Liverpool Street Shoot

Liverpool Street Shoot

I went to Liverpool on Saturday, principally to visit the Open Eye Gallery, but also to try some more street photography.  The gallery itself was a bit of a disappointment but I really enjoyed wandering around a new city grabbing shots as I went.

The image shown above was taken minutes after arriving in the city, it's the stairway in large underground car park.  Some children were playing on the semi-transparent roof and it created a strange abstract image when I looked straight up at it.

Currently I'm drawn to capturing images of the older generation.  This group caught my eye as I walked between two shopping centres.  The postures and interactions between the two pairs was appealing.  The lady with the legs crossed in the 'wrong' direction serves as the focal point for the shot and I was lucky that they were sat under a stairway as this created a relatively neutral background for me.  I love that each of the subjects has a different facial expression, I wish the lady on the left hadn't caught sight of the camera.  The camera, my GX1, worked as brilliantly as ever at capturing detail - you can even see the support sock on the lady second from the left. 

This street performer was keeping a large crowd enthralled.  I just caught the end of his first drum solo and put some money in his bowl.  This made me more confident about taking photos of him and I tried several different positions and angles until I thought I had something usable.  One of the bad habits I'm trying to overcome is 'chimping'.  This is where you take a photo and then, straight away, stare at the LCD screen and make 'ooh ahh' sounds.  It's a bad habit as you can guarantee that the 'decisive moment' will occur as you look at the screen and you will miss it.  I am also trying to shoot at the 14mm end of my telephoto lens as it forces me closer to my subjects and gives a more personal feel to the images.  As with all my black and white images I converted this using the truly amazing Silver Efex Pro 2 software.  For this shot I had to use individual control points to lighten the drummer's face very slightly to improve it as a focal point at the top of the bucket-bottle-face triangle. I was lucky that in this image two of the bystanders were looking straight at the drummer and this helps to bring the viewer's eye back into the frame.

This final image was taken whilst I was grabbing some calories in a fast food restaurant.  I was sat in the window so I could try and take pictures of people gawping at a large menu board.  I happened to notice that a second menu board was splitting the harsh midday light into two distinct beams.  I waited patiently for someone to sit at the window and was lucky enough that this guy came along.  He was setting up his meal and very distracted and so I grabbed two frames as he dipped his head into the light beam.  

There are a few more images from the day on my Flickr pages and you can see them HERE

Book Review: Baghdad Calling

Book Review: Baghdad Calling

Geert Van Kesteren

ISBN 9789059730830

Much of the talk during the presentations at The Eye festival this year was centered around the future of photo-journalism.  This book is a great example of many of the professionals fears - that the 'citizen reporter' will soon overtake the paid veteran.  

This book has been printed on two different types of paper.  The bulk of the book has been printed on what looks and feels like newspaper.  The colours are subdued and the image quality is low.  This is obviously a deliberate choice by the publishers to make the book feel like a collection of cut-outs from contemporary newspapers at the time of the trouble sin Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Turkey.  The images were all collected by Kesteren and his team to give an exclusive insight into the lives of everyday citizens.  By using these images, many taken on mobile phones, he is able to present pictures from locations and situations that a professional journalism would never have access to.  Many of the images seem mundane, a wedding, men in a public park, a market place but dispersed amongst these shots are scenes of dead bodies in the street, bullet riddled buildings and the aftermath of suicide bombings.  These images are not exceptionally graphic but there placement amongst the 'banal' serves to shock the viewer as they skim the pages.

In addition to the collected images is a photo essay by Kesteren.  His images are presented on a higher quality a paper on pages that are slightly smaller than the rest of the book.  The difference in quality is huge, both  of the print and the actual photographic skill.  Kesteren is clearly fighting the case for the professional journalist.  The level of access he has is less than that of the amateurs but his use of light, framing and composition add a level of beauty to his images.  

Each chapter is a compilation of images from one 'hotspot'.  At the start of every chapter is a few pages of text, extracts from diaries or eye witness accounts from people who lived through the troubles.  Much like the book 'It's All Good' these stories really add to the book.  This is a device I will need to consider for any future work I may be attempting. 

For me both sets of images are equally important and are strengthened by being shown together in one book.  Photo journalism is close to a tipping point and the future is unclear.  Books like Baghdad Calling show how the amateur and professional could work together.  The amateur images give a greater level of access but the sheer volume of images produced during any event requires strict filtering to capture the essence of the moment.  This can then supported by the images from a professional who is able to pick specific topics to represent and, in a way, act as a figurehead for the massed images.  Without Kesteren many of these images may have been lost forever and that would be a terrible shame.

Baghdad Calling can be bought on Amazon HERE