Books Archives - Street Photography

Brice Gelot Archives Vol.1

Johnny Mobasher — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 18:32:42 +0000

A Book of TRUST

In Comes to Print, a 2022-2023 Chunk of Amazing Photography, out of several long terms project with No Ending!

Brice’s first archival book represents much more than a simple compilation of images. This period, from February 2022 to July 2023, was marked by the consolidation of strong photographic series, which became the basis of long-term work. Though An “Archive” I interpret it as a Book Of Trust. Trust of Folks in Rough Neighbourhoods, Gang Members, Mafia….. et al & Trust in Himself to undertake such a life revolving yet volatile project.

This book embodies, on the one hand, an attempt to present this thematic work in a tangible and chronological manner, but also to observe its evolution over the volumes. It is an authentic dive into his universe, at the heart of street culture, far from tourist clichés, approaching its dark, intangible side, often invisible, sometimes hidden, or masked by the indifference of society. On the other hand, this book was born from the desire to pay tribute to all the people who crossed my path, with whom I shared rare, sometimes intimate moments, and who nourished my thoughts on crucial themes, Violence, Poverty, Religion & Friendships…..

Shot entirely in Black & White & in USA, France, Italy & France, The Archives is beyond simple visual capture, Brice’s objective has been and is to lead the viewer to transcend clichés and familiar street scenes to foster a deeper understanding of different cultures and lifestyles, particularly on the issue of disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

“My photographs aspire to raise awareness, educate and encourage intercultural dialogue by highlighting differences, while breaking down stereotypes that can surround these communities.”

Archives Vol 1, is No Ordinary book. It’s Not just “ANOTHER” Photography book, It’s a Book of Life.

Look Closely & you might even see yourself on one of the pages.

For more information & to buy a copy, Visit his Website

https://www.nsd5150.com/ And follow him on Instagram

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TAXI by Joseph Rodriguez. A Review by Michael Ernest Sweet

Michael Ernest Sweet — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 22:06:00 +0000

Taxi by Joseph Rodriguez. Review by Michael Ernest Sweet

The idea of making photographs while driving a cab is certainly not a novel idea. Ryan Weideman, Michael Goldfarb, David Bradford, and Matt Weber all come to mind. Joseph Rodriguez is yet another member of this club. In this new monograph from Rodriguez, we see some of his finest images from his time behind the wheel. Taxi is a worthy collection of work. It is visually obvious that Rodriguez is a trained photographer. He’s got eyes for poignant subject matter and elegant composition. The book is not without its flaws, however, as both elements of the text and the photo editing leave me underwhelmed. Let’s dig in.

I very much like Rodriguez’s photography. I think he is a fine photographer with a lot to say. Some of his images instantly bring to mind greats like Robert Frank and, with some of his best compositions, even Henri Cartier-Bresson. Much of his work has the gritty content one would find in a Robert Frank photograph but with the refined composition more akin to HCB. These are good traits to have in your work. And, as much as these kind of name-dropping compliments are bantered about these days, I truly do mean what I say here. Look at the images and you do, instantly, see the references to these great photographers. When experiencing the book one comes across one photograph that is raw and crude, both in content and composition, and then another that is much more subtle and refined. Some are clearly very candid and others imply at least some tacit cooperation from the subject. This makes for a fine mix of aesthetics that, in some way, come to define Rodriguez’s own personal style.

When it comes to the text in the book I am less enthusiastic. Let me say, up front, that I am not a huge fan of text in photography monographs (other than, say, a foreword essay or the like). Yet, I see more and more of these hybrid photo-text books lately, which makes me think it is nonsense coming from publishers and marketing people. Listen, marketing people: Photography books should contain photography. I think that a photograph should stand on its own, and should tell its own story. For better or worse, there the photograph is. If words are needed to contextualize and explain, the photograph is not doing its job. Adding to my feelings with this particular book are some text bits that are somewhat judgmental – passages about men looking for sex on the streets or some of the comments about sex workers. I would have been less bothered if the text was descriptive and objective, rather than judgmental and subjective. So it goes. There was one bit of text, however, that rang true to me. It reads, “A cab becomes a place to hear stories. It also becomes like a psychiatrist’s office. People have so much to tell you.” For me, that is enough text for the whole book. It is pure and true and works wonderfully to contextualize the following collection of photographs. Not to belabor the point, but at times I was confused about the heavy sex angle of the narration. To be clear, I’m no Mormon, but it did nothing for my experience as a viewer.

