IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY I S S U E 10 STREET & DOCUMENTARY FROM THE MAKERS OF • Advice and tips from the masters • Photography to inspire you • The essential equipment you need £7.99 KELSEYmedia IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Welcome One of photography’s most important roles is to create a visual record of the society in which we live. Our understanding of what life was like for people in any given time and place over the past 150 years comes largely from photos taken at the time. Street photography is about capturing candid moments of everyday life in public places, and is strongly embedded in the DNA of image making – indeed, some of the earliest photographs ever taken were of street scenes. It’s also a genre associated with some of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Martin Parr, Diane Arbus and Vivian Maier. Documentary photography is a related genre that’s more focused on telling in-depth stories exploring events, issues, groups or individuals, usually with their consent and participation. Some documentary photographers have dedicated an entire lifetime to a single subject, but it could be as little as a few hours. Both genres remain very popular today, and it’s not hard to see why. They’re very accessible; you don’t need to jet off to some exotic location, and you don’t need a lot of expensive kit. Just a single camera and standard lens will do, and often the smaller and more discreet the better. They offer endless variety, too – telling the many facets of a story may involve calling upon skill-sets in portraiture, landscapes and even action photography. This packed guide is a celebration of street and documentary photography, with lots of practical advice, insights and inspiration from some of the world’s leading photographers. I hope it inspires you to take to the streets with your camera, or start a personal project. Good luck! Nigel Atherton, Editor www.kelsey.co.uk Kelsey Media, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Maidstone, Kent ME18 6AL. Email [email protected] Group Editor Nigel Atherton O Head of Market Liz Reid O Production Editor Ailsa McWhinnie Chief Executive Steve Wright O Chief Operating Officer Phil Weeden O Managing Director Kevin McCormick O Print Production Controller Anne Meader Distribution in Great Britain Marketforce UK Limited, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR. Telephone 0330 390 6555 O Distribution in Northern Ireland and the Republic Of Ireland Newspread. Telephone +353 23 886 3850 Printed by Pensord Kelsey Media 2022 © all rights reserved. Kelsey Media is a trading name of Kelsey Publishing Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden except with permission in writing from the publishers. © ED PETERS © DAVE FIELDHOUSE Contents 6 Stories of the street Leading street photographers share their words of wisdom 12 Know your rights Get informed about the legalities of street photography 18 Backlighting brilliance Denis Thorpe’s important record of northern working life 22 Get the shot Three experts reveal their street photography secrets 28 At the water’s edge Four photographers who studied Britain’s piers and proms 34 The people person How Niall McDiarmid attempts to tell the UK’s story in portraits 4 38 Something of the night Mike Crawford talks us through his Nocturne project 42 The future of iN-PUBLiC iN-PUBLiC’s role in popularising street photography 46 Never forgotten How the late Tish Murtha’s important work is being revived 50 Street view David Gibson on the ethics and frustrations of street shooting 56 Six steps to success Peter Dench explains his approach to candid photography 60 The way we were Homer Sykes on 50 years of documenting the British www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 64 Facetime Dave Fieldhouse’s project looks at people on their phones 66 The shape of the city Tony Sellen talks about his skilful B&W technique 70 Life without mirrors Using mirrorless systems for observing everyday life 76 Sold up the river Mike Seaborne’s document on the loss of the Isle of Dogs 80 Exploring new avenues How three pros adapted during the Covid pandemic 86 Gilden edge Peter Dench introduces himself to the work of Bruce Gilden Dod Miller talks about his book, Birdmen 92 Street smarts Why a smartphone is perfect for capturing life on the street www.amateurphotographer.co.uk © DENIS THORPE 88 Miller time 5 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY © ALEXEY TITARENKO ‘Grandma with Grandchild’ by Alexey Titarenko Stories of the street Leading street photographers share their words of wisdom, while Geoff Harris takes a look at current trends and best practice V KIT LIST Mobile phone Smartphones are capable of taking great street shots – they are light, portable and discreet. Some models have similar levels of control to a camera. 6 © MARINA SERSALE photographer Eugène Atget was taking images of a Paris he saw expanding and developing quickly. As well as capturing old buildings, he was keen to record ordinary people on the streets, and how they lived their lives. Atget went on to influence future generations of big names, including Man Ray and the surrealists, Henri Cartier- Mirrorless camera V O nly a few decades ago, the term ‘street photography’ didn’t really exist. But while more formally posed portraits and urban or rural landscapes were fashionable in the 19th century, a lot of early travel and documentary photographers were, of course, taking photographs of street scenes. By 1897, French Delivering great results without weighing you down, mirrorless cameras are a great choice for street. The Fujifilm X-T3 can shoot 30 fps and offers a resolution of 26.1MP. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Carry plenty of memory cards and spare batteries with you when you’re out shooting. If your camera has a double card slot, use it as backup. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Prime lens A quality prime, such as the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8, can be great for street photography. Instead of using a zoom, be brave and move in closer. V Spare batteries V V ‘Untitled,’ Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, taken by Marina Sersale on an iPhone Shoulder bag A bag should be comfortable, waterproof, and discreet. The Billingham Hadley Small Pro’s inserts can be removed to convert it into a ‘casual’ bag. 7 © JESSE MARLOW IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Bresson, Diane Arbus, William Klein and so on. Martin Parr, arguably Britain’s best-known photographer, along with David Bailey and Don McCullin, is also best known for his street work. Fast forward to the present day, and street photography now tends to be seen as a discreet, candid type of image making that records the complexities and quirks of our modern, urbanised age, often using visual puns and wry juxtapositions in creative new ways. Or it can go down a more documentary road, with the emphasis on recording the decisive moments of modern life as it unfolds, or just interesting characters you see on the pavement. Smartphones have revolutionised the genre too, and to an extent, everyone is now a street photographer. This is not to say that the craft of street photography is easy to acquire, however, and there is a big demand for tuition from experts. is only fitting, as street photography is very much a vibrant and evolving art form. Their images not only record modern society but also ask questions about it, arguably making street work more relevant than many other forms of contemporary photography. Also, the ‘street’ itself will often be different every time you visit it, even more so in fast-developing parts of the world such as China, Southeast Asia and India. What approach you follow is very much a matter of personal choice, and Masters of Street Photography reveals diverse ways of working. Some leading exponents, such as Jesse Marlow, are drawn to the use of abstract shapes and strong colours, following a ‘graphic’ route; others, such as Rui Palha, are more about capturing atmosphere and emotion, with © ED PETERS ‘Six Panels’ (2009) taken in Melbourne, Australia, by Jesse Marlow ‘Untitled’, Manhattan, New York, taken by Ed Peters THE LAW OF THE STREET Inspiration from books You don’t need to sign up to a workshop to enjoy street photography, however, and there are some great books on the subject, including one from Ammonite Press. Masters of Street Photography does a great job of exploring how 16 leading lights of the genre go about their craft, and while it can never be the last word on this very diverse subject, it gives a great overview of current trends and best practice. As editor Rob Yarham explains, ‘Be it a decisive moment or not, street photographs work best when they capture the emotional and context of their subject matter.’ This said, there is an incredibly diverse range of street photographers included in the book, who shoot in different locations all over the world. This international scope 8 Public right of way Pictures of people If you’re on a public right of way – such as a public pavement, footpath or public highway – you’re free to take photographs for personal and commercial use so long as you’re not causing an obstruction to other users or falling foul of anti-terrorism laws or the Official Secrets Act. Photographers can use their pictures of people taken in public places as they wish, including for commercial gain. While this is reassuring, common sense does need to be applied. A lot of pedestrians in the UK won’t react favourably if you go right up to them and shove a long lens in their face. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Sensitive subjects Seek clarification Know your rights Take care where children are involved, and you also need to be sensitive to cultural and religious differences (when taking photographs of Muslim women, for example). For a fuller guide to your rights under the law, see this excellent page on the Urban 75 website at https://bit.ly/2KCZOp9. If you are questioned by a member of the public, try to remain respectful and be prepared to explain yourself. Most people will question your motives out of sheer curiosity, so don’t be too quick to judge. If someone suggests you are breaking the law (and you know otherwise), ask for clarification. We’ve also put together a comprehensive guide of your legal rights on our website at https://bit.ly/2eOJdzj, which will give you a better chance of staying on the straight and narrow. Disclaimer: this article is not a comprehensive legal guide, so always seek specialist legal advice if you have concerns. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 9 Advice from the masters © ALAN SCHALLER IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Alan Schaller ‘There are certain things that can be enhanced in black & white, such as shape, structure, line and even human expression. I made it my mission to do something fresh – a modern twist on B&W. I started off emulating others but found my own direction once I had the skills.’ Alexey Titarenko ‘For long exposures you need to work with a tripod. Shooting with a tripod in the street may get you into jail, even in New York. I developed strategies for keeping a low profile!’ Marina Sersale ‘Be patient: if you wait long enough, something interesting is bound to happen. Be ready with your camera or phone, and when you’re at home do your homework. Study other photographers who inspire you.’ Jay Maisel ‘Humour is the saviour in a horribly conflicted world. I like to have a good time, and to laugh. I’m not a “funny” photographer like Elliott Erwitt, but if I see positive stuff it’s going to get way more play from me than something depressing.’ Martin U Waltz ‘Darkroom techniques are very exciting artistic tools. For example, reducing the silver adds depth or light; toning, if used properly, can change an image to what you’d call in music a major or a minor key. And it’s the same for density and contrast. But the process is very intuitive.’ Ed Peters ‘I most use 28mm and 35mm lenses. They’re good for juggling multiple elements. I also use rangefinder cameras. Unlike a single lens reflex camera, I can prefocus the lens, stop it down and have a good idea of what will be in focus. When I look through the viewfinder, everything is clear and sharp, which makes it easier to deal with complicated compositions.’ Dimitri Mellos ‘A photograph should be emotionally complicated, both in terms of the people depicted and the emotions it evokes in the viewer. I am more interested in images that pose questions which remain suspended, rather than ones that provide simplistic, straightforward messages. I abhor crude visual puns and simplistic jokey images.’ 10 ‘Untitled,’ taken by Alan Schaller in London powerful portraiture. As this fascinating book reveals, it’s really about capturing what you find interesting and compelling about your subject matter, be it in Birmingham or Beijing. Spoiled for choice In terms of equipment, street photographers are spoiled for choice. At the entry level, most modern smartphones are more than capable of taking great street shots, particularly as the best ones now offer similar levels of control to a standalone camera. Meanwhile, innovative features such as Night Sight on the Google Pixel phones, for example, enable you to get great results when the sun goes down. The other advantage of using a phone is that it’s nearly always with you. Moving up a level, there is now a huge range of light and portable mirrorless cameras which deliver great results without weighing you down or instantly marking you out as a photographer; one immediately thinks of Fujifilm’s nifty and pocketable X series of APS-C mirrorless models, or the classically designed and compact Olympus OM-D line-up, complete with sharp lenses you can fit in your hand. While a lot of full-frame mirrorless cameras are getting as bulky as DSLRs, good options for high-resolution images include the Sony A7 III with a smallish prime, such as the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 or 55mm f/1.8. Your choice of lens is obviously important, and while the great street photographers of the past, such as Cartier-Bresson, favoured classic 35mm and 50mm primes, a reasonably discreet zoom gives you more flexibility. There are now many more mirrorless and compact cameras with silent shutters too, which makes the street photographer’s job much easier. In many ways, gear is the easy part. It’s important to deal briefly with the elephant in the room (or on the street), namely the legal aspects. Many potential street photographers are put off by worries about attracting the wrong kind of attention, be it from aggrieved subjects who don’t want to be photographed, through to security guards and the police. Others are just shy. Every country is different, but in the UK at least, you have more rights than you probably realise (see The Law of the Street, previous page). If you are in any doubt, or encounter any problems while shooting, always seek professional legal advice. Finishing touches Finally, get some business cards made. If one of your subjects does take offence, they will probably calm down when you freely identify yourself as a serious photographer or offer to share your pictures with them (perverts and terrorists are unlikely to offer you their card, right?) Never feel you need to be shifty or somehow feel guilty about following the endlessly rewarding pursuit of street photography. The photographers in this book certainly don’t. Masters of Street Photography is edited by Rob Yarham, published by Ammonite Press, ISBN-13: 9781781453605. It is available from all good booksellers for £25 (hardback). www.amateurphotographer.co.uk SUBSCRIBE TODAY & SAVE 22% Take your photography to the next level with our essential collection of expert tips and techniques from Amateur Photographer and the UKgs leading photographers. 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We will only contact you about our special offers via the preferences you will indicate when ordering and you can update these at any time by emailing us at [email protected] or by calling us on 01959 543 747. IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Know your rights Street photography would be more popular if people felt more informed about the legal side, reckons Damien Demolder. He updates us, and considers street photography’s future Street shooting can capture a time and a place through fashions and behaviour. Shot on a Ricoh GR lll I Protestors often value you shooting them as it helps get the message out 12 There is no law that prevents us photographing anyone in a public place, whatever you read online am regularly told by other photographers that shooting this or that is illegal and that they avoid street photography because they don’t want to get arrested. Sometimes it takes quite a lot of effort for me to convince them that their fears are unfounded, and it always makes me wonder where these ill-informed ideas come from and who spreads them. Terror threats in the wake of 9/11 and the attacks in this country for a while did make life difficult for photographers, as suddenly taking pictures in public places was seen as a security risk by some police officers, and lots of photographers were wrongfully stopped. Fortunately, that time has passed. It seems, though, the hangover from those days of suspicion still has an influence on some photographers – though not, it seems, on the public. New vague rules on www.amateurphotographer.co.uk ‘data protection’ also complicated the picture for a while, while recent poorly thought-out moves by Twitter have also brought up questions about the rights and expectations of privacy of the public. In truth though, despite all the noise, nothing has changed. We can still photograph almost anything we want to, and we still need to be careful about the context in which those images are used. This article intends to examine the state of street photography today, and to reassure. in the street as this type of photography can include indoor public places, cafes, beaches, shops, parks, churches and anywhere there is human activity. For me, street photography includes people. That isn’t an absolute rule, but I would expect about 99% of my pictures to include if not an actual person, their shadow or some mark that a person is, or has been, in the scene. Street photography is important because it provides social commentary for us to see humanity as it is now – and when we look What is street photography? back, to see how it was then. As much as The term ‘street photography’ covers a street pictures can be amusing, visually everything from photographing graffiti stimulating and enjoyable to take, they also on walls to in-your-face pictures of people provide a historic record. And of course, going about their business. Along the way it great art has its own intrinsic value. takes in semi-architectural work, portraiture, I have met photographers who question social documentary, performance and a bit the ethics of pointing a camera at people of fine art. Pictures don’t have to be taken going about their business, and who suggest www.amateurphotographer.co.uk that in itself is wrong. When they are reminded that Cartier-Bresson was a street photographer they say, ‘Oh yes, of course’. It is easier to see the value in today’s old pictures than it is to see the worth of new pictures that will one day be old, and where would we be without having had the likes of Cartier-Bresson, Vivian Maier, Saul Leiter and Dorothea Lange? The fear When I visit camera clubs for a street photography talk, one of the first things I ask is, ‘Who here shoots street pictures?’ Depending on the club, the number of hands that get raised varies from none to a very low number. This puzzled me, as I’d been booked to talk about street photography to clubs in which very few photographers were practising it. After a while, I tried following that question 13 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Street photography doesn’t need to be any more than human life as it happens with, ‘Who doesn’t shoot street but would like to?’ – and then the majority of hands would go up. With street photography, it seems there’s a barrier that prevents people who would really like to go out to shoot from actually doing so. That barrier is fear laced with uncertainty – fear of offending people, and uncertainty about how they stand with the law and ethics. Regular readers of Amateur Photographer may remember a period in which photographers of all kinds were being stopped by the police when taking pictures in public. During that time, AP, and especially its late news editor Chris Cheesman, worked very hard with the Home Office and police to establish exactly what the law was on taking pictures in public places, and ensuring that the 14 Drunk students enacting Hogarth pictures in Bath – again, capture life as it unfolds message got out to the bobbies on the beat. The fact was that despite there being a heightened terror alert and a general frenzy of suspicion, there were no laws that meant it was illegal for anyone to take pictures of pretty much anything they wanted to. And when that message finally got out, photographers were left alone, and largely remain left alone today. And if it is the fear of what the people you are photographing will feel about it, be reassured that if you use common sense, they won’t even notice you are there. Ethics of street photography As Nick Dunmur of the AOP says, whatever the rules and the law states we can and can’t do, it is more important to make sure we ourselves are happy with our own behaviour. We need to self-regulate to ensure that we don’t shoot situations and people that leave us feeling uncomfortable or regretful afterwards. The boundaries for this will be different for everyone because we all have different sensitivities – however, the basic premise is that we really want to avoid feeling ashamed of ourselves. For me, this means I try not to exploit, make fun of or humiliate anyone. That doesn’t mean I can’t notice and photograph funny behaviour, funny dress sense or funny expressions, but it should all be done to show the human condition and our diversity – and in good humour. Not exploiting people for me means, for example, that I don’t shoot homeless people – unless in doing so I can help them. If I’m taking a picture of a www.amateurphotographer.co.uk It is not illegal to photograph children – and funny faces can be highly rewarding The legal angle WE SPOKE to Nick Dunmur, the legal advisor at the Association of Photographers (AOP), for some general advice regarding street photography. ‘To be clear from the start, there are no laws in the UK preventing anyone from photographing anything, or indeed anyone else (note: including children), in a public place. The issues start with, firstly, defining and understanding what exactly is a “public place” and secondly from the use of the resulting photographs. One cannot take photographs of things for criminal or terrorist purposes, for example, and one should not use an image of an individual to advertise a product or service without proper permission from that individual (often called a “model release”). ‘So, to reiterate, as long as the photographer is on public land or in a public space, then there is nothing stopping them from making a photograph of anything or anyone. It’s the resultant use of that photograph that can cause problems. However, it is worth raising the issue of ethics here too – just because one can do something, does not mean disadvantaged person just to get the admiration of my viewers then I’m surely heading down the wrong path. The trick here is to actually think about what you are doing and to not be driven just to think that because you’ve seen pictures of homeless people taken by other photographers that they are fair game. You need to take the situation and your intentions into account. I question myself, and ask, what is motivating me to take this picture. If the answer is anything but pleasant, positive or loving, I don’t press the shutter. The Twitter ban Twitter’s recent change in policy regarding pictures of people whose permission has not expressly been sought is at www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Some buildings can be protected by copyright laws, but that doesn’t mean we can’t photograph them one should. This is particularly pertinent when thinking about photographing people and it is always worth putting oneself in the shoes of the individual(s) about to be photographed and considering, if the roles were reversed, how you would feel. ‘Making photos of people on private land is a different matter. One might be allowed to make photos in a private space (an art gallery, say), but because there is in effect always some sort of contract between you and the private space you are in you will always have to comply with requests for you to stop. If you don’t, you may find yourself in breach of the terms and conditions of that space you are in. In short, it will be at the discretion of the owners of the private land or space that you are in. ‘Even though a photographer may be on public land if the subject is in a place that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as inside their home, making a photograph of them might be a breach of privacy law, such as it exists in the UK. Privacy law in the UK is mostly a combination of the Human Rights Act 1998 (which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights) and case law (individual court cases which establish precedents for how a court may view or determine an action). ‘As far as buildings and other property is concerned, buildings are protected by copyright, just as other artistic works are (like photographs), so whilst it is not illegal to make a photograph of a building that is on public display due to an exception in s.62 of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 (the bit of law that governs intellectual property such as copyright), it may be that the building is also trademarked, which would prevent the photographer from using that image to promote another brand, service or product. It should be clear that whilst the making of a photograph is, generally speaking, free from any encumbrance, the use of that photograph is something that needs to be considered carefully.’ 