you'll never walk alone

First of all I feel humbled to have had a responsibility for the work that all contributors have put into my Street Photography Now Community instruction. I appreciate it was dangerously close to parody and not very helpful in a practical way. Nevertheless you've created a great body of work that I'm proud to have an association with. They've certainly made an impact. I've been carrying them around in my head for the last couple of weeks.

There are some real standouts, displays of intuition and reflex worthy of a ninja. There are also some slow burners, some growers, whose worth is revealed over time. This is a bit of a theme of my own work and also an opportunity to apologise for not making this post on Flickr. Its instant nature has been a barrier to me. Indeed I'd have struggled to respond to my own instruction in the timescale!

Working with film, as I do, splits the making of an image into two moments. One the act of taking it. The other, the flipside, the moment of seeing it come back to life on a contact sheet, maybe months later. This had lead me to the notion that, for me at least, the essence of street photography is about savouring that initial moment of seeing the shot, of sharing the moment. Whether I got it or not is a separate experience to be enjoyed in its own way later.

Aha you'll say, sounds like a lame excuse from someone too slow to make the grade. Well youngsters, maybe getting a little older does have something to do with it, but perhaps it's more an appreciation that our calling as street photographers is a privileged one. To stop and stare is a precious responsibility, one built on the shoulders of our predecessors.

Anyway less talk, more action. It's been tortuous but here's my selection: Christos Biniaris, James Guppy, Helene Mashkova, Kuba Paczkowski and Mark Russell.

It's a well worn observation but this process of "exposing" my way of working to you all has certainly made me stop and reflect on my own motivations.

Seeing and reading all your responses is a new experience for me and not one I had the opportunity of when I started out back in the day. Finding them now when I've been working pretty much independently is significant. Thank you. You walk with me still.

welcome to my world

If you've stumbled across me courtesy of the Street Photography Now Community then I'm very pleased to meet you. The brief I've set is very much open to your individual interpretation. If you're interested in understanding where I'm coming from with it then please read on. If not, then just get out on the street now!

I'd toyed with a more directive instruction. There's certainly been some great ones already in the series. My first instinct was to reflect my own approach

"Take a picture without looking"

However when I thought about it a little longer it didn't feel particularly inspirational for anyone to follow so I tried

"Let the picture find you"

That felt stronger.

Then it struck me that successful street photography for me is about moments. Not just decisive ones where all elements of an image meet each other in a happy accident to create something substantially more than the sum of their parts, but those instances when I connect to the flow of life around me, where I feel both inside of it yet outside too, like a musician finding a perfect riff out of thin air.

Helpful? Even more confused? Don't worry! No pressure!

"Be of the moment. Let the picture find you"

one chapter closes, another opens

Ambiguous is now available to buy on Blurb! I've attempted to keep it as affordable as possible - hence using Bookify and a small format - but there are plenty of ways of upgrading it with finer paper and covers. I actually enjoy the pocket-size feel of it: it's more of a travelling companion than a coffee table ornament. I really think it's stayed faithful to the original idea too. Hope you agree!

So, what next? Well I'd like to introduce you to a new project. No, not Ambiguous 2, with twice the budget and half the ideas, but something a little more ambitious and no it's not Ambiguous 3D!

The principles of this new project are familiar. Images from your archive, hard drive, shoe box, what you will. A re-viewing of them, putting to one side the original intention behind taking them. Some words too.This time I'd like you to pick out a bystander, someone with nothing to do with the original subject of the photograph. I'm not talking photobombing here. Just a face in the crowd, the back of a head, a reflection, a shadow,  Still with me? Good. Now the hard part.

Have you ever played a childrens' game of story-telling, making the plot up as you go, one line at a time? Well that's the simple idea behind this project. This time, instead of drawing on a personal memory based on fact, I'm appealing to your fictional flair! I'd like us to tell a story of that character in the picture - adding one or two lines at a time - threaded together by our images.

For example, here are some candidates of mine in mind to kickstart the project.

It could be the woman to the left closing her eyes, because of the sun perhaps, or the man seated scratching his nose, maybe it's itchy, to the right.

This won't be everyone's cup of tea I know. However I'm not anticipating Shakespeare. It's about seeing how far we can stretch reality and explore the truth of any photograph. Kids' stuff.

Interested? Willing to give it a shot? Of course you are!

To join the book project - no obligation, no fee, a small chance of immortality - please send an email with the subject line "Me too!" to sean@waysofwalking.net

I'll then be back in contact when I have a picture for you to respond to.

Oh one more thing. The name of this project?
Naturally, it's Incidental.

eyes on the street

I try and mix my reading between fact and fiction. Much like my life really. Two books I've recently enjoyed, Ground Control by Anna Minton and The Man of the Crowd by Edgar Allan Poe, have given me some great insight into my street photography.

I've always been conscious, and used to my advantage, the aversion of most people on the street to actively looking around. This self absorption is a natural defence mechanism to unwanted eye contact. However the act of looking can be interpreted as an act of social responsibility. Drawing on Jane Jacobs's portrait of New York neighbourhoods of the fifties, their rhythms of daily life observed by a cast of characters from a Helen Levitt street scene, Minton contrasts that particular form of natural surveillance, mutually acknowledged by strangers for the common good, with our modern experience. 

Granted it's a jump, perhaps not so great, to the anonymous, unsyncopated churn of London's west end of today but what struck me was her description of this activity as the "eyes on the street". Who now occupies this role? Who is sensitive to the hour of the day, to the random acts of strangers?

This notion of eyes on the street, of a self-anointed guardian angel, sprang to life when I then read Poe's short story. In The Man of the Crowd I'm dragged through the streets of Victorian London in pursuit of an anonymous figure, an odd man out, a consequence of the author's surreptitious survey of the passing scene.

The wild effects of the light enchained me to an examination of individual faces; and although the rapidity with which the world of light flitted before the window prevented me from casting more than a glance upon each visage, still it seemed that, in my then peculiar mental state, I could frequently read, even in that brief interval of a glance, the history of long years.

Published in 1840, neatly coinciding with the pioneering work of Fox Talbot, Poe foreshadows a street photography routine, one in fact taken up superbly by Sophie Calle's Suite Vénitienne.

On reflection these two sources give me a real sense of the significance of street photographers today, just in the simple act of doing what we do: stopping, looking, stopping, following. Minding other people's busi-ness.

Land, ho!

Captain's log, March 14th 2012...
I'm proud to announce the safe arrival of the good ship Ambiguous. Passage has taken just over 12 months and taken in a number of ports around the globe. Progress had been constant, only becalmed around the turn of the year. The crew are a disparate bunch but all shown great endeavour in our enterprise.

Yes I imagine many of you believed this mission had proven the world really is flat, and fallen off it, but you are mistaken! I had little idea this project would take the time it has but I'm still incredibly pleased.

Looking at all the images submitted since last March is a walk through a family album of sorts. In the same way a snap of a childhood day at the beach prompts reflection beyond the frame on the circumstances of the event, each participant in the Ambiguous Book Project has not only given up an image but also some real insight into their lives. For me the ideas I've harboured around the meaning of images and the interpretations they are open to has been wonderful to explore.

Now we enter the Book part of the project. I've been working on layout ideas and will be shortly contacting all the participants with details.

Prepare for landing!