Is Less More, or Is More Less? Part I

William Eggleston, that really terrific photographer from the US who chronicles urban life so wonderfully, has a rule: one subject, one photograph. He reckons that he was getting so confused trying to decide which frame was the best one that he gave up and now only one exposure per subject. Of course he’s the first to admit that sometimes this strategy results in a good image, and sometimes it doesn't.

Then, at the other extreme, we have the ‘spray and pray’ brigade, or put another way, we have the ‘photographers’ who use their camera like a machine gun, ‘shooting’ at x frames a second. And, you know what? Sometimes these people end up with a good image; most of the time though they end up with a whole lot of film used or memory cards filled with no result at all worth bothering about.

A disclaimer from me before we go any further. I absolutely despise the language of photography sometimes (I have a post on the subject if you’d like to read it). ‘Spray and pray” strikes me as crude in the extreme from a standpoint of language alone. And ‘shoot’, ‘machine gun’, and all the rest of the violent, acquisitive, even war like language we use when talking about photography. Now, having got that out of the way, let’s move on shall we?

The digital camera and other aspects of the digital revolution give us the freedom to press that shutter button as often and for as long as we like, without any apparent cost. Of course in the old days of film with just 24 or 36 frames per roll, we had to take a little more care about what we photographed—unless of course someone else was paying for the film. Mind you, even then, you had to change rolls sometimes in a hurry and memory cards have relieved us of such inconveniences forever.

So, where does all this leave us as serious photographers? Do we just fall into line and keep the old shutter finger permanently down? Or do we take Eggleston’s approach and just make one frame of any one subject? Well, obviously both are extreme positions aren't they? Let’s look at each approach separately for a minute.

‘Spray and pray’ is not only crude as language but is, in my opinion, a crude way to pretend to create photographs. Yes, pretend. It is not, again in my opinion, photography; it is nothing really. Well it is, it’s abuse of the wonderful potential of the technology of photography and an insult to all serious artists. Strong opinions? Yes, indeed. But it’s what I believe. And that’s it!

But, what do you get if you take that approach? As I said you may end up with one or more good images in terms of recording some expressions or movements or whatever. But, look, even sports photographers if they are good, mostly keep their cameras in single frame mode. They know that at several frames a second you are quite often going to miss that special move, or expression or other exciting moment. John Free, the humanistic and compassionate street photographer, talks about how we photographers work at 1/500th of a second (shutter speed), so even at ten frames a second you are going to miss a lot with this machine gun approach aren't you?

Indulge me once again as I make another declaration. Whenever I hear or read a photographer saying “I went out today, shot 1000 frames and if I'm lucky I will get one keeper out of the lot”, I cringe. Do people realise what they are actually saying when they make this absurd statement? They are claiming to be completely hopeless photographers. Why would anyone bother? First of all to make that many images and secondly to waste their lives with so little to show for it? Mind you, a good life is not just about what you can ‘show for it’ is it? So, well, let those people get on with it. I will say no more about such activity!

End of Part I. part II is coming soon!!

Peace!

Three Heroes Visit the Land of Forgotten Angels

We hear a lot about how populations everywhere are ageing. And many of us of course are confronted with this fact as not only parents age but as we ourselves grow older. Another thing we hear a lot about is the lack of services for older people and in many cases the lack of respect and thought given t these people that sometimes reaches the extent of old people not only dying alone but laying undiscovered for months and even years.

The film I am posting here is by three photographers in Singapore who decided they would like to document and publicise how old people live in a retirement home. They hope to raise awareness of the issues associated with ageing and care for older people.

They have called their film Journey into the Land of Forgotten Angels. This is a title I really relate to and respect. It is also a lovely film made with compassion, love, hope and a sense of mission that I can really admire and support So, please watch this short film and share it widely amongst your friends. Oh, and watch for the scene of the front of the retirement home: they have Love printed above the front door. How groovy is that?
Peace to you all.

PS One thing we who are artists could learn from these guys is how powerful our art can be. I know as a photographer that I could do a lot more to highlight social issues, raise awareness and contribute to the sum total of goodness in the world.

Ron Corbin: Street Photographer of the Lost Angels of the Streets

Before tonight I had never heard of Ron Corbin. I can't believe that I haven't come across him or his work before.  Such an angel of a human being, he deserves to be known universally. A humble and compassionate person, Corbin is a street photographer of a special kind. His images are not "pretty"; he says so himself. He photographs people in deep distress, caused by substance abuse, street life and the horrors that go with those things. There is beauty here despite the ugliness. It is the beauty that resides in the essence of life, in the souls of us all, regardless of the lives we've lived or are living. 

Anyway, I won't detract from this marvellous work by prattling on. You will perhaps be shocked by what you see on this video, but you will be the better for it. I've been humbled tonight, watching Mr Corbin speak and looking closely at his photographs. He photographs the people most of us prefer not to see and from whom we turn away. 

For Corbin street photography is not about the hunt, it's not about stealing souls or capturing a quirky or cool scene. For him it is about making a record of those invisible people, angels lost in the wasteland of alcohol, drugs, prostitution. In other words, lives lived on the street. I know it's trite and such a "cliché" these days but I truly believe there is something amiss in our world when the atrocities you will see hinted at here are allowed to continue. It is also a sin (in the real sense of the word) that we idolise and reward people for being nasty, competitive, vain and "hard", but ignore truly compassionate artists such as Ron Corbin. He struggles "from pay check to pay check" while talentless "celebs" get rich from their five minutes on "reality" television. No justice there is there?