15 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY first quite concerning. As is often the case when businesses are trying to protect themselves, they do so with a sledgehammer when a nutcracker was all that was needed. As a publisher, Twitter is officially responsible for everything that is posted to the platform and it doesn’t want to have to deal with claims from people who appear in pictures on the site who don’t want to be there. The easiest method of avoiding such situations is to say that if anyone complains about their appearance in a picture then it will be removed from the site. This is a pretty poor approach for more than one reason. Firstly, it denies photographers their rights to publish work that was created well within the law, but secondly it allows people caught in the act of doing something wrong to prevent the evidence being shared. In fact, I haven’t heard of any cases where a picture has been taken down because a regular person feels their privacy is being infringed, but I have heard of a lot of cases where complaints are used to hide crimes, corruption and to restrict the freedom of speech of journalists the complainants don’t want to be heard. I sympathise with Twitter’s sentiments – ‘There are growing concerns about the misuse of media and information that is not available elsewhere online as a tool to harass, intimidate, and reveal the identities of individuals. Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm. The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities. When we receive a report that a Tweet contains unauthorized private media, we will now take action in line with our range of enforcement options.’ – but disagree with the action. In the end, the only way your Twitter account will be suspended is if someone in your pictures complains to Twitter. The chances of a regular person seeing themselves on your account is pretty slim, and the chance is even slimmer of them actually complaining about it. Most of the issues with this policy seem to be in the USA at the moment, and affect those covering extremist political activity. And it is worth remembering that Twitter is not the only social media platform on which photographers can post their images. Breastfeeding mothers It isn’t law yet, but photographing breastfeeding mothers without their consent will become illegal in the UK soon. A section of the Police, Crime, Sentencing This is a private space that feels as though it is public, so photographers could be caught out Some people are happier shooting pictures where the subject can’t be identified Shot in a covered shopping arcade, this is clearly on private property – but no one was bothered that I was there ‘On private property the owners can make up the rules. We need to obey them; if you’re asked to stop, you should’ and Courts Bill that’s passing between the Houses at the moment aims to add an amendment to the Sexual Offences Act of 2003 to include photographing a breastfeeding mother under the Voyeurism section. If the bill passes with this section intact it will be an offence to photograph a mother breastfeeding a child or arranging her clothes to do so, in a public or a private place, if you don’t have her permission. As the amendment will fall under the Voyeurism section of the Sexual Offences Act, a degree of sexual gratification must be behind the act of taking the picture, so if you shoot a scene and accidentally include a breastfeeding mother in the crowd behind your subject I doubt you will get into trouble – though in theory you may have to prove that you didn’t do it on purpose. While I’m not a big fan of anything that restricts what we can and can’t photograph, I’m also an advocate of not upsetting, exploiting or making people feel uncomfortable, so putting photographing unexpecting breastfeeding mothers into the same category as taking pictures up www.amateurphotographer.co.uk skirts and under toilet cubicles is a good move as far as I’m concerned. It is also a move that will not have any impact on what genuine street photographers do. Private or public property Although we can pass from public to private property and back again without really noticing when we’re out photographing in the street, we need to be at least conscious of the difference, and of which areas are likely to be private. I suppose most of us don’t think too much about whether a shopping arcade in town is private or public property, because for most people it really doesn’t matter, but in an arcade, street photographers can be asked to stop taking pictures. There might be signs up too that explain that photography is prohibited. There may not actually be a sensible reason for the ban on photography and if you ask, you might be told ‘data protection’ or ‘privacy’, but no one will be able to explain it more fully than that. However, the reason isn’t as important as the fact that when on private property the owners can make up the rules. We need to obey them and accept the consequences when we don’t. Usually, the worst that will happen is that a person in a high-vis jacket will ask you to stop taking pictures, so many feel running that risk makes shooting in these places worthwhile. If you are asked to stop, you should, or go and see the manager to find out if you can get permission to carry on. It might be surprising to learn that many buildings are private property not only inside but also within a sometimes large margin outside, too. In the city, the border might be marked by a change of paving or metal studs in a line on the ground. Other areas that appear to be public might also be private, especially in heavily built-up areas. The Bishopsgate area behind Liverpool Street station in London, for example, is private property, even though it appears to be public, and a significant stretch of the South Bank along the Thames is also private. This doesn’t mean that we can’t take pictures in these places, but it does mean if we are asked to stop by the owner, or a representative of the owner, then we should do so. Commercial shoots in these areas will need express permissions and usually a fee is payable, but that isn’t required for amateur/tourist photography. 17 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Backlighting brilliance The photographs of Denis Thorpe are an important record of working life in northern England since 1950. Keith Wilson hears the stories behind some of them I n the early hours of 26 September 1950, an underground fire broke out within the Creswell Colliery in Derbyshire, trapping dozens of miners working below. As the day wore on and word spread about the accident, families and friends gathered for news. Standing in the crowd was an 18-year-old photographer from the local weekly newspaper. His name was Denis Thorpe. Working with a Contax rangefinder camera borrowed from his boss, Denis soon became aware that he was witnessing the aftermath of a mining disaster. ‘I just quietly wandered around and photographed what I could see,’ he recalls. ‘I don’t remember seeing any other photographers, but because I was a young man and had this little camera, I think people didn’t take any notice of me. Then, I realised what an enormous thing it was. You didn’t know at that time how many people had been killed and then you saw what was happening around you – that was such a moving thing.’ One of Denis’s photographs from that day shows an official reading out a list of names to the sombre crowd – in all, the disaster claimed 80 lives. Some 70 years later, Denis still wonders at the enormity of the day. ‘I don’t know how I did it – to be there as a young man to see that and Below: Waiting relatives listen to an official read a list of names after an accident at the Creswell Colliery, 1950, which claimed the lives of 80 miners Bottom right: One of Denis’s earliest photographs, showing his mother Laura ironing at home in Mansfield photograph it,’ he reflects, ‘but it was important to me then because a lot of my family were in mining, so I suppose I could identify with a lot of things that were going on.’ Surprisingly, none of the pictures Denis took that day were published in his paper, the Mansfield Reporter, and it was only with the release of his book, A View from the North, that they were finally published. Finding inspiration ALL PICTURES © DENIS THORPE The book is a major retrospective of Denis’s life in photography, from his first photos of family life while growing up in Mansfield to his celebrated press photography working from the Manchester offices of the Daily Mail followed by The Guardian, for which he worked for 23 years. Now 89, Denis and his former Guardian colleague, the late Don McPhee, are recognised as two of the finest recorders of working life in England’s North during the second half of the 20th century. But as a teenager, Denis had no ambitions to be a press photographer. He wanted to be a reporter. ‘I obviously made some impression on the editor of the 18 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Left: Salford street scene, photographed for a Guardian story in 1979 about the city’s Victorian back-to-back housing paper,’ he recalls. ‘He couldn’t take me on as a trainee reporter, but said the photographer needed an assistant.’ So, aged 16, Denis began his apprenticeship under Arthur George, chief photographer of the Mansfield Reporter. ‘I don’t think I’d ever seen a press photographer; I really didn’t know what they did,’ he says. ‘He used to take me out with him on assignments. He was a good teacher and I would just observe what he did. All he had was one of these Contax cameras. He was very interested in 35mm photography and none of the press photographers did that.’ Denis also made trips to the local library to study the technicalities of cameras, film development and exposure. ‘There were no training schemes then, and no real books on photography,’ he says, ‘but I did discover Bill Brandt and I thought that was wonderful. Then I found the Art section and looked through lots of art books and I got interested in that.’ The French Impressionists, in particular the paintings of Edgar Degas, captured his imagination and led to a picture that he now regards www.amateurphotographer.co.uk as one of his first successes. He remembers: ‘I’d seen the Degas pictures of women ironing and they reminded me so much of my mother standing there ironing with a flat iron, and then that beautiful light coming in; that was one of my first really successful experiments. I thought, I can make a beautiful picture like that with this small camera. Amazing.’ Master of backlighting In this early photograph, Denis’s mother is backlit by the sun streaming through the arch window above the front door. Backlighting has remained a hallmark of much of his work since, most notably in two of his most reproduced prints: a steam-hauled train steaming across the Ribblehead Viaduct in 1986, and the silhouetted figures of a mother pushing her infant in a pram across a wet Salford Street, her older child following behind. By this time, Denis was shooting with a Nikon F2 and two Leica rangefinders, the M2 and M3, usually loaded with Ilford FP4, his favourite film. ‘I would always use prime lenses so I 19 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Wells dressing procession, Tissington, Derbyshire, 1977 ‘Colour can be very distracting and take you away from the rhythm of the picture and the structure and the geometry’ A miner, lit by the lamps of his fellow workers, on the coal seam at Creswell Colliery would use a 50mm on the M3 because the viewfinder was exactly 50mm, and on the M2 I’d use the 35mm f/1.4,’ he says. ‘Those were my two super workhorses. Then I’d use a wideangle for the Nikon and a 200mm on another Nikon, and that’s it. So, you might have seen me walking around with three cameras sometimes, but that’s what people did – I don’t think I had a zoom until the 1990s.’ With such a long inventory of pictures to draw from, A View from the North is filled with photographic gems that enhance his reputation as a true master of the black & white exposure – finding the light in scenes and situations that might have seemed impossible in an era when pushing film beyond ISO 400 was considered an educated guess. One of his most powerful portraits 20 shows a miner working in the grim darkness of a subterranean coal face, lit only by the head lamps of his fellow workers. For this photo Denis returned to Creswell, descending into the pit that had consumed the previous generation of miners. ‘I had the chance to go 20-odd years later to the coal face at Creswell Colliery. That was an emotional visit for me,’ he recalls. ‘It shows exactly how people had to work in a three-foot seam of coal – damned hard work.’ The miners’ strike Our conversation leads inevitably to the miners’ strike of 1984-85, which ravaged dozens of mining villages faced with pit closures across the north of England, South Wales and Scotland. As Denis was a son of the mining community, what sort of feelings and thoughts went through Born in Mansfield in 1932, Denis Thorpe is an award-winning photojournalist. He has worked for a number of publications, including The Guardian, for which he covered assignments across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, China, the Soviet Union and the USA. Thorpe has won numerous awards, including the 1979 World Press Photo Gold Medal and Ilford Photographer of the Year in 1988. his mind while covering this story? There is a long pause followed by a sigh before he answers: ‘What sort of feelings? Goodness. It was a difficult one, really. There were a lot of people who felt they should have had a better say in things. Some of the Nottinghamshire miners weren’t in agreement, but I think most of the miners felt “this is my livelihood and it’s just going to be taken away from me”. That’s what my family did; that was their livelihood. I remember one of my uncles; he was at Blidworth Colliery, and the family was there. I used to go and stay with them in the pit village and we would have lunch at the miners’ welfare, so I was quite close to it. I suppose I would feel quite sympathetic and think that these people are being robbed of their lives, really. I mean, what are they going to do and what did they do? People like Mrs Thatcher never thought about anything like that, did they?’ www.amateurphotographer.co.uk A steam-hauled train crosses Ribblehead Viaduct, North Yorkshire, 1986 characteristic of the street photographers who inspired him, namely Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau. Like them, Denis also prefers B&W and considers himself fortunate to have worked in the era before colour became part of the diet of daily newspapers. ‘I’ve spent most of my career in black & white,’ he says, ‘mostly because that’s what newspapers wanted. Colour can be very distracting and take you away from the rhythm of the picture and the structure and the geometry. When you introduce colour it’s something else, and I could never cope with it. So, I’m glad that black & white was the standard for journalism.’ New-found love Denis continued to photograph miners and their communities after the strike, including the book cover image from 1989 of a group of laughing miners leaving work after their shift at Yorkshire’s Thurcroft Colliery. ‘I think the joke was on me but I don’t know what it was. They’d come straight out of the pit from their shift to the bath house and one of them cracked up and all the other ones got the same joke and they were hysterical by the time they got to me,’ he says. ‘There’s a wonderful rhythm about the whole thing. I don’t mind whatever joke it was because it made a great picture.’ Black & white advantage Another of his favourites was also taken in 1989 and features a group of primary school children linking together in a line in a playground, their shadows sharply defined by a low morning sun. Denis was on assignment in Bury with a reporter and planning the day with the head teacher in her office when he looked out of the window and saw this scene. ‘For me it has the beautiful geometry one constantly strives for, but there is also an extra bonus with the running child on the top www.amateurphotographer.co.uk A View from the North, 216 pages, with 220 images; hardback; £25; published by Bluecoat Press; ISBN 978-1908457486 of the picture seemingly floating above her shadow. You could never choreograph such a satisfying arrangement. Of course, it was the lead photograph in The Guardian’s education section the next day.’ This picture is also a testament to Denis’s versatility, equally at ease with the soft feature as the hard news, while also remaining highly responsive to the spontaneous alignment of light, movement and position that is the identifying Denis continues to take pictures, ‘mostly family, landscapes and things like that’, but a new-found love involves photographing surfers off the North Wales coast. ‘It’s absolutely beautiful with a long lens to watch some of the surfers,’ he says. ‘A bit of action keeps me on my toes!’ He has also embraced the digital era and managed to find a camera that reflects his enduring love for the rangefinder. ‘I have a camera which is near enough to the rangefinders I’ve used and that’s the Fujifilm X-Pro2,’ he enthuses. ‘It’s beautiful and the lenses are fantastic, so that’s the camera I have with me now.’ He then chuckles to himself: ‘So really, it’s me going back to my beginnings, using this camera that’s exactly like a rangefinder!’ Something tells me that Arthur George, his old mentor, is looking down, vigorously nodding in approval. School children in the playground, Bury, 1989 Get the shot Three top photographers share their secrets for capturing successful street images Dave Fieldhouse An award-winning freelance photographer from the Midlands, Dave specialises in landscape, street and architectural photography for magazines and corporate clients. www.davefieldhousephotography. com, @davefphotos on Instagram/Twitter. Shoot wide open If it is our intention to create clean, crisp images, we are going to need to allow a lot of light onto that sensor. Not a problem during the day, but at night a compromise needs to be made. This is where an understanding of the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO becomes useful. As with all genres, the photographer needs to decide what kind of image they want upfront. For my street images, I want frozen action, some sharp details around the focal point, and as little noise as possible. This means I tend to shoot in aperture priority at f/2, or wider if the lens allows, and I let the ISO creep up to about 2500. Be respectful When shooting in a public space such as the street, there are very few laws that protect our privacy. That shouldn’t mean it is a free-for-all to photograph whatever we want. Every street photographer has their own ethical limits. I refuse point blank to photograph anyone homeless or in obvious distress, anyone drunk, and anyone eating a meal. These subjects are all easy targets, but that doesn’t mean I am happy to take advantage of their situation. Simply put, I won’t take a photograph in a situation where I wouldn’t be happy to have had my photograph taken by someone else. IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Follow the light Illuminated advertising boards, neon lights above brightly lit bars or simply the good, old-fashioned streetlamp can all be used to create atmosphere and mood. But more importantly highlights and shadows, without which our images would lack contrast resulting in flat pictures. It’s also worth noting that it is far safer to stay in well-lit areas. Skulking in a shadowy alleyway not only looks like you are up to no good, but it also significantly increases your risks when shooting in an urban setting. Create a little mystery There is no need to reveal everything. Anonymity can be used to tremendous effect, one of the rare times when leaving something out of an image can add to the finished look. This is particularly effective at night where you can use the shadows to hide the features on a face, drawing your attention elsewhere in the frame. BEST KIT Keep weight to a minimum Carry only what you need. For me, that’s one body and a single prime lens at a focal length I am most comfortable with (I like an 85mm on a full-frame camera). Prime lenses tend to be much faster than telephotos, allowing more light into the camera when needed. Make it interesting The words ‘street photography’ can be interpreted in many ways, but simply a random image taken ‘in a street’ doesn’t cut it for me. I’m interested in the people, the colours, the architecture and light. More importantly, how the photographer has cleverly woven these elements together to make an interesting image. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk It might be the colour or style of clothes that a person is wearing that matches the background or setting. Or maybe the way the light leads the eye to a particular element within the image. It might simply be a subtle gesture or look. The best images are always the ones where you can see exactly why the photographer pressed the shutter release when he/she did. Spare battery Make sure you have a spare, fully charged battery. This should go without saying, but it’s often the obvious that gets overlooked. 23 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Linda Wisdom A Panasonic Lumix Ambassador, and professional photographer for 12 years, Linda is a self-taught street photographer. Her unique works have been featured in many publications, exhibitions, and hung in a 5-star London hotel. See more at www.lindawisdomphotography.co.uk and on Instagram @lindawisdomphotography. Monochrome magic Become invisible If your objective is to make black & white shots, but you struggle with colour distractions, then change your viewfinder or LCD screen setting to black & white view mode. The human eye is naturally attracted to colour, but that can easily distract you from seeing more human elements like emotions, storytelling interactions between people, shapes and light. This simple shooting technique can really help focus your eyes on details you may not have noticed before. Don’t worry if you are shooting in raw format, your image files will still be in colour! If you feel self-conscious shooting strangers, but want to capture candid photos without being noticed, try using smaller and minimal camera gear, or just your smartphone. Practise techniques like using the camera LCD screen or shoot from the hip instead of raising the camera to your eye. If you want to raise the camera to your eye, learn to anticipate. Observe the people around you and your surroundings. This will help you keep the camera off your eye for longer, yet allow you to capture that key moment without attracting attention from the subject before you take the shot. Frame, shoot, go Street photography can be fast-paced, especially when things are unfolding right in front of you. You often only get one chance to compose a frame before that moment is gone, so you have to learn to observe, frame and shoot fast. Using one prime lens allows you to get familiar with distance for framing. Visualise what you want within your frame, then move yourself into the best position to eliminate unwanted objects or add things of interest. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Shoot in burst mode Sometimes selecting the right moment to press the shutter release can be tough. Instead, leave the decision-making for a later time. Choose burst mode (or continuous shooting mode) and maximise the number of frames to choose from during selection time. Burst mode works perfectly for fast-moving subjects and objects. Whereas when shooting in single-shot mode and taking one or two shots, you run the risk of capturing your subject’s eyes being closed, people not being in the exact spot in your composition, not capturing the moment, or something passing by cluttering the scene. BEST KIT Prime lens A prime is an essential for street photography. They are perfect for low-light shooting as they usually have a larger maximum aperture than a zoom covering the same focal length. The large aperture also gives you lovely bokeh, and the quality of glass is much better compared to zoom lenses. Most popular are 35mm and 50mm, but you can go as wide as 10mm. Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 Set yourself a theme The next time you go out on a street photo walk, pick a theme or set yourself a task or challenge so you come back with a focused set of images. It could be that you pick the colour red as a theme, reflections, or sunlight and shadows, to name just a few ideas. It will help you train your eyes, become more creative in your approach, and may even lead to an ongoing project over a longer period of time. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk This small, mirrorless camera offers silent shutter mode, a tiltable live digital viewfinder, LCD touchscreen shooting for candid shots and stunning image quality with plenty of interchangeable lens options. 25 Peter Murrell Peter works as a facilities manager in London. He took up photography in 2011, initially focusing on architecture, but found his interest veering more toward street photography. See him on Instagram @p.murrell or www.petermurrellphotography.co.uk. Travel light The great thing about street photography is that you don’t need to walk around with loads of kit. Keep it simple. I use a Nikon D700, which is not exactly a lightweight camera, but sometimes you have to work with what is available. There are so many choices at the moment in terms of cameras, and mirrorless in my opinion is the way to go in terms of size, weight and availability of lenses. Have respect for others Be respectful of others, particularly when on private property or in public areas with a large concentration of people. I have often been approached by building security staff objecting to photos being taken of reception areas and I’ve often given assurance that I would respect their wishes. If you are approached by a member of the public concerned you may have taken their photo, be polite and tell them how great they look (it works for me!), which often breaks the ice. On two occasions, this happened to me, resulting in paid assignments. It pays to be nice. Literally! 26 Light and shadows Living and working in built-up areas like London creates plenty of opportunities to make use of shadows that will often have people passing to and fro. Keep an eye on the weather forecasts as you can use strong light to your advantage. When processing images, don’t be afraid to experiment in darkening shadows to create striking compositions. Make use of software tools like Lightroom, and shoot in raw, which will give you more flexibility when editing. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Be ready Backdrops Always walk with your camera and have it ready to go. For outdoors I set it to 1/250sec at f/8. Indoors at f/2.5-2.8 at 1/125sec when travelling on the Underground or within large spaces such as galleries or shopping malls. I also set my camera to Auto ISO and 3D tracking for moving objects. Areas of movement within the scene that create blur or even some noise does give it, in my opinion, that gritty/authentic feel. And it doesn’t have to be technically perfect either. Become a location scout! Keep an eye out for backdrops like colourful billboards, artwork, posters or signage while on walkabout. Shopping centres or art galleries are great for these. Have patience and wait for the right person(s) to pass by as they offer good juxtaposition opportunities. BEST KIT Prime lens Colour Black & white does tend to draw you more to the subject in question, but colours also can make the photo. Don’t feel you have to follow a trend, but do what works for you. I once tried to convince myself that ‘authentic’ street photography should be black & white but then came across Martin Parr. Enough said. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I use a 50mm 1.8G – it’s super-light, sharp and reasonably priced. Perfect for street photography, it enables a safe working distance without being too intrusive. I’m sure you are aware that many of the great photographers swear by this lens. I used to hate it due to it not having the convenience of a zoom but it has made me a better photographer. Camera sling strap Saves having to dig the camera out of the bag. Hangs to the side, secure and easy to draw close when opportunities arise. 27 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Southport Pier, Merseyside, 2011 28 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk © MARTIN PARR/MAGNUM PHOTOS Margate, Kent, 1986 At the water’s edge In 2018, the National Maritime Museum brought together four photographers who studied Britain’s piers, pebbles, and promenades intimately. Tracy Calder found out more T © SIMON ROBERTS www.amateurphotographer.co.uk he first glimpse of the sea is always a thrill. Released from the car, often hot and sticky after a long drive, you make your way through the dunes, grass whipping at your legs, salt fizzing on your tongue. The sand is warm beneath your feet, but carrying the obligatory cool box and windbreak makes progress slow. Ascending the final dune, your heart quickens as you anticipate the view. One more step and you are at the top, marvelling at the shimmering water stretching out below you. 29 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY © TONY RAY-JONES/NATIONAL SCIENCE AND MEDIA MUSEUM Propelled by some primitive urge, you drop your belongings and race towards the water. The first wave hits your legs and you flinch at its icy touch, but when the second wave arrives you find yourself remarking, ‘It’s not as cold as I thought it was going to be.’ A day at the seaside is a delicious mixture of childish excitement, rituals and nostalgia. ‘It’s a unique landscape – somewhere you can escape the rigours of everyday life,’ says Kristian Martin, curator at the National Maritime Museum in London. ‘It’s somewhere you feel free and uninhibited, but it’s somewhere democratic too. At the seaside, you cast off the shackles of everyday life and behave in a way that you wouldn’t normally.’ To celebrate our connection to the seaside, in 2018, Kristian brought together four photographers who know Britain’s piers, pebbles, and promenades intimately. Their styles may be markedly different, but Martin Parr, David Hurn, Simon Roberts and Tony Ray-Jones have all found the seaside to be a rich source 30 of creative inspiration. ‘We selected these artists because they resonate so beautifully with one another,’ says Kristian. ‘In some ways Tony is a little bit of a linchpin to the exhibition: David knew him, Martin was highly influenced by his work and Simon’s We English collection takes direct inspiration from him.’ When Martin Parr was commissioned to shoot the Essex coast ‘he took over 1,000 images in a week,’ laughs Kristian. ‘He gave us a list of about 100 and we selected 20.’ Naturally, most of the images by Tony were taken in the 1960s (he died in 1972), but Kristian was keen to bring these up to date too. ‘It felt important to show some of Tony’s iconic work, but we also went back to the negatives and chose some pictures people will be less familiar with,’ he reveals. ‘Some of them had been previously selected by Tony because he marked up his contact sheets to show the ones he wanted to get printed.’ With images spanning six decades, it was possible to see how our relationship to the coast has altered Above: Margate, c.1967 Above right: Porth Oer (Whistling Sands), Wales, 2004 over the years, but most aspects remain unchanged. ‘One thing that’s obvious in Martin’s new work is how people are using the seaside for religious or cultural reasons, but at the same time they are embracing traditions such as picnics, ice creams, and a paddle in the sea,’ says Kristian. ‘There are encoded rituals of behaviour that we know we are going to follow. This comes across in Simon’s work – he takes a step back from the action and you can see the relationship between different clusters of people within the landscape. I find that fascinating.’ Martin describes the seaside as his ‘laboratory’: a place where he can put human behaviour under the microscope. ‘He feels comfortable here; he loves the vibrancy, joy, rich colours and all the things associated with having a good time,’ says Kristian. Anyone who has seen Martin’s book The Last Resort will know exactly what he means: colourful slicks of ketchup lining hot dogs, fairground rides and perms, and faces smeared with ice cream and snot. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk © DAVID HURN/MAGNUM PHOTOS ‘Our relationship to the coast has altered over the years, but most aspects remain unchanged’ lifeguard walks towards the sea with a sizeable boat on his head. ‘Tony was fascinated by the pull the seaside had on people,’ says Kristian. ‘I spoke to his widow, Anna, and she said that to begin with he couldn’t understand why people were attracted to the seaside so passionately, but when he began to photograph them he began to understand.’ Clearly these photographers have more than just a love of the seaside in common. Simon Roberts, for one, admits that all three artists have influenced his work to some extent. He visited David Hurn as a student Below left: Eastbourne, East Sussex, c.1968 Below right: New Brighton, England. From The Last Resort, 1983-85 © MARTIN PARR/MAGNUM PHOTOS © TONY RAY-JONES/NATIONAL SCIENCE AND MEDIA MUSEUM David Hurn, on the other hand, prefers black & white for his coastal candids. ‘David looks for the extraordinary in the ordinary,’ says Kristian. ‘He is interested in moments where people seem uninhibited or unguarded.’ These occasions can be comical: elderly men sunbathing in overcoats, a coach party sheltering behind a giant windbreak, a game of cricket played out in thick sea mist. Tony Ray-Jones’s work has a similar feel: children emerge out of cave-like holes in the sand, women in their Sunday best clutch their handbags, a looking for help and was struck by his generosity of spirit. ‘He was happy to pass on advice to a new generation, and that’s quite rare.’ When Simon decided to embark on his ‘We English’ project, his first port of call was Tony Ray-Jones. ‘He worked in America, and his work in England was a response to his time there with Lee Friedlander, Joel Meyerowitz and other street photographers,’ says Simon. ‘He took that aesthetic, albeit black & white, onto the beaches and public spaces.’ Simon spent hours poring over the late photographer’s contact sheets, notebooks and diaries. ‘I felt a connection with his work, even though I shoot in quite a different way’, he reveals. ‘I compose a landscape photograph first and then wait for something to happen so that the picture forms over the course of time. ‘I’m looking for patterns of people within the frame.’ While shooting We English, Simon was struck by how connected the British are to their local landscapes. Most of the people he spoke to on Blackpool beach, for instance, came from within a 20-mile radius. ‘Their families had been coming to the beach for generations,’ he says, ‘so they were re-enacting an event that is part of a history. I found this quite warming – that people have a lot invested in these places.’ Simon is looking forward to seeing what the next generation of photographers makes of the British seaside. ‘I hope photographers will say: “Well here’s what people have done before. What have I got to say that’s different?”’ he says. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 31 SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION OFFER! Subscribe now and save 73% £1 an issue S U B S C R I P T ION OF F E R LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IN EVERY ISSUE Dear reader, NEWS Join our community of Amateur Photographer subscribers today and you’ll pay only £4 for 4 issues. You will also enjoy convenient free home delivery every week and receive our free weekly newsletter. REVIEWS Don’t delay – join us today! Nigel Atherton, Editor INSPIRATION Join us and enjoy these great benefits: Free delivery to your home Pay just £4 saving 73% on the shop price Guarantee you never miss an issue Receive the Amateur Photographer FEATURES ADVICE & TUITION 2 EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE Visit shop.kelsey.co.uk/AMP4F4P Call us on 01959 543 747 and quote AMP4F4P *Offer available for UK Direct Debit customers only. You will pay £4 for 4 issues via Direct Debit saving 73% on the shop price. You will then continue to pay £24.99 for 3 months. Offer closes 10 September 2022. Full UK subscription rate for 51 issues is £191.25. Full terms can be found at shop.kelsey.co.uk/terms. **You can unsubscribe from the weekly newsletter at any time. Left: King Street, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. September 2016 The people person Trying to tell a country’s story in portraits is no mean feat, but it’s what Niall McDiarmid has set out to do – with great success. Ailsa McWhinnie finds out more P hotographers frequently go to great lengths to capture their images. Some camp on the sides of mountains in the middle of winter, driven by the desire to photograph the first chink of light as it breaks over a remote landscape. Others risk their safety to travel to inhospitable climates in pursuit of rare wildlife. Then there are those who have made their living from photographing war zones, where the risks so often outweigh the rewards. Why is it, then, that the simple act of approaching an ordinary, unthreatening human going about their everyday business, and asking to take their portrait, is enough to strike terror into even the boldest photographer’s heart? ‘Every single one is an absolute nightmare,’ laughs Niall McDiarmid. This, despite him having spent the best part of the past ten years travelling the length and breadth of Great Britain, stopping people in the street and asking if he can take their picture. We’re chatting over a coffee and croissant in the garden of a Clapham café. Having spent my journey to London looking at the images in his book Town to Town, by the time I get off the train I’m ‘seeing’ his distinctive images everywhere. They are in the young woman wearing the floral trousers who’s standing in a diagonal shaft of light, and in another whose green coat echoes the colour of the passing Southern Railway carriages. Niall’s move into street portraiture was triggered by the financial crash of 2008. Prior to that, he was a busy freelance photographer, but as austerity kicked in, commissions gradually slowed and family life with his wife and three sons took over. He gave up his studio to spend more time at home. Then, after a couple of years, a switch flicked. ‘I suddenly needed to get out and take more pictures for myself,’ he recalls. ‘I wanted to go back to where I started back in the 1990s.’ And that place was out on the streets. As ALL PICTURES © NIALL MCDIARMID Right: Great Portland Street, Fitzrovia, London. October 2016 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY his wife was at home on Fridays, this became his day for photography. So he headed out into his home area, Clapham, before setting his sights further afield. ‘After a while, I realised there was little point in going out and simply taking pictures,’ he recalls. ‘I really wanted to have a style, so I decided I would shoot portraits and they would be in colour. Britain tends to be portrayed as a rather monotone, grey place, but it’s really not like that – I’m interested in trying to make it look not quite as drab as it’s been made out to be in the past.’ Britishness in all its forms Niall realised he had no desire to create a London-centric fashion blog, so had a rethink. ‘I needed to look outside of London,’ he explains, ‘and I realised that nobody goes to, say, Tunbridge Wells or Guildford or Basildon to photograph people. So I told my wife that I was going to go everywhere in the country, and she rolled her eyes – she’d heard this sort of thing before. But with a bit of luck and a bit of hard work, that’s pretty much what I’ve done.’ A year later, as rumblings about the possibility of a referendum to consider the UK’s relationship with the EU began to increase in volume, Niall realised the time was right to produce a body of work that looked at Britishness in all its forms. English Street, Carlisle. October 2015 ‘I just want people to look at the pictures, wonder who the subjects are, and leave it at that’ Grainger Street, Newcastle. August 2017 36 ‘I was interested in looking at people from different backgrounds and ethnicities, and building up a portrait of a country that way,’ he says. ‘Having said that, however, I’m not really interested in telling people’s personal stories or writing anything down – I just want people to look at the pictures, wonder who the subjects are, and leave it at that.’ Hence the captions in the book simply state the town and the date. None of this means, however, that Niall feels detached from his subjects. On the contrary, he is acutely aware of his responsibilities to them. This was brought home to him in 2017, when the Museum of London hosted an outdoor exhibition of his work and, sickeningly, some of the images were daubed in racist graffiti. ‘It wasn’t widely reported at the time because I wanted to keep it quiet,’ he recalls. ‘However, it was incredibly hard, because I wasn’t expecting it – even though I should have been, because I’ve had a bit of abuse online. The important thing, though, was that people had been incredibly kind and generous in agreeing to be photographed, and I didn’t want those who had racist graffiti sprayed on them to become some sort of “statement” for what I do.’ Wide-ranging subjects There are those who have suggested the work can be compared to August Sander’s in some way, in that Niall is making a list of sorts. If that is what comes across, it isn’t intentional, and he’s keen to stress he doesn’t have a set plan about who he photographs. ‘If you start to break www.amateurphotographer.co.uk things down and categorise the work, you lose some of the magic.’ That’s not to say he doesn’t aim to photograph a range of people. On any given day, he might find he’s made portraits of, say, two or three older people – after which he might then look for someone middle-aged, or for a person with a child. He does encounter suspicion at times, and a fair few people say no when he asks to photograph them. Recently, for example, he’s been working on a project in the West Midlands – a region known for its mixture of cultures and ethnicities. ‘The more settled white communities are the hardest to photograph there,’ he explains. ‘I’ve found them to be very suspicious. But in some of the newer communities, the people are fine.’ Holloway Road, London. March 2016 Warren Road, Minehead, Somerset. February 2017 Marketplace, Blackheath, Rowley Regis. May 2018 Lower Temple Street, Birmingham. June 2018 It’s all about the light Over time, Niall has learned which parts of a town tend to bear most fruit, photographically speaking. He avoids the busy centres, where people are less likely to welcome distractions, heading instead for the ‘transitional’ areas that lie in between the bustling commercial hubs and residential streets. And he’s not only looking for interesting people – what’s going on in the frame is equally important. There might be a block of colour, an interesting sign or a patterned doorway that can be incorporated into the image to make it more than simply a record of a human face. ‘It’s as if I have this algorithm in my mind,’ Niall says. ‘I’m looking for a person and a background, for colour and shape, and am trying to slot it all together somehow. It’s quite difficult to be specific, though, because if I see somebody and get chatting to them, I can’t then drag them half way across town just for an interesting backdrop. I make my pitch, take the shots – about seven or eight – and that’s it.’ Somewhat surprisingly, given how consistent Niall’s portraits are in terms of style, they have been shot using a wide variety of kit. He started off shooting film, moving from the fixed-lens Fuji GW670III to a Mamiya 7 and then a Leica M6. Then, he transitioned to the ‘incredible workhorse’ Canon EOS 5D system, but more recently has been shooting with the Fujifilm GFX 50S, which he can happily use handheld (he never shoots with www.amateurphotographer.co.uk a tripod). Oh, then there’s also the Leica M10 digital rangefinder that he pulls out of his bag that’s sitting on the floor beside us. Nobody could ever accuse him of brand loyalty. But how has he managed to achieve such a uniform style with camera gear that varies so widely? ‘The cameras now are so good, it really comes down to the light,’ he states. ‘If you shoot in consistent light, you can get very similar results, no matter what you’re using. I tend to shoot in flat light, as it works better, so the summer months are trickier – late spring and early autumn are the best. I’m also very keen that the pictures don’t look particularly as if they’re on film or digital, and that they’re very straightforward. I try to make it as non-defined as possible.’ To return to his first statement, at the beginning of the interview, what Niall McDiarmid is a street-portrait photographer who lives in London and travels across the UK to build up a picture of modern Great Britain. His three books – Crossing Paths, Via Vauxhall and Town to Town – are sold out on his website, but Town to Town can be purchased from RRB Photobooks. See www. niallmcdiarmid.com to find out more. can people who are new to the genre do to make the experience of shooting street portraits less of a ‘nightmare’? A lot of it comes down to practice, taking a deep breath and just getting out there. As he says, ‘I’d be lying if I said it was as difficult as it was at the beginning. It’s still hard, but nowadays when I get rejected, I get over it a lot more easily. I was quite shy as a teenager, but once I hit my forties I realised I was pretty good at chatting to people. So if I were to give one piece of advice, it would be to ignore the technical side and look for what you’re good at – and in my case it’s that I’m full of blarney, as they’d say in Ireland. And you have to be kind. If you say to someone they look interesting – that perhaps you like the coat they’re wearing – but without being cheesy, a lot of the time they will say yes.’ 37 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Nocturne 24, Haugesund, Norway 2008, Konica Hexar, Ilford Delta 3200 Something of the night Noted film photographer and darkroom expert Mike Crawford talks us through his Nocturne project, shooting cities after dark on film S ome photographic projects seem to be easy to start and finish. It always helps if there are plans for an exhibition or publication, while other work may be produced primarily to see if an idea or theme might develop into something interesting. I also appreciate the immediacy of photographing a small series, producing a hand-made artist’s book, or using online printers, 38 considering the project complete. However, my series Nocturne, is one best classed as ‘ongoing,’ and one I keep returning to with new ideas and images. While based on the urban landscape at night, it would be difficult to present it as a text book example of how to photograph the city after dark. I purposely limit myself in the equipment and materials used, making things as basic as possible. Indeed I don’t even use a tripod! What I do want in the work, if not technical perfection, is a sense of mystery, atmosphere and narrative. I want the viewer to be taken on an anonymous walk, exploring hidden corners of cities, brief glimpses observed as darkness encroaches on their streets and buildings. The images are often multilayered, reflections and shadows used to suggest stories within a story. Others are purposely diffuse, unwanted details subdued to leave just shape and form. The series has been photographed in different cities, though initially just London and Berlin, and presented so the viewer is www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I have used the Konica Hexar for over 25 years. It is small, quiet and inconspicuous compared to larger SLRs, with an excellent 35mm f/2 lens. Perhaps a limitation, though I appreciate it for this simplicity taken on a nocturnal journey through an imagined city. Process and printing Nocturne 39, London, 2012 Konica Hexar, Ilford Delta 3200 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk The visual characteristic of the work is determined by the process. I use a Konica Hexar AF 35mm camera loaded with Ilford Delta 3200. It’s a relatively simple camera, first produced in 1993, which handles like a rangefinder (except that it is autofocus), with a high-quality 35mm f/2 lens. When I first bought one in the mid 1990s, it had a certain cult status among photographers like Peter Lindbergh, and was sometimes referred to as the ‘poor man’s Leica.’ I rate the film at 2000 ISO, processing accordingly to lower the contrast, and as I shoot handheld, I’m usually working on low apertures and shutter speeds. I want to be able to photograph with a sense of spontaneity and the camera is small enough to take with me on trips and not feel burdened with having to carry a tripod and extra lenses. The film is high grained and also prone to a slight amount of irradiation. This gives a glow to the brightest highlights, ideal for emphasising lights within a cityscape. This is accentuated by the lith printing process I use in the darkroom, which intensifies contrast and tone and enhances the texture and grain. To add more limitations, I print on outdated and discontinued Seagull Oriental paper. Originally manufactured in Japan, it became a favourite for lith printing in the late ’80s, popularised by Anton Corbijn and his printer Mike Spry. While a version was later produced outside of Japan for many years, the original Oriental was considered one of the most suitable and adaptable papers for the process. Luckily I was able to buy a large stock, though this is slowly being reduced over time. 39 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY For exhibitions, I subsequently scan the prints to produce larger, digital prints. While there is a purity to the original work, I am limited to the paper size I have (9.5x12in), and I appreciate the further possibilities of working digitally for final print production. I have been asked why I shoot on film when high ISO digital and post production in Photoshop could provide a similar result. A fair question, and while I use digital for a lot of work, I don’t see the point of replicating the grain of film and the texture and colour of lith printing through filters and manipulation. That is the inherent outcome of my choice of materials and would see a digital version as only a recreation of an analogue process rather than a natural process in itself. However, digital does have so much to offer low-light photography. Looking through The Guardian’s Photographs of the Year, 2021, it is noticeable how many were photographed at night or in subdued lighting, and how impressive the selective use of colour is in this work. Visual influences Proof prints and editing I MAKE INITIAL edits of possible images from contact sheets, though I find it invaluable to then make 10x8in proof prints. These are prints made quickly on resin-coated paper, just to see the image and decide which ones to lith print. I usually wait till there are several rolls to proof and then spend a day in the darkroom. With these, I can take my time to consider which might be suitable for the project. Some may be obvious, while others are filed away for future consideration. I may later consider images I initially rejected, though most don’t get past the proofing stage. 40 Aside from techniques, I think it’s important to consider the creative influences for the project. My original intention had been just to photograph the River Thames at night, having experimented with lith prints from Delta 3200 negatives. Their muted, monochromatic tones and luminous, sparkling highlights reminded me of the work of 19th century artist James Whistler and particularly his nocturnal portrayal of the River Thames. My project title acknowledges Whistler’s influence and the series of paintings he named Nocturnes, which in itself referenced musical compositions from the 1700s evoking the atmosphere, moods and melancholy of the night. On reflection, perhaps I should have chosen a less popular title, as I have since learnt of similarly named projects. What I did soon find was the limitation of London as the only subject and soon started to combine photographs from other cities. The first exhibition of this work was in Germany. The gallerist had particularly wanted to show just photographs of London, and while it worked very well, I thought it would be too restricting to continue this theme and wondered if some of the subjects were too recognisable. From then on I looked for more anonymous images, purposely drawn from a variety of locations. An additional and perhaps more distinctly visual inspiration, is the 1965 Jean-Luc Godard film, Alphaville, that placed contemporary 1960s Paris at night as the supposed setting of a future, dystopian city. This gritty, black & white film noir featured Lemmy Caution, a character taken directly from French B-movies, re-cast into Godard’s imaginative, yet sometimes preposterous Nouvelle Vague classic. I noticed in the film certain similarities to photographs I was taking, particularly in the use of shadows, reflections and the ominous presence of architecture seen at night. For a short while I tried to take photographs directly referencing themes and visual motifs from Alphaville, but soon realised these were too derivative and simply trying too hard. In watching this film, the viewer must accept the director’s conceit that this is the future, despite no props, costumes or sets normally associated with science fiction. Lemmy Caution takes photographs throughout the film with a cheap, 1960s Instamatic camera (an Agfa Iso-Rapid), and is told his camera looks old. ‘I don’t like new technology,’ is his sarcastic reply, www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Nocturne 40, London, 2013 Konica Hexar, Ilford Delta 3200 Above: Nocturne 12, Berlin, 2012 Konica Hexar, Ilford Delta 3200 which again resonated with me and my use of film and obsolete papers. A further coincidental reference from Alphaville is the brief title on the opening scenes stating that the film was shot on Ilford HPS Negative. This was a 400 ISO movie stock that cinematographer Raoul Coutard uprated to 800, a 1960s equivalent of my use of Ilford Delta 3200. While my film choice allows for low-light photography, and gives the work an initial texture, I feel it is the lith prints on Seagull paper that provide the overall atmosphere and character. It also unifies the work, allowing photographs taken at different times and places to flow together with a sense of narrative. However, as mentioned previously, I have a finite amount of material, so perhaps when finished, this will be a fitting time to call the project complete? I have had four opportunities to exhibit parts of the work so far, but not yet a complete show. Ideally that would happen should I get the chance to make a publication. Until then, I will continue working on Nocturnes as time and resources allow. There are processed films, proofed and waiting to be printed, and always new ideas for places and locations to shoot. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Print sizes PRINT SIZE can make a big difference depending on the exhibition. One of my shows was in Ljubljana, Slovenia, at the Cankarjev Dom, a prestigious arts venue. My preferred print size is usually 49x31cm in a 70x50cm frame. As it was a relatively large space, the curator thought I should print larger at 73x47cm, displayed in 100x70cm frames. While I appreciated the visual impact of the work larger, and it certainly worked in the gallery space, I think that for future exhibitions I’ll revert to the smaller size. Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2018 41 © NATAN DVIR IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY The future of iN-PUB Over the past 22 years, iN-PUBLiC has played a major role in popularising street photography as an approach, so where does it go now? Its founder Nick Turpin explains more I n 1990 I was a young photographer working for The Independent newspaper in London, covering news, features and shooting interview portraits. I carried a camera with me everywhere and always made candid pictures of the interesting and funny things I saw in between my commissions. I loved how extraordinary everyday life could be and started to build up quite a portfolio of these ‘observations’. These pictures were different from my commissioned work, they had no real subject and they were each self-contained little visual stories. In 1994 the picture desk handed me a 42 book to photograph for the newspaper’s review pages – it was the first edition of Bystander: A History of Street Photography by the American photographer Joel Meyerowitz and Colin Westerbeck. Flicking through the pages of Bystander, I realised that I myself was doing something called ‘street photography’ and that there was a long tradition and heritage of this kind of candid public photography. I suddenly realised that street photography was a defined and specific approach to documenting the world, part of the documentary tradition in photography but unique in its own way. Around this time, Above: by Natan Dvir Below: by Nick Turpin my printer introduced me to another photographer, David Gibson, who was also out on the streets shooting charming humorous public scenes and I realised that maybe street photography wasn’t just some historic activity of the past but perhaps it was alive and kicking. At this point, the internet was just www.amateurphotographer.co.uk LiC street photography a few years old but it was already clear to me that a simple website would be a great way to share our passion for candid public photography with a wide international audience. When David and I met Richard Bram, an American in London shooting on the streets, and later Matt Stuart, the Below left: by Nils Jorgensen Below right: by Rob Hogenbirk idea of forming a collective to promote street photography emerged. I remember sitting up in bed one night with the name ‘in public’ on my mind – it was the place where we all worked and the theme that bound us all together. The next morning I registered inpublic.com and taught myself html. In January 2000 I launched the first basic site with the stated aim to ‘Provide a home for street photography, promote street photography and to continue to explore its possibilities’. Within three months we had more than 40k people a month visiting the site to look at street photography. © ROB HOGENBIRK © NILS JORGENSEN © NICK TURPIN www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 43 baby out with the bath water. When my position – that staged and computational images were not in keeping with the street photographers’ approach – was not supported by the majority of the group it seemed the right time to suspend the site and have a rethink. This little crisis turned out to be a wonderful opportunity. I have always been interested in where street photography has been, where it currently is and especially in where it might be going. What is the point in constantly repeating the past? Why do we still make street photographs like the photographers of 1920s Paris or 1970s New York or even the iN-PUBLiC photographers of the early 2000s? There is so much scope to innovate and make progress with street photography without crossing that line into staging, Above: by Nick Hannes Below from left: images by Richard Baker, Jill Maguire, StreetMax21 and Aniruddha Guha Sarkar manipulating, compositing or computational imagery. This idea of celebrating the best of traditional street photography while pushing and exploring its boundaries became my remit for the new iN-PUBLiC. I carefully chose and invited a whole new group of photographers, some highly respected for their more traditional street photographer’s eye such as the incredible Pau Buscató from Barcelona, whose work is full of surreal and witty observation; the American Jill Maguire who captures the American public at play at fairs and festivals; and the extraordinary Rob Hogenbirk from the Netherlands who shows us a truly bizarre vision of Dutch urban life. Then I invited photographers who are breaking the template, whose work truly challenges the way that a street photograph is expected to © JILL MAGUIRE © RICHARD BAKER Our launch coincided with the arrival of cheap high-quality digital cameras and within just a few years street photography was becoming incredibly popular. By the time we celebrated our tenth anniversary with a book and exhibition, iN-PUBLiC had become international with 20 members from the UK, the Netherlands, the USA, Australia and India. The collective was being published internationally, was doing workshops at London’s Tate Modern and had a touring exhibition with The British Council. In a fairly short period of time, iN-PUBLiC had achieved its founding aim of promoting street photography to a wider audience, other collectives were being formed, dozens of street photography festivals were launched, mainstream publishers like Thames & Hudson were publishing street photography. Street photography was back. For the next ten years, iN-PUBLiC continued to be a strong force, its work was much plagiarised and a situation arose where a lot of street photography looked very similar – so much of it had its roots in the humorous iN-PUBLiC style that this led to a number of often-repeated clichés in street photography. I felt that iN-PUBLiC needed a new remit, it needed to lead the way again with a revised reason to exist. In 2018 a catalyst to change occurred when one of the members shot street images with a smartphone app that grotesquely distorted the scene and a second member was caught passing off a staged picture as a street photograph. It felt like the group had lost its identity and, in an attempt to make novel new work, were throwing the © NICK HANNES IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY 44 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk © PAU BUSCATO look. The anonymous British photographer StreetMax21 who creates busy city scenes where every figure is perfectly placed in the frame as if choreographed; the wonderful Belgian documentary photographer Nick Hannes, whose collections of images together explore history and culture whilst also standing alone as individual narratives; Israeli photographer Natan Dvir, who takes a different formal approach to each series of work, shooting wide panoramic tableaus on New York for his series Platforms or juxtaposing giant advertising hoardings with sidewalk scenes in Coming Soon. Some of the new members of iN-PUBLiC wouldn’t have described themselves as street photographers but they fall perfectly into the new definition I use of candid public photography. Above: by Pau Buscato Nick Turpin has been a London based street and commercial photographer for 32 years. He founded the iN-PUBLiC Street Photography Collective in 2000 and is an Associate Lecturer in Photography at Oxford Brookes University. More at in-public.com Instagram @in_public_ streets. The candid documenting of the public realm by photographers has always evolved with changing societies and technology. When I first started out as a street photographer in London, I knew all the other street photographers working in the city. Now there are so many that I can barely take a street photograph without another street photographer in it. The popularity of street photography doesn’t make it any less worthy a pursuit and there are still only a very small handful of street photographers who are making genuinely interesting and innovative work that contributes to the history of this approach. In some ways, the development of iN-PUBLiC has run parallel to the recent development of street photography and the evolution of my own work as a photographer and iN-PUBLiC’s founder. For my recent street photography projects I have deliberately chosen not to work with the traditional small camera and 35mm lens so popular with street photographers of the past, and instead made images with long lenses for my On The Night Bus book and with an architectural tilt-shift lens for my Exodus series. I am also looking at a lot of candid public photography from the borders of street photography, where it meets art, documentary or conceptual photography. This is actually where some of the most interesting street photography is being made and where I am constantly on the lookout for new members for iN-PUBLiC, in its 22nd year of exploring the possibilities of street photography. © ANIRUDDHA GUHA SARKAR © STREETMAX21 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 45 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Never forgotten When Tish Murtha died suddenly in 2013, her work was still relatively unknown. Her daughter Ella is on a mission to spread the word – she tells Amy Davies more discuss her mother’s legacy and the work she’s been doing to preserve it. After spending her childhood in north-east England, Tish’s career had a promising start – she studied under David Hurn on the famous documentary photography course at Newport, and just before Ella was born in 1984, Tish had exhibitions at London’s The Photographer’s Gallery and Newcastle’s Side Gallery. Trying to sustain a living in London with a young child in tow proved too much of a challenge, however, and eventually the pair would move back to Elswick, Newcastle. Ella explains, ‘I now know, doing what I’m doing – nobody wants to pay you for anything, and if you can get someone to agree to pay All the photographs on this spread are from the Youth Unemployment series 46 ALL PICTURES BY TISH MURTHA © ELLA MURTHA S ocial documentary photographer Patricia Anne ‘Tish’ Murtha was at the beginning of what looked like a very promising career in the 1980s. When her daughter Ella was born, faced with life as a single parent, everything changed. Her photography career never truly recovered and, tragically, on 13 March 2013, Tish died suddenly from a brain aneurysm, just one day before her 57th birthday. Ella herself had a child under two at the time. Now, Ella manages the Tish Murtha archive – a full-time job. At the end of 2018, images from Tish Murtha’s extensive archive were shown at Photo North in Harrogate. While there, I sat down with Ella to Top: The images in the Youth Unemployment series were captured between 1979 and 1981 Above middle: The images were shown at the Side Gallery in Newcastle in 1981 Above: Youth Unemployment, released in 2017 Left: The images were all taken in the West End of Newcastle you, there’s all the invoice chasing. I have the luxury of a partner – she didn’t have that. It’s not the kind of life you want with a young child, so life took over and she ended up having to claim income support just to keep a roof over our heads.’ Creating a legacy After Ella left home, Tish tried to renew interest in her work. She applied for grants from the Arts Council, but was denied after being told there was no interest in the type of documentary work she wanted to return to. ‘I don’t think she had a lot of confidence,’ says Ella. ‘She brought me up to believe in myself, but when it came down to it I think she lacked confidence in 47 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY ‘Tish hated the internet, but in the end it has been her biggest ally in getting the work out there’ her own work. When you’ve been out of the photography world for so long, when you’ve been knocked down, I don’t think she could see a way of getting back in.’ Although Tish never stopped taking photographs, there were to be no more exhibitions during her lifetime, and it would have been all too easy for her work to be forgotten. Determined not to let that happen, Ella first drummed up support via Instagram, which eventually led to the first book from the archive, Youth Unemployment, being published in 2017 by Bluecoat Press. Despite Tish not being around, Ella says she felt very much guided by her ‘mam’ while making that first book. She had handwritten notes to work from, as well as an essay Tish had written to accompany the Youth Unemployment series. Ella recalls one night, during the creation of the book, ‘I don’t know whether it was a dream, or whether it really happened, but she was there in the night, and she was not happy. She said to me, sarcastically, does that have to be the last picture? So as soon as I woke up, I rejigged the whole thing to make “Cops Piss Off” the final image.’ (See previous page.) Colin Wilkinson, founder of Bluecoat Press, was there to sort out the rest of the logistics, and as he had successfully done with several other books, raised additional funds via Kickstarter. ‘That was a scary prospect,’ says Ella. ‘The night before 48 we launched, it was like Christmas Eve. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. When we launched it, straight away, as soon as it went live, I was writing thank you, thank you, thank you, and by the time I’d written the last thank you, the total had gone up again.’ The £8,000 required to fund the book was met, and surpassed, by the end of its very first day. Now, there’s a second book, Elswick Kids. Launched in the same way as the first, it also surpassed its funding target within a matter of hours. ‘We started it half an hour later, but it was exactly the same length of time overall – we raised £8,000 in 10 and a half hours. I was more worried the second time; I was more nervous because we had such a lot to live up to. It’s that confidence thing again – you start doubting yourself. Even though it’s been successful, I now think, oh god what if people don’t like it – you never stop worrying.’ Creating Elswick Kids was a different process. With no captions, no essays from Tish, and no real idea of the intention behind the series, Ella relied on her own feelings to pick and sequence the book. ‘I like photos that make me feel something,’ she says. ‘If it doesn’t make you feel something, I don’t see the point. I like pictures that make you feel as if you are there, or tell a story.’ To accompany the imagery is a short introduction by Ella; an essay by Mark Richards, a local writer; and a poem by Lisa Matthews, who also Below left: The images from Elswick Kids were never exhibited Below middle: Images were taken while Tish walked the streets of the area Below right: The images tell of a different time – when children had the freedom of the streets grew up locally. ‘That’s how I got around the lack of Tish’s voice, and hopefully Tish will come through in the pictures. I’ve had to stand on my own two feet, but I think it works; it’s a beautiful – but very different – book. There are no captions because I didn’t want to impose my own thoughts on the images.’ The power of the internet The irony of these books coming to fruition thanks to the internet and social media is not lost on Ella. ‘She www.amateurphotographer.co.uk line somebody else’s pocket. Now, this is like a family business – I put my energy into it and Dexter will inherit it when I’m gone.’ In a poignant twist of fate, Ella decided not to return to work after her maternity leave ended, meaning she got to spend the last months of Tish’s life in her company. Celebrating a lifetime’s work The images from Elswick Kids were taken in the working-class district of Elswick in Newcastle upon Tyne [Tish] did not like the internet – she was very old school. She refused to have an “email number” and was worried that people would steal her pictures and use them out of context. The idea that they would be used for poverty porn – something they were not meant to be – terrified her. I think she would be shocked that in the end the internet has ended up being her biggest ally. ‘Although she hated the internet, had she had that tool when she was a single parent, when she was going www.amateurphotographer.co.uk to people and saying “please look at my work”, it would have been a lot easier. Now when you post a picture on Instagram or Twitter, it can go viral and people will contact you. Things have changed. I’m not saying it’s been easy; I’ve still had to work hard – but it’s been a lot easier for me than she found it.’ In a former life, Ella worked in the offices of a haulage company before taking time off to have her son, Dexter. ‘I enjoyed it, but at the end of the day, you’re just working to Tish Murtha was a social documentary photographer who lived and worked in the north-east of England for most of her life. For more information, visit tishmurtha.co.uk Putting together these books and managing the archive has given Ella a way of coping with her grief, as getting to know a different side of her mother. ‘It gave me something to focus on rather than the fact she’s dead,’ she explains. ‘I still don’t even think I’ve really dealt with it, but knowing she has left her mark on the world and not just on me – it’s great to know people are celebrating her life and that her work hasn’t been forgotten.’ As for what Tish would have made of the renewed interest in her work, we can only speculate, but Ella hopes she would have been thrilled. ‘I think she would have been really happy to know that people are taking photographs now, inspired by her work, because of her. So she didn’t lose her career bringing up a child – that energy she channelled into me, I am now channelling into pioneering her work, so it’s not been lost. I’ve not had her coming in a dream again and kicking off, so she must be happy!’ For Ella, it’s easier to guess what Tish would have made of the current political climate. ‘I’m quite glad she isn’t here to see the stuff that is going on now,’ she says. ‘She used to say to me years ago – “Ella, think seriously hard about bringing a child into this world.” ‘Brexit wasn’t even on the horizon – she definitely would be photographing stuff, but the thing with my mam was that she would get very emotionally involved with whatever she was photographing. I think it would have broken her heart, really. Especially because nothing has changed – no matter how hard she tried, she really believed that photography could change things, but nothing has changed; we’re exactly where we were back then.’ Although Tish is not here to see it, the interest in Tish’s life and work continues to grow – we urge you to have a look for yourself. 49 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Street view David Gibson, one of Britain’s best-known street shooters, talks to David Clark about the ethics, practicalities, frustrations and joys of street photography 50 However, the one thing that links these disparate images is that they capture things that occurred naturally and spontaneously in front of the camera, and which the photographer had the speed and vision to see and record. Gibson believes that the idea of arranging images goes completely against the spirit of street photography. ‘For me, not setting up images really is the crucial thing,’ he says. ‘I’m a bit of a purist in that sense. I get a bit agitated when I suspect a photographer has set something up. I think it’s cheating. I like to think that the people who do it get found out.’ Images that inspire Only a small number of the images he selected for the book were taken by high-profile figures such as Martin Parr and Alex Webb; mostly they are previously unpublished images, taken by less famous photographers in countries around the world, using everything from Leicas to smartphones. He says the most important selection criterion was that the images inspired him. ‘The pictures in the book had to be great photographs in some way, but they also had to set off something in me. I chose ones that triggered my imagination, which must be © RICHARD KOCI HERNANDEZ W hat is street photography? The exact definition of this popular genre is tricky to pin down and means different things to different people. Even the word ‘street’ itself is misleading. Some would argue that it’s not so much about whether the photography is actually carried out in an urban environment; it’s about the kind of images you make. Street photography is more of an attitude, approach or frame of mind. David Gibson, himself a street photographer for three decades, offers his own broad definition in his book, 100 Great Street Photographs. ‘The term “street photography”,’ he writes, ‘can be applied to any photographs taken in a public space, with or without the inclusion of people, which are entirely natural, and not set up.’ He goes on to add, ‘Street photography is real, it is ordinary life made extraordinary by a great variety of photographers.’ Accordingly, his book includes a wide range of locations and subjects in its 100 images – from inner-city streets to rural and coastal scenes. Some of the shots he’s chosen are the visual puns or tricks of perspective most people associate with street photography, while others are more thought-provoking and mysterious. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Richard Koci Hernandez, Hanoi, Vietnam 2013 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 51 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Obsession Gibson has been honing his own street photography skills and his appreciation of other photographers’ work since the late 1980s. He says his own inspiration to take up street photography initially came from looking at the work of great photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, but his camera work took on its own momentum when he became hooked on it. ‘A word I use all the time is obsession, and that really is the root of it all,’ he says. ‘If you’re obsessed by photography, then you do tend to look more. I’ve heard it described as similar to developing a muscle – if you keep exercising it, it becomes stronger. Maybe that’s true.’ He says he prefers to work in a busy city environment, and as he lives close to London it’s the obvious place to go. While he often returns to the same locations out of habit, he says, ‘It’s more about what’s inside my head than the actual place.’ His pictures show a highly developed eye for shape, colour and clever juxtapositions, together with an ability to see humour in the everyday world. © DAN SZPARA © SHIN NOGUCHI the premise behind any great photograph – it must stimulate and inspire, and make you think.’ Above left: Shin Noguchi, Tokyo 2016 Above right: Dan Szpara, Tokyo 2016 He has used a range of cameras over the years, including a Nikkormat, a Nikon FM2 and a Canon EOS 5D. His current camera of choice for street work is a retro-styled digital compact, the Fujifilm X100T, which has a fixed 35mm lens. ‘When it comes to cameras, I’m old-fashioned in the sense that I have to put it up to my eye,’ he says. ‘For a lot of younger people doing street photography now, the only camera they have ever used is a phone. Personally, I find it very difficult to take photographs with the image on the screen wobbling in front of me. However, there are © MARCIN RYCZEK Marcin Ryczek, Krakow 2013 © ALAIN LABOILE ‘I think there’s been a power shift in the past ten years, it’s like two worlds are coming together ’ advantages to using a phone, because nobody takes you seriously – they just think you’re a tourist.’ Gibson believes it’s essential for photographers to keep pushing their personal boundaries and trying new things in their work. ‘My main worry is repeating myself,’ he continues. ‘My photography has definitely changed over the years and I take a lot more abstract photos than before.’ www.amateurphotographer.co.uk He believes that digital technology, smartphones and sharing images on the internet have changed both the quantity and the type of street images being created. ‘There’s been a power shift in the past 10 years,’ he says. ‘It’s like two worlds are coming together – the professional and the social media world – and this non-professional world is maybe, to an extent, imposing a different taste. I Alain Laboile ‘ALAIN IS an amazing photographer,’ Gibson says. ‘I found it difficult to choose just one of his images. All the golden “rules” of street photography go out of the window with him. He doesn’t do cities; he just photographs his family on a farm in France. So he’s very different from a lot of street photographers, but he documents his family in the tradition of street photography. This photograph is truly phenomenal in the way that the boy in the background is framed by the arch of water. That’s as good as it gets.’ 53 © TAVEPONG PRATOOMWONG Tavepong Pratoomwong ‘THIS PICTURE, by the Thai photographer most people refer to as “Pong”, is quite surreal,’ says Gibson. ‘He was near a taxi rank, trying to photograph one of the drivers putting eye drops in his eye. Then suddenly this other guy started to perform for him, doing Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. Pong was quite annoyed at first, but he went along with it and got a good shot out of it. It’s not a conventional street shot, but when you look at that photograph you think, what on earth is happening here? And if a photo keeps you looking at it, it must be working.’ find that sometimes great photographs that are more subtle or complex will be overlooked in favour of a simpler photograph. ‘I’ve noticed that with some of my pictures. There are a couple of my photographs which I know or believe to be good, but they go down like a lead balloon online. Then other photographs I’ve taken that are simple and not that good, get loads and loads of likes. I think, hang on, you should be looking at my other pictures.’ Practicalities Advice to aspiring street photographers is notoriously difficult to give. Gibson’s main suggestion is that people shouldn’t become obsessed by their own photography. ‘Be obsessed by the photography of others,’ he says, ‘then maybe some of that influence 54 will seep into your own work. There’s a steep learning curve when you first start, a period where you just soak up and become obsessed by the great photographers, and that’s how people get going.’ He also says people should guard against being complacent about their work. ‘You should always think that your photographs are not good enough,’ he continues. ‘I think there should always be sense of a frustration. Frustration is healthy. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.’ In these more guarded times, the issue of being challenged is a potential problem for street photographers. However, Gibson believes that if a photographer is careful, the issue should only rarely arise. ‘They shouldn’t get caught in the first place,’ he says. ‘This is another thing I’m very hot on. Avoiding being caught is a very Born in Ilford in 1957, David Gibson studied photography at Medway College of Art & Design. Since then, he has combined his career as a street photographer with commercial work and writing about his craft. His book The Street Photographer’s Manual was published by Thames & Hudson in 2014 and his book, 100 Great Street Photographs, is published by Prestel, price £22.50. For workshops and to see more work, visit www. gibsonstreet.com and www.facebook.com/ DavidGibson StreetPhotography Workshops subtle but important thing to learn. That’s where the mindset of being half invisible comes in, and it’s more difficult for some people to do than others. If you’re constantly having confrontations, you’re giving the game away in some way, either in your behaviour or body language. ‘I’ve been caught about four times in 30 years. On one occasion, I had a confrontation with some workers and they had a real go at me and started photographing me with their mobile phones. They said, “How do you like it?” And they were right!’ Gibson says it’s important to keep taking pictures even if you’re having a bad day. ‘It always takes shooting a lot of images to get a good one and that’s part of the mystery of it. I always want the killer photos, which don’t come along very often.’ But that sense of frustration is an essential part of the street photography experience; to follow its spirit of non-intervention is to photograph something that is essentially beyond one’s control. The joy of it all comes when everything falls into place and the elusive ‘killer photo’ results. ‘Sometimes I’m quite surprised that the magic can still happen,’ Gibson says. ‘When I get a good shot I think, “Wow, where did that come from?”’ www.amateurphotographer.co.uk AP Photo Tours In association with Quality workshops to top UK and worldwide destinations O Small groups led by world-leading photographers O High-quality accommodation, daily activities and lectures O A tour coordinator from Zoom Photo Tours on every trip O Book now! www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-tours IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Six steps to success Regular AP contributor Peter Dench considers how his approach to his craft could be used by wannabe street photographers I wouldn’t necessarily tag myself as a street photographer, but I often use the genre as the building blocks of a reportage, exhibition or book. It’s the easiest style to do and arguably the hardest to get right, whatever right is. I have a set of rough guidelines that I rely on to try to help me achieve successes on the street. Man, Beer and Baby Blackpool, July 2008 GET IN! I believe you can be more inconspicuous up close. I like to be able to respond to my subject if necessary. Most people don’t mind being photographed. I always have a short, truthful, clear reply prepared if anyone asks what I’m doing: ‘Did you just take a photo of me?!’ ‘Yes, I’m doing a set of pictures on the English at play,’ or something like that. I walked alongside this man holding a baby for several minutes. He was absorbed in his thoughts and took no notice of my lens. It probably helped that the landmark Blackpool Tower was nearby. 56 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Hampton Court Palace RHS Summer Show July 2008 GET DOWN! Never trust a photographer with clean knees, the late photojournalist Tom Stoddart probably once said. Street photography is physical – kneeling, climbing, running and squatting should all be part of the workout. At 6ft tall, if I’m down low it takes me out of the eyeline of the people I’m photographing and helps to create a cleaner backdrop. I rarely take a street photo standing up straight. I’d like to think the conversation between these men went along the lines of: ‘Hey Dave, you wear your blue shirt with white stripes, I’ll wear my white and blue striped shirt and Ray can wear his blue and white striped shirt.’ Lay-By Sunbather July 1998 GET TALKING! I’m not a big fan of the jab-and-dash approach to street photography. I sometimes have to use it to get the job done, but find it dangerous and disrespectful. I prefer to photograph a situation unfolding, to get a clearer understanding of what is happening. When I’ve achieved the pictures I’d like, sometimes I’ll have a chat. This photograph was taken in the Old Willoughby Hedge lay-by on the A303 where I spent a weekend photographing on assignment for the Sunday Times Magazine. This chap was sunbathing as ten-tonne trucks thundered past and children played badminton nearby. I asked him where he was travelling to. He looked confused. ‘I’ve come here for the day,’ he said. I said, why? He looked even more confused. ‘Because they have three sausages in their sandwiches here and only two in Little Chef.’ www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Man in Gutter Plymouth, November 2001 GET HELP! I was shooting a long-term reportage on England’s relationship with alcohol and decided to make the trip from London to Plymouth to photograph along Union Street, which had a reputation for being a bit unruly. I jumped off the train, took one picture, put my camera away and got back on the train. The following week I telephoned Plymouth police and asked if I could accompany them on their weekend patrol. It was a much more sensible approach and good to know half-a-dozen officers would respond to my squeals. 58 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Smile 2moro will be worse!!!! Hull, April 2009 GET LUCKY! I saw Hull’s unofficial motto daubed on the bridge and thought it was a good shot but it’s someone else’s gag. I wanted to enhance the picture, make it my own. I looked left and nothing was happening. I looked right and saw six nursery children being pushed along by their carers. My legs started to do an involuntary Charleston. This is why I swing my legs out of bed, leave loved ones behind and spend money I might not have for no tangible reward – to get the shot! www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Elderly Couple Kissing Blackpool, April 2007 GET A ROOM! I dismissed this shot at first. I was concentrating on how to cross the road and photograph a group of party-goers. While I was building the courage, I turned to my left and shot a few frames of an elderly couple kissing, then moved on. Three years later I was getting a set of pictures for exhibition together around the theme of love and revisited the contact sheet. I thought it was rather good. The tower, the Lost Children Centre sign, the peeling paint on the weather shelter and openedmouthed kiss between the pensioners. After the Sunday Times Magazine ran it as a double-page spread, I received several phone calls which went something like: ‘Is that Peter Dench?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Did you take that photograph in the paper of an elderly couple kissing on Blackpool promenade?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I wonder if you can help, I think that’s my dad but that’s not my mum!’ I always try to take detailed notes when I’m out shooting on the street – memories fade and facts get muddled. I checked my notes and gave them the date and approximate time the picture was taken. It turned out it wasn’t their dad. I liked that people saw something familiar in the image. Google recently ran the shot as a bus stop poster. 59 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Theway we were For the past 50 years, Homer Sykes has been documenting the British. His newest book covers the first 15 years of his career, and he tells Amy Davies more about it 60 is now known as the London College of Communication. While he was there, he struck up a friendship with the Magnum photographer David Hurn, who was lecturing at the college at the time. A trip to New York and a visit to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), whose walls were adorned with the work of luminaries like Lee Friedlander, Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand, further cemented the path to what would become a half-century of reportage (and counting). A life’s worth of pictures I met Homer at 2018’s inaugural Photo North festival. Considering the festival has been co-organised by the photographer Peter Dench, who interviewed Homer for his 2012 book The Dench Dozen: Great Britons of Photography, it was no surprise to find him here. We conducted our chat behind a stall where Homer was displaying his extensive collection of photobooks to date, as well as promoting his newest output, My British Archive: The Way We Were 1968-1983, also published by Dewi Lewis. During the interview we were interrupted several times by fans of the photographer. The new book features images from the first 15 years of Homer’s career, taking in a period in British ALL PICTURES © HOMER SYKES F ew can boast such a wideranging archive of British life than the Canadianborn photographer Homer Sykes. Such is the breadth of his collection that he has published numerous books and has been exhibited countless times – including at the 2007 Tate Britain exhibition ‘How We Are: Photographing Britain’, the prestigious gallery’s first major photographic show. Although he is arguably best known for his work documenting this diverse, quaint and downright odd country, he has also seen his fair share of overseas and conflict work. During his 50-year career, he has been commissioned to work for titles including Newsweek, The Sunday Times, The Observer, Time and just about every publication noted for its documentary photography. One of his books, Once A Year: Some Traditional British Customs – a legend among those fascinated with the genre, was first published in 1977 and charts some of the UK’s strangest country customs. Almost 40 years later, in 2016, Dewi Lewis reissued it thanks to huge demand, bringing the imagery to a whole new generation inspired by Homer’s unique eye for storytelling. Homer’s career began in earnest in 1968, with a degree at what was then The London College of Printing, but IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Top: A textile manufacturer, Saltaire, 1981 Above middle: Fulham, London, 1972 Above: Spectators at the Eton v Harrow cricket match, 1975 Left: Whitechapel, London, 1974 history that was divided, frantic and fraught with protests. It runs through the mid-part of Harold Wilson’s tenure as prime minister, goes through Callaghan and Heath, and finishes in the middle of Thatcher’s Britain. There are photographs from every social strata here – poverty in the East End, rich kids and their parents at society balls, factory workers in the north of England, New Romantics at the Blitz Club in 61 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Early inspiration To take a big step even further backwards, Homer’s interest in photography in fact pre-dates his 1968 degree. He tells me with some glee that he learned the basics from a certain illustrious publication called Amateur Photographer. ‘When I was a schoolboy I had a Halina camera and I learned how to pan, to photograph people, to do rayographs and bits of experimentation in the darkroom I had at school – all thanks to AP.’ 62 In contrast to how some documentary photographers work, Homer takes a discreet, subtle and respectful approach. ‘I’m not a creator – I like to watch and observe,’ he says. ‘I give it some thought beforehand as to what’s going to be the “main” picture – I think editorially, even when I’m shooting for myself. I go for the bit that’s interesting, that makes whatever’s happening different. I always know what I’m trying to achieve, even though in the end I might not be fixed on that idea. ‘My pictures are very tightly edited. I like to believe I make memorable pictures,’ he continues. ‘I certainly try to make pictures that tell you about the event, but I don’t in any way exploit them. I have a very unflattering picture of a couple of women at the Derby, and I was thinking of putting one of them online – but then I thought no, I don’t need to do that – I wouldn’t want to offend. I try to photograph people as they really are, but it’s Top left: Police in Notting Hill, London, 1976 Above left: A National Front demonstration in Lewisham, 1977 © EMMA DRABBLE Covent Garden and everything in between. Each image has a caption containing enough information to give you an idea of what’s happening, but leaves a satisfying amount to the imagination. Despite these images being between 35 and 50 years old, Homer says many of them are less seen by people than some of his other work, if at all. For this reason, Homer was nervous – ‘I hope people will like it,’ he confesses. Homer Sykes is a Canadian-born British photographer who has been working in the reportage and documentary genres for more than 50 years. Visit homersykes.com always a balance – I would never publish a picture of somebody picking their nose, for example, because imagine if somebody photographed me doing the same!’ It’s fair to say Homer is motivated by a curiosity and desire to document that which is both different from what everybody else photographs, and is far removed from his own ‘very ordinary, suburban, south London life’. However, he admits that recently, he is less inspired, and certainly less motivated. ‘I’ve been doing this for 50 years. I don’t think I’ve changed too much, but I don’t go out and take pictures every day, or three times a week, like I once did. Thinking ahead His days as a commissioned photographer working for some of the most successful news titles in the world might be over, but that doesn’t mean he has hung up the camera. He may not be shooting as often as he once was, www.amateurphotographer.co.uk from what it was when he began. ‘The biggest change over the past 50 years is that now everything is immediate, and the biggest change in photography is that everybody thinks they’re a photographer, so it’s almost impossible to make a living as one. The amounts that people offer to pay you now are zero compared to what they were 20 or 30 years ago. It’s very difficult for young people today.’ A true love for photography Brighton, East Sussex, 1970 but he’s still keen to one day publish a sequel to Once a Year. He also busies himself with cataloguing, maintaining, updating and selling the pictures from his hugely extensive back catalogue. ‘When I started redoing [the traditional British events] in 2008, I was suddenly amazed that there were so many photographers, and so many people with iPhones who thought they were photographers, I thought I just don’t need all of this. I started thinking that what I need to be doing is photographing those events that have been completely bypassed and forgotten about, and are really obscure. I hope one day there will be another book.’ Homer acknowledges that the current market for photography is a completely different landscape Tourists and police at Stonehenge during a festival, 1979 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk My British Archive: The Way We Were 1968-1983, Dewi Lewis. After 50 successful years, it’s clear that Homer is happy with his lot. He still has some regrets, though: ‘When I was a young photographer, I wish I’d spent more time in the north of England. I’ve always been London-centric really. I also wish I’d spent time in Ireland, which is not that far away but has some wonderful traditional events.’ Our discussion draws to an end just as Homer is about to head off to give a talk in partnership with John Angerson, another prolific documentarian of the English. From the corner of my eye, I can see a crowd of enthusiastic photographers gathering, keen to learn more from this unassuming master of his craft. A few weeks later, a copy of My British Archive: The Way We Were arrives and I’m able to see for myself the care and dedication that has gone into the creation of it. If you’re as yet unfamiliar with Homer Sykes and his work, the book makes for a fantastic introduction to it, and will almost undoubtedly leave you craving more. The book is available to buy now, while you can see further imagery – and get information on his various other publications – at his website, homersykes.com. A ‘prettiest ankles’ competition in Marhamchurch, Cornwall, 1970 63 ALL IMAGES © DAVE FIELDHOUSE IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY This painted wall in the morning sunlight caught my eye. I waited for a passerby; his shadow, with thumb poised, made the image pop Perhaps the trickiest shot of the project. Combining the timings of the shutter speed and moving train to create the look I wanted took many, many attempts Facetime Dave Fieldhouse shares the story behind his micro street project on people on their phones F eedback is essential to developing our skills, and social media for all its faults can be the best place for that feedback. It’s faceless and at times can be cruel but also, occasionally, spot on. When I posted a street photograph and received the comment ‘Boring’ from a photographer whose judgement I trusted, I took a second look at the work I had proudly displayed less than an hour earlier, just as soon as I had calmed down. There was nothing technically wrong with the image: it was sharp enough; exposed correctly (maybe a little high key); and there was nothing wrong with the subject – the guy against the wall – whatsoever (see image on far right, middle row). The fault, if that’s what we’re going to call it, was the subject matter. People on phones are largely detached emotionally from the scene. There is a metaphorical gap between the viewer/photographer and the story within. A simple image of someone on their phone just didn’t ‘do it for me’, and I guess this was what the critic was getting at too. I made an instant decision 64 to simply avoid photographing people who were using a mobile device. And herein lies the problem… Spend any significant amount of time in a major city and you will quickly notice that everyone is on their phone. It’s a social epidemic and a fact of modern life that we simply cannot do without our gadgets. I’m as guilty, and it drives me nuts too. So, if I can’t avoid photographing folk on their phones, and people are what make the image, what could I do? This sounded like a challenge and the makings of a micro project right there; something I thrive on! I started thinking about how I could incorporate distracted people into an image and still make it eye-catching and noteworthy, while complementing the subject. Armed with a Fujifilm X-Pro2 and XF35mmF2 R WR prime lens, I took to the streets looking for stories. I played with shadows, colours, motion blur, and when the person wasn’t enough (through no fault of their own) I turned my attention to their surroundings and let some of the marvellous modern city architecture bring the interest. I have photographed in the rain and in strong sunlight. I have photographed people through the windows of a moving Underground train (that took quite a few attempts), and at night, using the light from the handheld device to illuminate the face. Learning from failure As with my landscape work, my first glance at a new image is always to see what is wrong with it, rather than what is right. This is the only way I learn and hopefully improve. In this instance, I focused my attention on the man in the picture – the subject of the image was 100% him, and this was the wrong thing to do. I was being lazy; spotted an easy, static target; and forgot to tell a story or create mystery. Avoiding the ‘boring’ image is essential if we are trying to engage with the third person, in this case the viewer. Self-critique is one of the hardest skills to develop. Of course, we love our own work, we’re attached to it emotionally and have invested time and effort to create it, but some of the best photographers I know, are also some of the most self-critical. ‘Is it boring?’ is now the first thing I ask myself when reviewing an image or scene. I still have a lot to learn in the field of street photography, but little failures like that one image and the honest feedback it received are examples of exactly what we need every now and then to progress in our art. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Look for geometric shapes and reflections on glass This worked perfectly as a steely, stylish mono image Dave Fieldhouse An award-winning freelance photographer from the Midlands, Dave specialises in landscape, street and architectural photography for magazines and corporate clients alike. See more of his work at www.davefieldhouse photography.com One of my personal favourites from the project There was nothing technically wrong with this shot, but essentially the comment received was accurate: it was boring It was almost guaranteed that the first person to approach this scene would be on their phone Absorbed in the world at our fingertips, we often miss what’s in front of us IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Tony Sellen Award-winning photographer Tony Sellen is passionate about fine art, long exposures and London, the city he calls home. He loves to travel, capturing architecture, seascapes, landscapes and street images. Tony runs 1:2:1 workshops, licenses images and accepts commissions. To find out more visit www.londonfineartphotography.co.uk The shape of the city Buildings are designed for people, so including a human element in your pictures can help you to tell a story. Tony Sellen talks to Tracy Calder about his skilful black & white technique V KIT LIST ‘I would go months without touching the camera, but then I’d learn something new every time I did pick it up,’ he recalls. To hone his skills, he took up bird photography, experimenting with depth of field to get ‘a nice, blurry background’, before deciding to attend a workshop focusing on long exposures. ‘At first I didn’t really understand what long exposures were or how to use them, and I couldn’t get my head around the maths,’ he recalls, ‘but Prime lenses Prime lenses force you to work for a composition, but the results are worth it. Tony will sometimes shoot with a 24-70mm zoom and return later with one of his primes, such as the Zeiss MakroPlanar T* 50mm ZF.2. 66 doing the workshop made me realise that you don’t really need to know that much!’ Find a style Capturing wildlife remains a great passion for Tony and he believes that if he’d picked up a camera earlier (or lived ‘in the middle of nowhere’) he might have made it his focus. But living in London he felt his options were limited. ‘What was I going to shoot? An urban fox, a sparrow, some V W hen Tony Sellen walks into a building, his brain perceives a mix of lines, shapes, light and shadow. ‘Everything is a picture to me,’ he reveals. ‘When I walk into a hotel lobby, I notice the design and the thought process behind the seating arrangement.’ But it hasn’t always been that way. In fact, Tony only decided to take his photography seriously in 2014; before then it was more of an on/off hobby. Nikon D810 The Nikon D810 is Tony’s main camera. When you’re shooting in low-light conditions, you need a camera that handles noise well – the D810 has an ISO range of 64-12,800, which makes it ideal. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk V pigeons,’ he laughs. Once he’d accepted that his love for nature needed to be satisfied outside the city, he was free to concentrate on what was on his doorstep. ‘I realised I could get some nice long exposures of the Thames, and I started to enjoy photographing buildings too,’ he recalls. ‘The more I looked the more I noticed little details in the architecture.’ At this point Tony started to develop a personal style. ‘The creative process Above: Corkscrew Nikon D810, 18mm, 1/250sec at f/6.3, ISO 100 Above right: Only God Knows Nikon Df, 35mm, 1/60sec at f/6.3, ISO 800 Right: Walk the Line Nikon D810, 20mm, 1/200sec at f/3.5, ISO 1000 Nik Silver Efex When it comes to B&W, using the desaturation tool to remove colour isn’t enough. Tony likes to use Nik Silver Efex due to its unique algorithms and advanced tools and controls. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 67 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY The Unknown Nikon D810, 24mm, 1/1000sec at f/3.5, ISO 400 began, and the compositions started to fall into place,’ he recalls. Looking at his geometric street compositions I can’t help wondering if he has a background in maths. ‘No,’ he laughs. ‘Although I do work as an engineer for London Underground, so who knows? I guess people are wired in different ways – some people notice details like lines and shape. I think it’s something that’s always been in me and photography has just brought it out.’ Celebrate black & white While there is a smattering of colour in Tony’s portfolio, you have to dig deep to find it. ‘It’s always black & white, unless it’s not,’ he laughs. ‘Having a style is important to me and I don’t think there’s any place for colour photography in the style that I’ve found.’ While Tony has nothing against colour – and he believes it will always be more popular on social media – he feels somewhat frustrated by the ongoing trend for highly saturated images. ‘People see the colour and nothing else,’ he suggests. ‘It annoys me because it’s often 68 “fake” colour achieved by pushing the saturation up. It feels like the photographer is trying to trick the viewer into believing that’s what something really looked like.’ For Tony, black & white is ideal for emphasising the sleek lines, polished glass and reflective steel that he finds himself attracted to. ‘You get that nice silvery finish on some of them,’ he explains. Naturally, the architectural landscape of London is always changing, providing Tony with limitless material. ‘I love old London,’ says Tony. ‘I wish there was more of it, but modern buildings are generally better suited to my style of photography.’ Prime lenses Prior to the pandemic, which Tony admits has made him ‘a bit lazy’, the photographer was almost exclusively shooting with prime lenses. ‘They’re much more challenging because you have to really think about composition, where you stand etc,’ he says, ‘but the results I get with some of my Zeiss primes makes it worthwhile – the contrast is amazing.’ As a compromise, Tony will sometimes head out with his Nikon D810 and 24-70mm lens and if he finds something he likes he will return later and reshoot with one of his primes. Looking at the level of precision in his work, I’m keen to know how much pre-shoot planning he does. ‘A lot of the time I just decide what day I want to go out, check the weather and then decide what I’m going to shoot,’ he explains. ‘If it’s a bright, blue-sky day I might take my infrared camera (a converted Sony A7R); if it’s a nice day with fast-moving clouds I might take my filters and shoot some long exposures; and if it’s an in-between day I might shoot some street stuff.’ Tony’s ‘pick the day and work with what you get’ approach is refreshing. Tell a story Looking at Tony’s geometric street work, I’m struck by the way he uses human figures to add a sense of scale, drama and occasionally humour. ‘Architecture is designed for people to use, so sometimes it’s nice to include a human element,’ he www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Tony’s top tips Be courteous Tony rarely gets stopped by security, but if he does he remains polite – if you get defensive and start telling people your rights, it rarely ends well. Sometimes they will say you need a permit, in which case simply ask where you can get one from! Pick a day Don’t let the weather dictate when you go out – pick a day, check the conditions and then decide what to shoot. If it’s a bright, blue-sky day then consider infrared, if there are fast-moving clouds, then try experimenting with filters and long exposures. Work with what you get given. Accept human behaviour Including people in the frame requires patience. If your camera is on a tripod, people will often avoid walking in front of the camera out of politeness! On the flip side, sometimes people will act up in front of the camera – it’s all part of the process. Look around you Tony enjoys photographing wildlife but living in London he finds his options are limited. Sometimes you’re better off concentrating on what’s directly around you – in this case, architecture. The more you look, the more you’ll start noticing details. Tell a story Foggy Faith Nikon D600, 50mm lens, 1/80sec at f/5.6, ISO 200 says. Generally speaking, he’s not a big fan of the standard street photography that fills many social media feeds. ‘I just can’t relate to it,’ he admits, ‘Reflections in coffee shop windows, wet pavements etc – people say it tells a story, but does it?’ To make things more interesting, he concentrates on a building first and then considers whether or not a human presence adds anything to the story. ‘Most of the time the picture will work without the person, but sometimes they add something special,’ he explains. But waiting for the right person to come along can be frustrating. ‘Often you’re just looking and hoping that they won’t see you or pay you any attention,’ he says. ‘You have to be patient.’ The figures are so perfectly placed that I can’t help wondering if they’ve been directed. ‘No, no,’ says Tony. ‘I’m quite a shy person and I wouldn’t do that. They are all candid pictures. If you’re setting things up, asking someone to behave in a certain way, then it’s not street photography for me, it’s just a staged image.’ www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Re-Lamp Nikon D810, 105mm, 1/400sec at f/8, ISO 64 Notice how people interact with the architecture around them and try to tell a story. Buildings are designed for people to use, so it can help to include a human element – doing so can provide a sense of scale. IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Damien Demolder Damien is a photographer, journalist, judge and educator who shoots almost all types of subjects with a wide range of equipment. A former editor of Amateur Photographer, he gives club talks and teaches photography across the country. See www.damiendemolder.com Life without mirrors Small and silent cameras have long been prized in street photography. Here’s why Damien Demolder prefers mirrorless systems for observing everyday life I n truth, any camera can be used to take pictures in the street. Some time before I was born, hardy photographers were using gigantic wooden-plate cameras to document the life and activity on the pavements of the world. Even I have used monstrous mediumformat bodies, with flapping barn-door mirrors, to record the buzz of city streets in this century. It is pretty obvious, though, that just because a type of camera can be used to take street pictures, it doesn’t make it the best type of camera for the job. I’m not especially old, but in my time I have used just about every sort of camera to shoot in streets. I have come to the conclusion that models that are small, quick to use and don’t make any noise suit me best. Those models are, almost invariably, mirrorless compact system cameras. What’s so good about mirrorless? All camera systems have positive and negative points, but for street photography, the benefits of mirrorless models far outweigh the negatives. These cameras are not all the same, of course, but in general they share smaller dimensions than most DSLRs and an ability to shoot without making a racket that attracts attention. Almost all mirrorless cameras have silent modes that allow you to take pictures with no giveaway sounds at all. This Using a small camera allows you to take pictures discreetly ALL PICTURES © DAMIEN DEMOLDER Leica M (Typ 240), 50mm, 1/4000sec at f/2, ISO 250 A wide focal length is great for including the surrounding environment Panasonic DC-GX9, 12mm, 1/100sec at f/1.4, ISO 3200 KIT LIST V Standard lens I love the Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4, but Fujifilm has a nice XF 35mm f/1.4R and Olympus has the M. Zuiko Digital ED 25mm f/1.2 Pro. V Wide lens Wide lenses are great for including the environment. I like the Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 for Lumix or the Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR. Mid-tele lens V I find long lenses don’t retain a connection with the subject. I like a moderate tele between 75-85mm, like Leica’s DG Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 for Lumix. V Small cameras The Lumix DC-GX800 is an amazing tiny model, and the Lumix GX9 is a bit bigger but more advanced. Fujifilm’s X-Pro2 and the PEN F also give first-class results. V Slightly bigger cameras Slightly larger models, more like DSLRs, include the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II and OM-D E-M5 Mark II, Fujifilm X-T2 and Lumix G9 or G80. 71 not only means that in a quiet place you can take pictures, but that if the first frame isn’t what you wanted, you can shoot again and again without your subject moving out of your way. Size and weight are important when you are spending a day trying not to stand out. Mirrorless cameras won’t put your back out and can remain concealed in a coat pocket or discreet bag. There is nothing like a giant camera bag to advertise the fact that you are taking pictures. One of the other benefits is the ability to shoot in live view without a massive delay. I like to hold a camera away from my face to take in the composition on the rear screen. This allows me to take in the whole image in one glance, which makes it easy to see how elements within the frame relate to each other. The other benefit is that you don’t look like a proper photographer, so people are more inclined to ignore you. My favourite mirrorless models also have touchscreen controls that make moving AF areas around much quicker. In a fluid situation, where you can’t be sure about exactly where the subject will be in the frame, it’s a godsend to be able to simply touch the screen at the right moment and have the camera focus on that spot – and even trip its shutter at that exact moment, which is seen in some models. Using live view enables you to hold the camera away from your face so you can take in the entire scene Panasonic DC-GX9, 25mm, 1/2000sec at f/1.4, ISO 200 The downsides There are downsides to using mirrorless cameras for your street photography, but none of them are life-threatening. The main one is short battery life, so you need Why it works Make use of strong graphic shapes and lines to create a striking composition Kodak P880, 10.8mm, 1/2500sec at f/8, ISO 100 72 This image was shot on quite a basic model: the Kodak EasyShare P880 bridge camera. It appeals to me because of its simplicity, the graphic elements of the environment and the immediately obvious subject. It also shows an everyday scene in a manner we may not have seen before, which helps to create impact and a positive first impression. The shot is of someone walking across the Millennium Bridge in London – which doesn’t sound very interesting in its own right. The fact it was a bright November morning adds a layer of frost on the glass and a strong backlight to create clear shadows against an illuminated panel. I studied the shapes and looked for echoes and contrasts in the surrounding area, and used the corner of the Tate Modern to form a collection of triangles and hard edges that work well with the shapes and lines in the middle of the frame. The man stands out partly because he is the only natural form in a frame filled with hard edges and angles. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Damien’s top 10 tips for street photography Things to consider when out on the streets shooting with your mirrorless camera 1 A viewer will feel as close to the subject as you were when you took the picture, so get in close to make viewers feel as though they are actually there beside you. Don’t take a bag – it will mark you out as a photographer. I try not to look like a photographer at all and I keep my kit in my pockets when I can. Use the rear screen rather than holding the camera to your eye. This allows you to be more flexible with your viewpoints and enables you to see all around you as you shoot. Use contrast to make your subject stand out from the scene: a bright subject against a dark background, or a dark subject against a bright background, for example. Make sure the viewer knows where to look. Pay attention to light, noting its direction and qualities, and photograph it. When you make light the subject, your pictures will improve. To blend in, find the smallest cameras you can. Small cameras go unnoticed in most places and they don’t weigh very much, so you can carry them all day. Short lenses make you get close and they allow you to include the environment, so the viewer can see where you were when you took the picture. This helps with impact and conveys the sense of storytelling. Make sure you know your camera well, so that when you need a feature, you are able to access it quickly. There’s nothing less productive than searching through an unfamiliar menu system while out shooting in the street. Always have your camera with you. Amazing moments will not restrict themselves to your dedicated photo days – they can pop up at any time. Don’t regret not having a camera with you. Be selective about what and who you shoot as not everyone you see in the street is interesting, and neither is every place. Wait, be patient, and try to make your pictures say something. 2 3 Get in close to enable viewers to feel like they are there with you Panasonic DC-GX800, 12mm, 1/250sec at f/4, ISO 200 to carry spares. Most of the models I use can get by on three batteries for a day’s shooting, plus editing photos in-camera and sending them to my phone on the way home. Manufacturers’ own batteries can often be fairly expensive, so you can save a bit of money by looking for independent brands such as Hähnel or Ansmann. Another slight disadvantage is that you have to be extra careful when changing lenses to ensure you don’t get dust on your sensor. Some models leave the sensor exposed, so when there is nothing blocking the mount, the sensor is open to the elements. However, I’ve rarely had much of an issue with dust, and certainly no more than I have with my DSLR bodies. The only other downside to shooting with a mirrorless model is that some DSLR users will look down on you as though you have taken up potato printing. This is only a problem if you worry about what other people think. And, of course, the upside is their expression when you show them what you can do with your idiot’s camera. our eye to see what is in the picture, which tends to give the game away when we are trying to be discreet. DSLRs can also draw attention as they create quite a clatter when the shutter fires. It isn’t always the act of the shutter firing that’s the issue, but sometimes it’s the mirror flapping around and the sound reverberating through the hollow of the shutter box. In some places that sound doesn’t really stand out, but in the majority of situations the distinctive sequence reveals that a photographer is at work. My problem is therefore that it makes it much harder to capture the world in its natural state. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 5 6 7 8 What’s so bad about DSLRs? There is nothing bad about DSLR cameras. However, the best-performing models tend to be quite big and the best lenses quite heavy. These systems might not feel too big and heavy at the beginning of the day, but by the end of the day they can. I’m physically quite strong, but even I need to rest when carrying around a bag of DSLR lenses, and sometimes I want to go home before I’ve finished shooting. When using a DSLR to shoot anything moving we need to hold the camera to 4 9 Make sure your camera is ready so you don’t miss good opportunities Panasonic DC-GX9, 25mm, 1/8000sec at f/1.4, IS0 200 10 73 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY POST-PRODUCTION TIPS BEFORE I try not to do much postproduction as I don’t get much time after a shoot, so I do what I can to get the shot as close as possible to the way I want it at the time I take the picture. However, almost always, there are things for which software is needed. I actually really like in-camera raw-processing facilities that allow me to skip the software stage, but not many cameras have a processing ability that is extensive enough for this. Fujifilm X-series models have decent processing features and those in the Lumix cameras are excellent. I always shoot in raw to allow myself the best starting position, and I usually use Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop or Phase One’s Capture One Pro. AFTER 1 Lift tones 2 Adjust contrast 3 Boost colours If I am generally happy with my exposure, the first thing I do is deal with the mid-tone contrast using the Curves tool. For a shot like this, I’ll pull down the shadows and lift the lighter tones to emphasise the difference between the sunshine and the shade. Next, I deal with other more subtle tools for increasing mid-tone contrast – the Highlights and Shadows sliders. I often use the Clarity slider to help with the process, but almost always draw the Contrast slider down so the contrast doesn’t look crude. Colour is important here, so I’ve added a touch of Vibrance and a bit of Saturation – but not too much of either as Curves has already lifted the colour. I’ve also tweaked the colour temperature by a few degrees to warm the late-afternoon light. 