Rodriguez clearly has high regard for humanity: This clearly and poignantly shows in his work. He equally loves the beautiful bits and the ugly bits of what makes us human – a vital skill for a documentary photographer. To only show the beautiful is pedestrian and to show nothing but the ugly is shallow. A New York cabbie could have gone wholly in either direction but Rodriguez didn’t. He remained true to documenting the delicate dance that is the human condition in action, and I am elated he did. Rodriguez understands that the camera is a pliant tool and not merely a mechanical tyrant – he has made it submissive to his highly mature vision and we have all benefited. It is worth noting that a small handful of photographs feel either out-of-place or generally underwhelming, however. They have interest only insofar as they are of a certain age, which, for me, is not enough justification for their inclusion between these covers.

The book as a physical object is highly satisfying. PowerHouse books did a wonderful job with this one. The cover is highly tactile and the cover image is beautifully and faithfully reproduced. The whole book exudes the quality one expects of an art monograph. Finally, it is priced very competitively given these qualities.

Taxi is a great collection of photography from a particular moment in New York City history. Rodriguez is clearly an artist and a documentarian and that is on full display in this collection. Despite my few nitpicks, I can honestly and wholeheartedly recommend this book to any collector of fine photography monographs. My signed copy will remain in my personal collection, and that isn’t something I can say for every book sent my way.

Trim Size: 9-¾ x 7-½ inches

Page Count: 132

ISBN: 9781576879313

Order a signed copy of TAXI here.

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Sally Davies’ New Yorkers A Review by Michael Ernest Sweet

Michael Ernest Sweet — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 22:13:00 +0000

Sally Davies’ New Yorkers

A Review by Michael Ernest Sweet

I am in this book. I am telling you this now so that you will not accuse me of something later. With that out of the way, I have to say this is one fantastic collection of photography. The reasons for my opinion are many but, before we get into the specifics, let’s back up and talk about why I am writing about a book of portraits on a street photography website. The answer is simple: Sally Davies is not only a street photographer, but she is also a founding member here at StreetPhotography.com Now, with all this burble behind us, let’s dig in.

Many readers of this site may already be familiar with the street photography of Sally Davies. Often shot after dark, and in some of New York City’s seediest neighborhoods, her images evoke a kind of visceral emotion. They are at once both beautiful and ugly. They are gritty and yet also refined. The combined result is a signature style that Davies has become known for the world over. For many years we only got street shots from Davies. That is until now.

A couple of years ago, while sitting among the din of an East Village diner, a place Sally and I affectionately refer to as “nasty diner”, Sally lamented the state of street photography – a conversation we’ve all become acquainted with over the years. How does one stay fresh? How does one make any money? Have I shot everything already? And so on. Perhaps not the most optimistic person to chat with about street photography, I told Sally what I tell everyone who drags me into this conversation – dump this shit and move on. But I did add another piece of advice: Go out and shoot something that no one else can shoot. Get access to something that others won’t be able to access. That will lead you to the promised land. Okay, I’m making this up now, I didn’t really say that last line. Was I responsible for pushing Davies over the edge and into greatness? Maybe. Not likely. The point is, she went out and did just that – she photographed a collection of New Yorkers (in their most intimate of settings) that only Davies could have done. From the compelling composition and acute visual sensibility, to the ability to “get into” these people’s homes, no one but Davies could have accomplished this feat. And what a feat it has been. The book is a modern classic and it hasn’t even been officially released!

New Yorkers is a visual cornucopia of artifice and eccentricity. The book features more than seventy portraits of New Yorkers in their homes and studios. From artists, writers, teachers, bankers, designers, dog walkers, musicians, cab drivers, and the “born rich”, to more unique characters like loan sharks, pornography writers, telephone sex girls, drag queens, and bootleggers, the book is brimming with the most exciting voyeuristic opportunities. To anyone that thought they knew all about New York and its quirky inhabitants I say this – you don’t know a thing. Nearly every image in the book is a cluttered and busy reveal of homes that range from impressive (even for New York) to places more akin to the developing world. Once you’ve finished gawking at the people, you can then move on to examining these very entertaining backdrops. There are apartments with bathtubs in the kitchens, kitchens in the living rooms, and living rooms in the bedrooms. Mantle pieces laden with penis props, walls of animal heads, rooms of collectible toys, studios of art (one four-foot painting depicts a woman gingerly fondling her vagina). I sometimes used a magnifying glass. I have read the titles of books on tables and shelves, inspected food in cabinets and on tables, and even read prescription bottles. This book is a Where’s Waldo for the adult crowd. There are literally hundreds of hours of viewing between the covers of New Yorkers.