I offer this video in the hope it will be watched by many and that those who watch it will be inspired to do something. Anything at all, but something

Peace to you all

paul

A Fresh Take on the Decisive Moment

I've been thinking for a while about Henri Cartier-Bresson and how he is known (among other things) for "inventing" the concept of The Decisive Moment. Finding and 'capturing' the decisive moment is a kind of holy grail for many photographers, especially social documentary and street photographers.

Then this morning I read a friend's post on a famous quote by another photographer that has been misinterpreted or used to justify opposing points of view (well what's odd about that you might ask in our world of cut and paste, of spin, of just generally taking things out of context). So, I thought, this is my chance to have a look at the Decisive Moment concept: where it's come from, what it means and what I think about it all in relation to my own work.

First up, let's look at what Cartier-Bresson actually said about the concept. Well, after a very long and often interesting, surf of the net, I failed to find a single quote from the man himself that includes the words 'decisive moment'. Here, though is one quote that comes close:

“I kept walking the streets, high-strung, and eager to snap scenes of convincing reality, but mainly I wanted to capture the quintessence of the phenomenon in a single image. Photographing, for me, is instant drawing, and the secret is to forget you are carrying a camera

And then there is this from in interview from 1957:

Photography is not like painting. There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! the Moment! Once you miss the moment it is gone forever. 

No direct mention here of the Decisive Moment, although we see 'moment' in that second quote. I think actually that this second quote is a fairly good definition of the decisive moment, though I'm still bothered.

Here's the thing. We can accept that when we are making a photograph and  it all falls into place that this is the 'decisive' moment, but what is this mysterious 'it'. We can say, lighting, composition, subjects and all the rest, have to be in the right place at that right time, but what really determines exactly when the 'decisive moment' occurs? You see, I have a motto myself: There are no ordinary moments. Meaning, of course that every moment is special, and yes it is I think true to say, every moment is decisive.

And here's a little bit of evidence to suggest that I might just be onto something here. From my research I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty where the actual words 'decisive moment' came from. Jean Francios Paul de Gondi, a cardinal no less of the Roman Catholic church who lived from 1613 to 1679 and came from a rich banking family (didn't they all in those days? Churchman didn't always mean holyman) wrote this:

There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.

In other words, this rich (though he ran up huge debts and died "poor") cardinal who isn't known for much other than writing his memoirs and whose main claim to fame in our time is that he is to be found on Wikipedia, came up with the idea that a lot of us photographers use as some kind of benchmark for our own work.

Of course he is saying that all of life, all that happens has its decisive moment. I, in my not quite infinite wisdom, choose to believe he means by this that no moment is by definition "ordinary". 

So, does this mean we just keep our finger down on the shutter button? Do we 'spray and pray" (what a disgusting image that conjures up; what a sad way to use a camera) and hope we come up with some kind of 'decisive moment'? Hardly. For me it means that every moment has the potential to be special. A street scene of people milling about at a bus stop for example, is always for someone going to contain something special. If I come along with my camera it will be a good scene to photograph or it won't be. It will depend, as we say, on the coming together of elements. And one of those elements is me! Or you; the photographer anyway. 

What I am getting to here in my usual round about way is this: If I am THERE at that bus stop, really there, and I choose to make a photograph, then almost by definition I will come up with a decisive moment. This is so because by being truly present in that space and in that time (ie the moment) I will simply be another element that joins with the flow of all the other elements. I will 'see', I will 'feel' how it is and what is going on. Whether that photograph will be worth processing and showing to others, well that's another question (for another day).

What I try to keep in mind, and our cardinal friend here has helped me remember this, is that even if the photograph I've made isn't one I choose to process and/or show to others, it doesn't matter. In some way, in some form, I have preserved a decisive moment. What I need to bear in mind is, of course, that it may not be a moment that makes a great photograph  it may not be THE one I want to keep and preserve.

It is the coming together and it is the attempt at coming together, that makes what we do worthwhile as documentary or street photographers. It is the intention, the attitude, the frame of mind, we come to our work with, that matters. It is also of great importance that we recognise that all moments are special, that none are "ordinary". That way our life is one long significant - and decisive - moment.

Oh, one last thing. Take a look at this famous image by Cartier-Bresson. It has been cited by many as a classic example of the 'Decisive Moment'. And it is indeed just that; it shows us a very special moment and it has been photographed in a very special way.

Would you like to know how the master made this photograph  Now, it may or may not be true, but I have read in a number of sources that he held his camera above his head so it could see over a fence, through which he himself could not see, and he made the frame.

Chance? Serendipity? Coincidence? No. None of these can explain this extraordinary photograph, this decisive moment. The only explanation is that the photographer was really there, his intuition was working, he was one with his camera, and he just knew, he just felt, when the right moment to press the shutter came. Cartier-Bresson was, in very real terms himself right there in that decisive moment. That is the holy grail I seek: to be in the moment with my subjects. That way, all moments are special, all are decisive

They Took the Children Away

Inspired by a genocidal atrocity systematically committed over many decades and which shames my country, this  video poses the question, How could it be that people thought it  a good idea to take children away from their families because - and only because - of their ethnicity? Not to mention that the stolen ones belonged to the first peoples of this land. It also makes the point, I think clearly, that it is impossible for anyone, unless they have had their children stolen to know what it is like; nor can anyone who hasn't experienced it possibly know what the stolen ones have experienced.For me it also poses this question: How would I feel? I dedicate this video to the children and their parents and as a kind of prayer: may such atrocities never be visited upon anyone ever again.Peace to you all