or in the last one in the grid the backpack on the cyclist imitating the black and red of the sign in the shop:
Often when I’m in Bath I see the same people, like our friend on the tightrope whist playing the violin that we’ve spoken about before and I try to snap a shot in different ways or perspectives. The same applies for people sat on benches near the Abbey, I must have thousands of shots of what is essentially people just sitting down.
Now that last photograph isn’t very well balanced, unlike our friend above. Heres couple more colour shots before we wrap things up. They’ll sort of balance things up on the Black & White versus Colour front:
I wonder if the hoards of other Street Photographers that were in Bath the other day saw more than I did. Literally you couldn’t throw a stick without hitting one, over the years there seems to be more and more, it’s become very popular. I chatted to a few, of course I did. It’s always interesting and I can stand there and click away without looking to obvious and at least the person you’re with doesn’t think you’re being rude if they don’t have 100% of your attention, they understand:
I have a huge amount of photos from these three trips, some I should have included and there are those that maybe shouldn’t have been. Back to subjectivity then. You noticed I’m sure that I attempted to explain some of these shots, as Jeff did in his interview. I find it absolute torture dissecting my own images, but it seems I’m going to be called upon to do so for some other peoples street photography. I’ve been asked to judge a Street Photo Challenge. I will be watching a film of a Street Collective in action whist making a video of myself watching and picking a winner or at least some photographs that I think are really good. This will all be played out on YouTube. I’m really looking forward to it, although if I’m any judge they could have picked a better judge ! I’ll post a link at some stage and if I’m not overly embarrassed by my performance. A good week for me, it was fabulous to get out into the Streets to practice, the weather was spectacularly good and I feel as though my eye photographic eye is slowly coming back.
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 Lens fitted.
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