Another unique and wonderful feature of this collection of photography is the accompanying text. Not always a fan of text in art monographs – I often feel a good photograph does not need any explanation: for better or worse, there the photograph is – this collection makes profound use of the written word. Not only do we get to ogle over the people and their personal spaces, but we get to read all about them too! From a guy who apparently “performs monologues” to pay the rent, to a woman who worked for a man who included “naked photos of himself” in their pay packets, the narratives combine with the portraits to complete a highly complex narrative that never disappoints.

The physical book is a slight disappointment. The quality is not on par with the quality of the work. The book is too small and the cover is a bit commercial and gimmicky. I was also not particularly impressed with the binding quality. While these are slights against the publisher, and not the author or her work, I still feel they should be mentioned. Ammonite Press could have done better. Indeed, the book would have found a better home with Phaidon or Taschen. The work is truly that good. Sally Davies, we are sad to see your lens leave the street, but oh boy we are also truly thankful for this modern classic collection of stunningly unique portraits.

New Yorkers
by Sally Davies
with a foreword by Stuart Horodner
10.24 x 8.27 inches
160 pages

Available for preorder ( On Sale from April 1st 2021 ) on Amazon. USA

& Available to order from Amazon UK

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The Shadow Knows by Lee Friedlander

Michael Ernest Sweet — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 15:22:08 +0000

The Shadow Knows by Lee Friedlander

Review by Michael Ernest Sweet

The Shadow Knows, a new collection of work by Lee Friedlander, is one of those books of photography that makes you say, out loud, “Gee, if only I had thought of this!” Put another way, it’s a damn good book of photography. Friedlander, an American photographer, has been producing fantastic and original photography for a very long time. He began earning pocket-money from photography when he was just fourteen, which would have been in 1948. However, it was during the 1960s when Friedlander came into his own and garnered attention from those who matter, like Nathan Lyons, who was the curator at the George Eastman House. This new volume, from SPQR Editions, features Friedlander’s “shadow” photographs, which span virtually his entire professional career. The earliest is dated 1963 and others are dated as recently as 2011. One could, I suppose, rush out and make such a collection in a week, perhaps even a weekend, but it would show – the images would be almost certainly trite. The quality of these images is a testament to the immense time invested in collecting them.

There are many things that I love about this book. I will discuss a few in turn and, be warned, will offer little negative criticism – there is, simply put, little to find. One of the immediate benefits this book delivers is the ability to draw in viewers and insist that they “read” the photographs. With every image, one finds themself carefully examining each photo from left to right, top to bottom – we, the viewer, delving deeply to dissect the interplay between the shadow and the backdrop. It is nearly impossible to merely “look” or “glimpse” at these photographs. You cannot see them in this way – the way far too many images today are viewed – and, because of this wonderful quality, Friedlander has achieved no mean feat in producing this collection. In many cases, the background elements, this ephemera, is as fundamental to the image as the cameo, in shadow form, of Friedlander himself. One without the other is, well, not as effective as a photograph. It is this whimsical assemblage of the two elements, in concert, that makes the art in these pictures.

Another aspect of this work that jumps out at me is the very pleasant sense of humor, coupled with keen intellectualism – a lot is being said in these pictures. Although Friedander’s formal schooling is not all that extensive, his images, in many of his collections, exude an intellectual curiosity and awareness of the world and its cultures. Friedlander’s influences – such as the likes of Robert Frank and Walker Evans – are also highly visible in his work. Some may argue that this kind of “reading into” the work is unnecessary, at best, and snobby, at worst, but I would still defend it as an element that gives this work strength and longevity – hallmarks of master photography. Looked at another way, many photographers can make a photo of their shadow in front of a storefront or atop a pile of stones, but not many can do so in a way where the end product immediately takes on a timelessness.

Lee Friedlander is a great example of a photographer who kept on doing his own thing, despite any criticism of professional shortfalls. Friedlander kept on being Friedlander. This is a rare thing, too, as many who experience disappointment change direction or quit photography altogether. Yet, this relentlessness, which spanned more than seven decades (and still goes on today) has paid off for Friedlander. His work is in many acclaimed galleries and museums and he is considered a master photographer of his age. Lee is a fan of working; taking photos and making prints, not of publicity and marketing. Interviews with him are rare and, as a result, his name has remained “under the radar” in a lot of respects. Simply put, he just carries on the great tradition of photography.