4 Sharpen 5 Clean up 6 Resize The way you apply sharpening depends on the noise, detail and base sharpness of the picture. This one is fine grained, so I set the Radius low and increase the Amount. I used an aperture of f/6.3 here and there’s a visible dust spot in the sky. To remove this I’ve used the Healing Brush in Photoshop, but I’ll often use the standard Cloning tool. I save images at their largest size and with as little compression as possible. For Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, I’ll resize to 1,920 pixels on the longest edge to reduce the size. 74 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk In association with MPB © CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ANTOINE WEIS, ANDY WILLIAMS, NGUYEN TAN TUAN, JENNIFER JORDAN, NAWFAL JIRJEES, SEÁN FEEHAN, SIMON_HADLEIGH-SPARKS Amateur Photographer of the Year Competition £11,000 of MPB prizes to be won Enter the UK’s oldest and most prestigious photo competition for amateur photographers. There are ten rounds, so you have ten chances to win some great cameras and lenses from MPB! Visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/apoy2022 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Sold river up the For centuries, the Isle of Dogs was home to a closeknit community of ‘islanders’. But in the late 1980s all this changed, as Mike Seaborne tells Tracy Calder N obody knows how the Isle of Dogs got its name; one theory suggests it’s a corruption of the Isle of Ducks, which seems pretty feasible given it’s a patch of land that once regularly flooded, while another claims it’s down to the number of dead dogs that used to wash up along the banks of the river here. Whatever the reason, no one can dispute that this peninsula, created by a bend in the River Thames, is highly unusual. What started out as an area of marshland is now a major financial district, home to Canary Wharf and some of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe. Visit on a weekday and you are sure to find city traders milling about where cattle once grazed. Mike Seaborne stumbled across the Isle of Dogs in 1982. ‘I had been photographing the decimation of traditional industry outside of London for a few years, and then I came to work at the Museum of London and discovered Docklands,’ he recalls. He was immediately struck by the way the area retained much 1930s warehouses, Canary Wharf, 1983 ALL PICTURES © MIKE SEABORNE of its traditional industrial character, despite being in severe decline (the last of the docks here closed in 1980). By the time he arrived on the ‘island’ it had been earmarked as an ‘Enterprise Zone’ and big changes were afoot. On observing the empty docks, derelict factories and workshops, Mike became determined to record the area’s industrial heritage before the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) arrived with its bulldozers. It’s hard to believe now, but in the early 1980s – before the LDDC and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) arrived – the island was relatively isolated. ‘The Isle of Dogs is special due to the nature of its topography,’ suggests Mike. ‘It’s surrounded by 76 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Construction of the DLR at Canary Wharf, 1985 Geejay’s Solarium, corner of West Ferry Road and Ferry Street, 1985 the river in a big loop, and back then it was quite cut off.’ At the time, there was just one bus on and off the island, and most weekends Mike could be found on it. Geographically speaking, the Isle of Dogs is a peninsula, but that hasn’t stopped residents from developing an island mentality. ‘People living here have traditionally felt like islanders – they call themselves islanders,’ says Mike. ‘They are not just part of the East End; they’re a separate community.’ Before containerisation and the subsequent closure of the docks and factories, many islanders had been working in similar trades to their parents and grandparents, so the prospect of big change was 77 very unnerving. ‘Nobody knew exactly what was going to happen, but it was clear that it was going to be radical,’ says Mike. ‘The traditional work would go, the population would change, it was obviously going to be massive.’ Mike hoped to capture as much of this as possible on film, but it wasn’t until he met Eve Hostettler, founder of the Island History Trust (IHT), that the project really got under way. The IHT was on a mission to record the history of the island as far back as the 19th century by collecting oral accounts from descendants of traditional islanders, and studying their personal photographic archives. ‘Once I realised there was an archive of the past, Eve and I agreed it would be great to create an archive of what was then the present,’ says Mike. Eve’s help proved invaluable when it came 78 to gaining access to particular buildings and making contact with some of the islanders. ‘I couldn’t have done it without her,’ admits Mike. ‘I was an outsider – at that point I didn’t even live in London!’ Mike decided to shoot black & white film so that he could develop and print the results himself. Mike’s passion for black & white started young, and he began to look at other artists for inspiration. ‘In those early days there were two photographers whose pictures really wowed me, and they were both called Don,’ he laughs. ‘The first was Don McCullin – in particular his series covering the end of the Consett Steel Works in north-east England. And the second was Don McPhee – I loved the way he used light, shadow, and tones. It all felt so powerful and impactful.’ For a while, Mike wondered if photography needed colour at all. Farmer with his cows, Mudchute Farm, 1984 Mike Seaborne has been photographing London since 1979 and, until 2011, was Senior Curator of Photographs at the Museum of London. Much of his work deals with the changing urban landscape. Since leaving the museum, he continues with personal projects. Visit www. mikeseaborne.co.uk Once he began working as senior curator of photographs at the Museum of London in the 1970s, Mike developed a fondness for work from the ‘documentary tradition’ starting in the 1920s. He was lucky enough to meet photographers from the inter-war period, including Bill Brandt. ‘I just really got drawn into the idea of photography as a documentary medium,’ he enthuses. ‘I like the idea that you’re not looking for an image, you’re trying to tell a story, which usually happens over a series of images and sometimes a combination of images and words.’ Mixed feelings From 1982 to 1986, Mike captured the Isle of Dogs exclusively in black & white (he has a second archive covering the period 1987 to 1995, which shows all the new housing www.amateurphotographer.co.uk IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY ‘Death of a Community’ funeral march passing Maconochies Wharf, West Ferry Road, 1985 South West India Dock, 1984 ‘The community began to organise itself and to speak with one voice in the hope of having its plight acknowledged’ and developments such as Canary Wharf shot in colour). ‘I was photographing all sorts of things: the landscape; dereliction; people at work, school, at play, in community centres, in shops,’ he reveals. The islanders he met had mixed feelings about the plans for regeneration, but most had the foresight to realise that work would now come from new technologies, not the traditional semi-skilled factory work they had been used to. ‘Some people were pessimistic, but for a minority there was hope of a better future,’ he says. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk When the bulldozers moved in, the mood grew progressively darker. ‘Once the process of regeneration began, more problems became evident,’ says Mike. ‘Property prices went up and the younger generation faced real problems because the work on offer was very different from the traditional jobs they had expected, and they didn’t feel like they would be qualified.’ Many school-leavers couldn’t afford to stay on the island, as Mike explains, ‘Often they had to move out of London entirely; there was a big migration of the younger generation.’ Over time, the community began to organise itself and to speak with one voice in the hope of having its plight acknowledged. ‘They were saying to the authorities, look, the Docks have gone, you’re going to build all this new stuff, but where does the existing community fit in,’ The Isle of Dogs: Before the Big Money is published by Hoxton Mini Press, £17.95, ISBN 978-1-910566 -39-8. See www. hoxtonminipress.com says Mike. When words failed, some of the islanders took action. In 1985, for example, the Death of a Community march took place, with ‘mourners’ accompanying an empty coffin around the island before staging a mock funeral service at Canary Wharf. Not everyone agreed with the protests (on one occasion activists released a flock of sheep and thousands of bees during a presentation by the governor of the Bank of England), but no one could deny they attracted attention. Despite the spirited protests, nothing could halt the arrival of ‘big money’ on the Isle of Dogs, and by the late 1980s, construction of the Canary Wharf skyscraper at One Canada Square was well under way. In 1991, the first tenants moved into the tower, but many of the original islanders were left feeling they had been sold down the river. 79 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Exploring new avenues The pandemic has changed the very nature of street photography since 2020. Steve Pill speaks to three very different pros about new briefs, adapting techniques, and what the future holds Paola Franqui Paola, also known as Monaris, is a Puerto Rico-born photographer based in New Jersey, USA. She is an Adobe Lightroom Partner and Sony Ambassador. Her first photobook, Momentos, was published this summer by Setanta Books. www.monaris.me Capturing human interaction is central to Paola’s work Sony A6000, 19mm, 1/800sec at f/2.8, ISO 100 Paola Franqui’s photographs are a product of her environment in the best possible sense. Whether shooting a Parisian boulevard or a Tokyo subway, she manages to capture the spirit of each place via a series of telling moments that play out like stills from a long-lost 1970s film. Her most frequent subject is Manhattan, which she infuses with a timeless romance and the outsider perspective of a Puerto Rico-born photographer living an hour away in New Jersey. ‘I don’t think there’s any place like New York City. The characters, how it feels, the smell, the chaos,’ she says. ‘Photographing the city at the beginning of 2020 was very challenging because it was so quiet – that liveliness, that spark was gone.’ Paola delights in human interactions, so the lack of visible smiles among masked crowds proved particularly difficult. ‘You had to try harder to find something else, that extra thing that’s going to make the photo work,’ she says. When a full lockdown prevented regular jaunts to New York and beyond, she began to look through her archive, enjoying the world vicariously through her images and picking out forgotten frames to edit. ‘I’m very big into colour grading and I would spend hours and hours a day just trying to bring things back to life with different colours and different editing styles. That was something that kept me sane.’ Paola’s aim is to record fleeting moments that capture the environment and atmosphere Sony A7R III, 55mm, 1/160sec at f/1.8, ISO 100 This period of self-reflection also resulted in Paola’s first photobook, Momentos, published by London’s Setanta Books. ‘What I said to them at the beginning was that I wanted this book to be like a movie: from the first page to the last, I wanted to tell a story; I wanted all of the images to speak with each other. And I think the way they did it was very successful.’ The cover image, ‘Until We Meet Again’, is typical of Paola’s approach: sepia-tinged colours, an exacting composition, and the photographer’s own image inserted into a complex interaction of reflections. That final element was inspired by Vivian Maier, the reclusive nanny whose vast street photography archive only emerged after her death in 2009. Paola discovered Maier’s work at a point when she had grown disillusioned with her own output: ‘I was immediately obsessed. I was like, “How was this person real?” www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I bought all of her books and I would spend hours looking at her work.’ Maier also indirectly inspired No Film Wasted, a second Instagram account through which Paola and her wife, Laura, post scans of mid-century film slides. ‘Every time we go thrifting, we try to find more,’ she says excitedly. ‘Our collection is crazy; I don’t know what I’m going to do with them. I have maybe like 10,000 slides and I’m not going to stop.’ That passion for photography has been evident ever since Paola first started shooting street on an iPhone 5 nine years ago and Instagram has proved a valuable role in her development – not only in terms of building an audience of more than 325,000 followers, but also because most of her commercial clients first found her via the social media platform (see @monaris_). As an ambassador for both Sony and Adobe Lightroom, Paola also feels an www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Paola’s tips 1 I constantly switch lenses. When I get too comfortable, I need to do something different. Be respectful. If I take a photo of someone and they look at me, I immediately smile to show I’m not doing any harm. Study other photographers’ work. It’s a way of finding inspiration to make something for yourself. 2 Paola spent hours during lockdown picking out images from her archive to edit with different colours and editing styles Sony A7R III, 24-70mm, 1/160sec at f/4, ISO 100 added responsibility to capitalise upon her increased profile in the industry. ‘I’m working for females, for Latinas, for queers,’ she says proudly. ‘I want to pave the way for more female photographers 3 because I know how hard it is for us. We have to work extra hard.’ While Paola is clearly putting in the hours, she has certainly found a way of making her photographs seem effortless. 81 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Neil Hall West Midlands-born Neil is a staff photographer and video journalist for the London bureau of the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA). In 2020, he was named Arts & Entertainment Photographer of the Year at the BPPA Press Photographer of the Year awards. See more of Neil’s work at www.epa.eu/ photographers/neil-hall and www.neilhallphoto.com WHEN daily life ground to a halt for many of us 18 months ago, it largely remained unchanged for Neil Hall. As a staff photographer for European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), he continued to commute across London every day while his classification as a ‘key worker’ meant his daughter stayed in school. Nevertheless, while Neil’s routine appeared much the same, his output did not. ‘The job of a news photographer is often to show or reflect the world – therefore obviously as the world completely changed, the nature of the pictures you take and how you take them has completely changed,’ he explains. ‘In effect, we became pure street photographers.’ With public life on hold, the 41-year-old was given a much broader brief to seek out visual clues and signifiers that would illustrate how daily life was changing in unprecedented ways. ‘The trick is to remember that what is happening today might not be happening in a week, so you’ve got to have that historical eye on the situation,’ he explains. Neil quickly went from documenting masked shoppers running home with armfuls of toilet roll to shooting deserted London streets at what should have been rush hour. While the silence of an empty Piccadilly Circus was striking at first, he says, the resulting photographs were ultimately unsatisfying: ‘Unless it’s a very clever piece of visual design, street photography needs people in it to humanise it and tell the story – because stories are about people.’ Once people began to return to the city, they brought with them a fresh set of challenges. Government restrictions on daily exercise meant that photographers were eyed with greater suspicion, further exacerbating an already fraught dynamic between public and press. ‘Certainly, in the last five years, with the explosion of social media, people 82 have become more aware of what can happen to a picture,’ says Neil. ‘And with that comes a significant mistrust of photographers, more so than at any point in history. If you look at some of the great photos that Henri Cartier-Bresson captured, you probably couldn’t take those now in quite the same way.’ Verbal attacks have become a regular occurrence. ‘I always find that people like social documentary photography except when they’re in it,’ he notes drily. To help in this respect, Neil set aside his trusty Nikon D6 for the silent shutter of the mirrorless Nikon Z 7. However, he is adamant that there is much more to photography than good kit. ‘A picture isn’t just about the technical aspect,’ he says. ‘Anyone can learn to paint to a reasonable standard, it doesn’t make them Picasso. You can swallow a thesaurus, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to be Hemingway.’ Neil’s appreciation for the more elusive qualities of street photography took shape in 2003 when, as a young archaeology graduate, he visited two landmark London exhibitions: Walker Evans at the Photographers’ Gallery and Tate Modern’s Cruel and Tender. ‘That was a mind-blowing experience for someone who didn’t have a great background knowledge of photography,’ he says. Neil promptly took a job at his hometown newspaper, Tamworth Herald, working his way up via freelance shifts with the nationals and six years as a stringer at Reuters, before joining EPA in 2017. As his working day now settles back into a more regular routine of sporting events and political summits, it is still the simple challenges of classic street photography that continue to motivate his practice. ‘It’s like trying to capture a rare butterfly while you’ve got a large bell around your neck,’ he says. ‘It’s really difficult but when you get it, it’s more satisfying than anything else.’ Neil was keen to include people to humanise scenes, to tell the story unfolding in front of him Nikon D5, 1/3200sec at f/3.2, ISO 125 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Neil’s tips 1 Stick to autofocus for street photography. You are just as likely to screw up as you are on manual focus, but it’s faster. My go-to lens for wide shots is a 24-70mm. Anything wider is so beyond the normal field of vision that it becomes almost like an effect. If you are trying to tell a story in a single frame, you must pick a point of interest. As a rule, I shoot quite wide open – usually f/2.8. 2 3 Neil was tasked with capturing moments representative of how daily life was changing during the pandemic Nikon D5, 70-200mm, 1/800sec at f/4, ISO 400 Shooting deserted London streets at rush hour soon became the new norm Nikon Z7, 24-70mm, 1/250sec at f/5, ISO 64 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 83 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Craig Whitehead Under his Sixstreetunder handle, Cambridge-based Craig has become one of Britain’s leading street photographers. He teaches workshops with Skill Share, and he is working on a follow-up to his first sold-out photobook, New York. Explore more of Craig’s work at www.instagram.com/sixstreetunder and purchase prints via www.sixstreetunder.com IT’S STRANGE to think, now that he has amassed more than 250,000 Instagram followers, but Craig Whitehead only turned to street photography by chance. The Cambridge School of Art graduate picked up a camera purely as a creative outlet during his lunch breaks from work, while even his specialist subject came about by necessity. ‘The only option was to shoot the city because that’s where I happened to be,’ Craig explains. ‘If I had been based in the countryside, I’d probably be a landscape photographer.’ Craig’s only real experience of street photography at that stage was the unflattering flashgun portraiture of Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden. He tried imitating a similar style, shooting wide and close, yet quickly realised this was not for him. ‘I’m not going to stick my camera in someone’s face while they’re biting into a burger, it doesn’t interest me,’ he says. ‘I’m definitely more in the camp of trying to make art.’ During his degree, Craig used multiple sheets of tracing paper to carefully build his illustrations and he takes a similarly layered approach to street photography. Rather than focusing purely on people, he is more interested in the scene as a whole, so he will select interesting backdrops or objects to shoot through first, before identifying repeat patterns of behaviour that allow him to pre-empt how figures might enter into the frame. He views the process as a numbers game – and he fancied his odds better with a camera. ‘You could work for a week on a couple of illustrations and hate everything you’ve done; whereas I can take 1,000 photos in a day and it doesn’t matter if I don’t use 999 of them,’ he explains. That matter-of-fact attitude extends to editing and an approach that might alarm photojournalistic purists: Craig thinks nothing of 84 removing unwanted details that have strayed into shot, such as wires or bag straps. There’s a similar amount of artistic licence used in colour grading, as he pushes the saturation and often skews reds towards the slight orange-bias of Kodachrome film. The avoidance of what he calls ‘known colours’ is the key to preventing pictures from looking false or overly worked. ‘It’s the skin tones that give it away,’ he explains. ‘If people like blue highlights, you can tell as soon as you see a face in there. But you can play around with colour a lot if you protect those indicators.’ Craig agrees that his appetite for street photography is bordering on an addiction and it is clear that he has been suffering withdrawal symptoms. ‘In the past 18 months, I just haven’t been producing,’ he admits. ‘It sucks. That feeling of just surprising yourself and getting a shot that you never expected is the entire reason to keep going out and doing it, so not having any of that for the best part of two years is awful. I’ve had to accept that everyone is in this same situation, it’s not just me.’ The extended lay-off has given Craig time to reassess his practice. He cites Saul Leiter and Ernst Haas as the ‘Old Masters’, and he is keen to emulate their broader interpretation of the subject. ‘Why am I pigeon-holing myself completely to street?’ he asks rhetorically. ‘They didn’t think like that, they just shot what they wanted – especially Haas. People hold him up as one of the street photography masters, but half of his work doesn’t even have anyone in the frame. It’s just beautiful art.’ Suitably inspired, Craig intends to adopt a more generally creative approach, trying his hand at different subjects and alternative techniques, like multiple exposures. ‘It’s a good time to refresh and experiment,’ he says, that addiction showing no sign of abating. Craig likes to push saturation in post to emulate the orange tones of Kodachrome film Craig will often find an interesting backdrop first and wait, pre-empting where people might pass through the scene www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Craig’s tips 1 Don’t fret about having the newest kit. It doesn’t matter what a camera can do, as long as you know how to get it to do what you want. Move around, stalk your subject a bit. Eye-level, stood where you are is almost never going to be the best version of that shot. Get up close to a subject, just once. Even if you never get that close again, knowing that you can when the moment arises is really important. 2 3 Shooting through objects to give the appearance of layers can often be seen in Craig’s street scenes Before the pandemic, Craig enjoyed the thrill of capturing the unexpected www.amateurphotographer.co.uk IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Gilden edge Peter Dench introduces himself to the work of iconic street photographer Bruce Gilden and his book, Cherry Blossom I ’ve never deep-dived into the work of iconic street photographer Bruce Gilden. I’ve not leafed through a book, read an interview, strolled around an exhibition or sat in an amphitheatre to hear him talk. That either makes me the best or worst person to write this article. I have seen Bruce Gilden, behind the Super Stage at The Photography Show UK 2016. My presentation followed his. As he sat silent in the semi-darkness, I could hear him breathe. The only thing I could think to say was, ‘Thanks for warming up the crowd.’ It could’ve gone either way. I’ve heard him described as difficult, a bully, blunt, but what about the work? It was time to get my Gilden going on, to take a taste of the Marmite man. *One week later.* Wow! That was brutal. There may be a shortage of Optrex in the N8 area of north London. My entry point into the kingdom of Gilden was Cherry Blossom (Thames & Hudson 2021), named after a photograph in it of a lady sat by a tree wearing a cherry-blossom kimono, delicately holding fried chicken. Apart from that, there is nothing delicate or flowery in the book, by my count, his 19th monograph. Sixty-six black & white photographs, including classics from the Go series, his exploration of Japan and mobsters the Yakuza, and 34 unpublished photos. The first image in the book is appropriately complex: a young man and woman are photographed pressed up against the glass of a train or subway car. The man’s left palm splayed in the middle of the frame as if to imply, Halt! His right hand clutching a packet is forced into a thumbs up. Neither of them is smiling, the man looks into the camera. There is the chaos of reflection at the top of the frame; Paddington Bear, pictured on a bag, exits bottom right. Some street photographers employ the tactic of photographing people behind glass, in vehicles or in shops. This could be construed as cowardly. There’s nothing cowardly about Cherry Blossom. It brings to an end Gilden’s chapter on Japan that he started over 20 years ago. Working with multiple interpreters to arrange access, the 86 images open the door to the Yakuza and let the viewer peek inside. There are tailored suits, tattoo sleeves, twisted faces and so many cigarettes you can practically taste them. Each image in the book is a complete story of a bigger picture of Japan. A homeless man stands bare-chested in a cardboard box, a coat hanger positioned on the side; a motorcycle gang shine their headlights out of darkness, a heavily scarred man lies in the road, a woman with a face full of smile lies on a towel. Challenging Most of the online videos and interviews I watched show New Yorker Gilden dressed in a light bucket hat and sleeveless jacket with deep pockets, a fisherman of the street. His photographs hook the viewer in front of things they wouldn’t ordinarily see. If the intent of photography is to show us what we think we know about in a different way, then Gilden is extraordinary at it. Viewing his archive often feels uncomfortable and cruel, at other times, hopeful, honest and emotional. Occasionally they are beautiful and funny. They are always challenging. I wasn’t surprised to learn that boyhood Gilden wanted to be a boxer; he weaves and ducks around his subjects, jabbing his Leica-held right paw, a flash bursting from his left. I wasn’t surprised to learn he toyed with the idea of being an actor; his subjects are often herded into view, unknown auditions for the cast in his play. Gilden wanted to be a lot of things, but admits if he’d lived seven lives, he’d have been a photographer every time. I wasn’t surprised to learn the father he idolised was a gangster figure and his mother led a sad life, was institutionalised and eventually killed herself. There’s a lot of hurt in Gilden’s images, the effect his parents had on him is tangible. I wasn’t surprised to hear his favourite country was Haiti, a country with a history of tumult. Sparring with Gilden’s archive I learned a lot and will go back to learn more. First, I’m going to walk through a meadow, talk to birds, sniff flowers, chase butterflies, and maybe write a poem. Bruce Gilden Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bruce Gilden is a multi-award-winning iconic street photographer with a unique style. His work has been extensively exhibited and published worldwide. In 1998, he joined the prestigious Magnum Photos Agency. All images on this spread: Bruce Gilden’s unflinching pictures of Japanese culture were all taken in the late 1990s 87 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Miller time Peter Dench talks to Dod Miller, the modest man of photography, about his book, Birdmen ‘I n Romania, the hotel was right in the middle of the revolution. I arrived, got a room, got in the lift to my room and there were a couple of soldiers with machine guns in there – we got off at the floor the foreigners were on. This guy from Reuters news organisation started shouting at the soldiers to get out; he didn’t want them using our hotel facilities. I rang room service for a couple of fried eggs, some toast, brandy and a couple of large coffees. Finished breakfast, went outside, shot a few rolls of film, popped back to the hotel, had some lunch, half a bottle of red wine and went back out. I thought, this is ok,’ explains photographer Dod Miller, sitting next to a giant vase of wilting pink lilies at his home in south London. Dod’s impactful black & white photographs shot on assignment for The Observer of tanks in Palace Square, civilians fleeing sniper fire, food being delivered during a firefight, a funeral and a young soldier sleeping during a lull in fighting, received an Honourable mention in Spot News, Stories at the 1990 World Press Photo Contest. Dod won’t be best remembered for these award- Romanian revolution: A soldier during a lull in the fighting, 23 Dec 1989 88 winning images of revolution. He won’t be best remembered for the 1991 Photo Contest Honourable mention photograph of a pro-democracy demonstration in Moscow, or his 1991 Photo Contest Honourable mention for a photograph of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He won’t be best remembered for his brilliantly observed reportage of UK cigarette smokers alone or in small groups, in doorways or on rooftops and balconies after a European Directive restricted smoking inside the workplace. What he will definitely be remembered for is his photographs of people dressed in aviation-related attire chucking themselves off various piers along the south coast of England in attempts to win cash prizes. From 1971 to 1978 the south of England’s annual Birdman was held in the seaside resort of Selsey. A completed distance of 50 yards would scoop a £3,000 prize. The competition migrated to Bognor Regis pier and by the mid 1980s had attracted European teams and the attention of television crews. In 2008, the competition was moved to Worthing after the demolition of the end of Bognor pier. The inaugural Worthing Birdman was www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Birdman Dinosaur Take Off Sir Richard Branson Prop Head www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 89 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY ‘Sometimes, I only shot a few frames and thought, I’m going to have a pint and some fish and chips and go home’ won by Birdman stalwart Ron Freeman, who travelled a distance of 85.9 metres off Worthing pier. The following year it was won by Steve Elkins who flew 99.86 metres, falling within a feather of the 100-metre target and £30,000 jackpot. Dod first experienced the human projectiles in 1994: ‘I think it was a commission because I shot it in colour. I always know if I shoot things in colour, I wouldn’t have done it for myself.’ He then started doing it for himself, swapping to his trusted Rolleiflex and Kodak Tri-X 400 film. ‘The great thing about the Rolleiflex is, unlike a Hasselblad where you have to take backs off and put slides in, you just open the back, put the film in, shut the back and carry on, put the film in your pocket and that’s your day out. Some of the times I went, I only shot a few frames, had a look around and thought, I’m going to have a pint and some fish and chips and go home. Occasionally, I’d take my family and we’d just all hang out on the beach for a bit, treat it like an afternoon on the south coast.’ Dod’s square-format pictures capture with cinematic clarity a man with a propeller on his head and another with flippers on his feet. There are scenes of spectators on the beach and Birdmen crashing into the sea. Thirty-nine images feature in the 84-page book published by Plague Press (available via Setanta Books), a publishing enterprise created by street photographer Matt Stuart. Matt, who used to assist Dod from time to time, appears in one of the photographs strolling along Bognor pier. Another photograph features a behemoth of modern flight, Sir Richard Branson. ‘He nicked the idea off of me. I went down to Gatwick with an art director I was working with to suggest Virgin could use some of the Birdmen pictures for their PR. They thought it was funny but bottled out in the end as they didn’t like the idea of people throwing themselves off piers. I didn’t hear anything more, then about two years later, Virgin sponsored the event. I think it was Branson’s birthday and he had a massive tent in Bognor Regis, a bar in it with all his family. I met his mum. They flew one of his jets over the end of the pier,’ claims Dod. Was he ever tempted to take the plunge himself? ‘I always said I would do it when I get a book published as I always thought it would happen at some stage, but I’ve changed my mind.’ We move into the garden to allow Dod’s puppy Winnie, a Bull Mastiff cross, to bound around. The temperature is ticking into winter and I zip up my coat. Dod, dressed in sandals, purple socks, Italian designer corduroy and flat-cap doesn’t flinch at the chill. You wouldn’t expect him to. Born in 1960, Dodik (later shortened to Dod) grew up in Moscow (his British father was assigned there as a Reuters journalist). His brother and sister were born in Moscow but being the first born and his mother initially nervous of Russian hospitals, she flew back to deliver Dod in Norwich. Perhaps that’s where his sense of humour comes from. Dod spent the first decade of his life pinning on his badge of young Lenin before heading to school or popping on his red cap of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League Komsomol youth movement. The Romanian revolution: Food is delivered during a firefight, 23 December 1989 90 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk Beach Birdman Summer was spent in camps outside Moscow fishing and collecting mushrooms. When he returned home to his parents, it took him a while to resume conversations in English. ‘Of course now my Russian is absolutely diabolical,’ he grins. Via a few years living and mostly surfing in South Africa, Dod and his family settled in London. His father wanted to return to Moscow but with diplomatic tensions between London and Moscow at red-alert, it was a nyet. Dod, with a slight and slightly unfortunate South African accent for the time, went about building a darkroom at his school and started photographing punk bands for his portfolio. ‘I was going to go to the London College of Printing to study photography and then heard about a job on a local paper down on the south coast, the Hastings Observer and Sussex Express, a job that was paid, had a camera allowance and a Ford Fiesta, how cool is that! I had a really great boss. I’d been there two weeks before he went off on a holiday and basically left me to it. It was very entertaining.’ You won’t find too much online about Dod; there’s a bit about the Network Agency he joined in 1990 and a bit more on the Messum’s Art Gallery website which sells his prints and hints at his financial successes as an advertising photographer. His official web-page biography simply reads: Dod Miller lives in London and takes a few pictures now and again. ‘I’m totally analogue. One day I was looking online and typed in my name and this box appeared with my name. I thought f***ing hell! I really have arrived, but when I went and had a look a week later, it had gone, I’d literally been and gone.’ I’m sure with the publication of Birdmen, his online box will be back. This modest man of analogue photography has diligently gone about his craft for decades and isn’t obsessed with legacy: ‘I’m quite happy, this book will do nicely thank you very much. I had a brilliant job for about 15 years, raising a young family, nobody writes too much about the legacy of that.’ Birdmen, £35, is published by Plague Press 2021 and available via Setanta Books. Visit www.setantabooks.com The Romanian revolution: Tanks in Palace Square, 23 December, 1989 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk The Romanian revolution: A young conscript searching the skyline for snipers, 23 December 1989 91 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Street smarts A smartphone is the perfect tool for capturing life on the street. Amy Davies discovers why in this guide O ften the key to good street photography is becoming one with the street. Being as unobtrusive and unnoticeable as possible is the name of the game. As pretty much everyone – photographers and otherwise – has a smartphone in their pocket these days, they have become the perfect way to avoid standing out when taking pictures in public. Shooting with smartphones allows you to react to situations as they happen, whether you were preparing for a street photography session or not. You will always be ready to photograph the scene in front of you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve your approach. You should find inspiration from the photographs on these pages – all of which have been photographed using nothing more than a humble smartphone. Modern smartphones are extremely well-equipped, usually featuring at least two lenses that work well for typical street photography. In this guide we’ll be looking at general tips for shooting with smartphones in a street environment. It stands to reason that if you’re shooting with your smartphone on the street, you might also want to edit your work while on the go and share it via the plethora of social networking apps currently available. For that reason, Damien Demolder shares his tips for editing directly on your smartphone, and although there’s a good chance that you already have a smartphone of your own, you’ll find our recommendations for photography-orientated devices at the end of the piece, which you might want to consider next time you’re shopping for an upgrade. 92 Dimpy Bhalotia An award-winning photographer based in both London and Bombay, Dimpy Bhalotia is best known for her street photography work, all of which is taken using a smartphone – in her case, the iPhone. She is the IPPAwards (iPhone Photography Awards) Grand Prize Winner, and has also won the British Journal of Photography’s Female in Focus Award. Her work has been published in a variety of international publications including The Washington Post, Forbes, The Guardian, BBC News, GQ magazine, Elle, NPR, The Telegraph and much more. In 2021, she was named as one of the 30 Most Influential Street Photographers of the Year. She focuses more on the philosophy of street photography, rather than getting bogged down in technical aspects – for which a smartphone must surely be perfect. dimpybhalotia.com Look outside your subject ‘Explore the different mediums of art and craft. Read books outside the subject of photography. Photographing organically means not just sticking to what you already know. Sticking with what you are already familiar with will only suppress your creative vision.’ Know yourself better to develop your own style ‘I travelled a lot around the world and arranged my thoughts together to figure out what makes me happy. As I discover myself, and what I like, it helps me to develop my style. It is very important to understand oneself. Your work always reflects who you are – so let the energy of self-understanding be reflected in your work.’ Capture the moment ‘Acute observation and perception, and living consciously in the present, is the key to capturing moments on the street. When taking pictures, I merge into the crowd, letting no moment miss me – this always helps to capture the unpredictable moment.’ 93 Damien Demolder Know the reaction time Regular contributor and former AP editor Damien Demolder is a keen exponent of using smartphones, being particularly keen on using them for street photography. He says, ‘Smartphones are great for this type of photography as we always have them with us, and they allow us to capture moments we would otherwise just have to look at. They are not only available when we can’t be bothered to take a “real’ camera but also when it wouldn’t seem appropriate – such as a trip to the doctor’s or the loo (I once shot a man dressed as a chicken in the loo at Stansted Airport). Smartphones also help us to blend in, so other people won’t pay us any attention. A “proper” camera can sometimes make it obvious we are photographers, and clearly real photographers don’t use their phone to take pictures – this means you’ll be ignored when out with your phone.’ damiendemolder.com Be in control ‘Smartphones don’t really understand what atmosphere is, as they are inclined to make happy bright exposures that average people will be pleased with. Learn how to use exposure compensation, if you have it, or to meter from a bright area to influence the exposure. My street photography relies a lot on the way shadows look and I have to take control of the camera to make it do what I want it to. I can shoot in Pro Mode, which offers raw files and exposure compensation, or tap on the screen in normal Photo mode and drag my finger down to deepen the exposure. I try to work in Portrait mode when I’m just shooting JPEGs, as this gives me softer contrast and more moderate colour. Left to their own devices, smartphones will produce too much contrast and colour saturation. This is then hard to correct.’ Keep it straight ‘Street photography often contains some architecture in the background or foreground, and we all know getting buildings straight is very important if we aren’t shooting a dramatic angle. When we are in a hurry we can easily forget this and end up with slightly wonky backgrounds and falling-over buildings. With the wide lenses that smartphones tend to have, wonkiness will be exaggerated, so do your best to avoid it at the shooting stage. Of course these things can be fixed afterwards, but this means losing pixels and also a crop that your composition may not welcome. ‘Some smartphone lenses are a bit primitive and will distort at the edges, so when you straighten a picture in software you can end up with some strange effects.’ 94 ‘A lot of street photography is action photography, and capturing exactly the right moment can be critical to the success of the image. Most smartphones have some sort of lag between the shutter button being pressed and the picture actually being recorded, so you need to understand what that lag feels like. It may vary according to the mode you are using – my phone records the moment before I hit the button in one mode, and well after it in another. With practice I’ve learnt how far in advance I need to hit the button to get the picture I want. ‘I have also come to understand which shots are impossible for my phone to capture, so I save myself stress by not attempting them and concentrating on what it can do.’ IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Editing your street pictures on the go Damien Demolder explains a simple way to boost your street shots, all within your smartphone Editing the street pictures you take with your smartphone is as crucial as it is with pictures you shoot with any camera, so find an editing app you like that offers the controls you need. I tend to use Pixlr and Photoshop Express, as both provide detailed controls of contrast, colour, shadows, highlights and the ability to add ‘looks’ if you want to. Here’s a shot I took while waiting in the queue for Sainsbury’s. I liked the shadows of the late afternoon and the structure of the paving, along with the feet sticker and the actual feet. It’s called Social Distancing For Dummies. I didn’t have time to switch to Monochrome mode, so shot it in colour and tried to use the exposure controls to make the most of the shadows. The picture recorded is still too bright though. BEFORE AFTER 1 I took the picture into Pixlr and used the ‘agnes’ preset to turn it black & white. This preset boosts contrast a bit too much and showed that the picture is a little brighter than I want. I used the Exposure control in Adjustments to make it a fraction darker (-12). 2 Selecting Shadows in the Adjustment menu, I pulled the slider all the way down to the left to make the shadows as dark as I could. Even then they needed to come down a bit more. Before I did that though I pulled the highlights down a bit (-10) to introduce detail to the brighter areas. 3 4 5 6 Pixlr has a function called ‘auto contrast’, which adds contrast to micro details that crisps things up. It can overdo things and you can’t regulate the effect so I use it with caution. Here though it has enhanced the texture of the stones and sharpened the edges of the shadows. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk When I shot this I was concentrating on getting the sticker straight and didn’t notice it wasn’t level with the paving joints. So I used the rotate tool (1.2°) to partially correct this. On correcting it completely I lost too much of the sticker to the crop and the sticker looked wonky. I saved these settings and re-opened the Adjustments menu and, returning to the Shadows slider, I again dragged it all the way to the left to make them as dark as I could. This was about right as it gave the shadows plenty of body and added a lot of depth to the image. I lifted contrast a tad. I usually pull contrast down and use the shadow and highlight sliders to create impact; but here, in pulling down the exposure at the beginning of the process I’d created rather grey highlights. This contrast boost adds sparkle without losing any tonal detail. 95 Eric Mencher LA-based Eric Mencher shoots exclusively with an iPhone. He says, ‘Back when film was not only king but was really the only option, I was a Leica devotee. An M6 loaded with Tri-X was my constant companion. In today’s photographic epoch, also known as the digital age, I am an iPhone devotee. It is my camera and companion. Now, I dirty my thumb not in developer, but on my iPhone screen as I select, edit and tone my images using Snapseed, Hipstamatic, and iPhone filters. The Leica was simple and intuitive and the iPhone – for me – follows in that same tradition. While at times I miss my Leica, when I photograph these days I try to take advantage of what an iPhone is and how it operates.’ ericmencher.com Explore your phone’s different settings ‘It’s worth exploring the advantages of the different camera modes your smartphone generally provides, including options such as panorama mode and night mode. Shooting at dusk with the camera set on the Vivid filter can be incredibly striking, while the various “lighting” filters in portrait mode can provide a distinctive look. Spend time getting to know the different options available – both iPhone and Android models will have various modes other than the generic “photo” mode to explore.’ Try shooting onehanded ‘For all kinds of shooting, but in particular, street photography, I use either the native iPhone camera [app] or Hipstamatic. I typically hold the camera in my left hand and use the volume up button as the shutter release. That makes it a one-handed operation (allowing me to break the cardinal rule that Bresson so vehemently espoused – do not carry parcels), which is much quicker than using the regular shutter www.amateurphotographer.co.uk IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Get the exposure right ‘Because the cameras in smartphones typically have very small sensors, it’s imperative to get a good exposure in camera when you can. It’s worth using the exposure lock. For iPhones, you can access this by long pressing on the screen in the native iPhone camera app and manipulating exposure compensation by dragging the slider up and down. For Android the process is very similar, or you can often access an exposure compensation setting in “professional” or “advanced” modes. If highlights are burned out using a smartphone camera, it’s very hard to get them back – but it’s much easier to get details back from shadows, or darken shadows for added drama. For this reason, underexposing your images slightly – ready for editing later – can be helpful.’ ‘Shooting at dusk with the camera set on the Vivid filter can be incredibly striking’ Best smartphones for street photography Our pick of the finest smartphones to appeal to photographers Apple iPhone 12 Pro O £999 O apple.com With three different lenses to choose from, you get good scope to shoot street scenes from a variety of perspectives. Also particularly handy for street photography is the way the native camera app makes use of the additional lenses to show you what’s going on outside the frame – useful for spotting the decisive moment. With very little lag and a new ‘ProRAW’ mode, the iPhone 12 Pro is a fantastic creative tool, but it would be nice to have some more advanced shooting options within the native camera app. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra O From £1,149 O samsung. com Probably the best smartphone camera currently on the market, this high-end model from Samsung boasts four different focal lengths. The zoom lenses could come in handy for discreet street photography, while the large and bright screen makes composition a delight. We particularly like the extensive native camera app which boasts a number of different shooting options, including an impressive Pro mode which enables raw shooting. OnePlus 9 Pro O from £829 O oneplus.com Co-developed with Hasselblad, the OnePlus 9 Pro has a lot of useful features for photographers. One of its standout features is the 48-million-pixel www.amateurphotographer.co.uk main camera which is ideal for picking out fine detail in street scenes. There’s a triple-lens selectable set-up but a fourth monochrome camera is used for creating better black & white shots, which some street photographers might also find helpful. An excellent optical zoom lens and a range of extensive features in the native camera app, along with a reasonable price, make the OnePlus a smart option for lots of reasons. Sony Xperia 5 II O £799 O sony.co.uk Taking some of its prowess from its range of ‘proper’ cameras, Sony’s Xperia series includes a lot of appealing features for photographers. The Xperia 5 II is a solid mid-range option that comes in at an attractive price but still has a significant number of high-end specs. A useful ‘Photo Pro’ mode is comprehensively featured and includes the ability to record in raw format, while functions such as Eye AF can come in handy when photographing people. Unlike some other models featured here, it’s a relatively small size and includes some physical buttons on the side, making it a discreet option compared to some others, too. Google Pixel 5 O £599 O store.google.com A great-value option, the Pixel 5 is akin to a basic point-and-shoot camera, but it does the job, and does it well. There are only two lenses – which in comparison to others is a little lacking – but you still get wide and ultra-wide options. The fast processor means that there’s very little lag when using the camera, making it well-suited to fast-paced street photography. You can shoot in raw format, but the native camera app is reasonably simple (and arguably limited). It’d be nice to have a bit more flexibility – plus an extra telephoto lens – but the price makes this an ideal option for those on a stricter budget. 97 Missed an issue of AP? Ring our back issue orderline on 01959 543 747 or just go online, see below... shop.kelsey.co.uk/issue/list/publication/AMP www.kelsey.co.uk