Lee Friedlander is one of the grandfathers of what became known as the “snapshot aesthetic”, which has become so prominent in our photographic culture (and visual language) in the 21st century. He is right there, in this regard, with the likes of Daido Moriyama, Mark Cohen, William Eggleston (color dragged color into the same arena), and, dare I say, with some of the more controversial (and more contemporary) figures like Terry Richardson. That is to say, these guys point and shoot and keep the technical gear and manipulation to a minimum. The power in Friedlander’s images (as in the others that I have mentioned here) is in the subject matter, in the composition – not in the technical handling or the editing. And this is huge. Anyone can learn to manipulate images into something “visually pleasing”, but it is another story altogether to take a basic piece of equipment out into the world and “snap” a photograph that can compete in the same arena. Those who can do the latter are true photographers and Lee Friedlander is one of them. I also want to mention the street photography angle here, too. Friedlander is often grouped with street photographers, and, in many ways, rightly so. He is a street photographer, but he is one of those rare street photographers whose work takes on a quality that transcends the genre and becomes fine art.

There isn’t much to complain about when it comes to this collection of work or this book. It is, simply put, done well, darn well. One gripe, which is admittedly very small, but still gets under my skin – is the single page within the volume that features two photographs. Every other page, without exception, is a single image. Why put two on one page? Sure, the images are related, however, they are also two of my least favorite images in the collection. They are not bad photos, by any means, but they feel as though they belong to a different body of work. At the very least, I would have preferred the two photos on a spread (opposite each other), as this would have provided a cleaner aesthetic. Yet, as far as negative criticism goes, this is about as much as I can muster from this splendid volume.

SPQR Editions has done a fantastic job with this collection. The book and its prints are of high quality and would make a great addition to any street photographer’s library. I must say, if I could only have one Lee Friedlander book it would have to be The Little Screens (which is now in an affordable reprint from Afterall Books), but this volume would be a very close second. And why not have both? If you don’t know Lee Friedlander and his work, I excuse you, somewhat, as the hype is just not there. Yet, if you read this review and still don’t go out and explore and discover this wonderful photographer, you will have little excuse.

The Shadow Knows by Lee Friedlander

From SPQR Editions

Hardcover, 110 pages, 27.9 x 1.5 x 24.5 cm, £42.

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Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographer

Michael Ernest Sweet — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 12:10:39 +0000

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Photographer

Review by Michael Ernest Sweet

Henri Cartier-Bresson is a name like no other when it comes to street photography. After all, HCB is often credited as the “grandfather” of the genre. Although HCB was, unquestionably, a key figure in the development of what would become known as street photography, his role may not have been as intentional as we sometimes like to believe. For example, an essential element in the development of street photography was the invention of the highly-portable camera, i.e. the 35mm, which, coincidentally, aligned with HCB’s emergence as a photographer. The result of this new camera format, especially in the hands of a highly-skilled photographer, was some very notable early street photography. Hence, HCB’s notoriety with the emergence of the genre.

Why bother to make this distinction between intention and coincidence? I do so, mostly, in an effort to unhitch Cartier-Bresson from the confines of street photography so that we may more fully appreciate the scope of his contribution to photography in general. Enter the new collection of his work from Prestel Publishing, simply titled, Henri Cartier-Bresson – Photographer. The very generic title is important in two regards. One, it emphasizes the need to see HCB’s work more broadly than merely within the confines of street photography and, two, it hints at the comprehensive nature of this superb volume of work.

Henri Cartier-Bresson is, rightly speaking, a photographer in the most general sense. Some images are posed, some are candid; some of his photographs are portraits, some abstracts, some landscapes, and many are, yes, street photography proper. There is also a compelling argument to be made that HCB was a photojournalist at heart. He was, actually, a master in all genres, really. A mere glimpse through this collection will bear out this fact. HCB was simply a great photographer.

This new collection is a great book for any street photographer to have in her collection. It is a great teaching instrument not only on HCB but on black and white photography in all of its splendor. You will learn too many things about HCB for me to even attempt to enumerate them here. However, some of what you will glean from this collection may surprise you. For example, this book allows one to fully and easily see that HCB had no signature look in his photography. Yes, many of his most noted images, especially in street photography, have a coherent visual signature, but this was not true of his wider body of work. For example, I am reminded of one image, Mexico City 1934, which is a passionate semi-nude entanglement of two bodies. There is some motion blur and the energy is wonderful. However, it does not look, at all, like a Cartier-Bresson photograph. In fact, if it were hanging on a wall, and I had to guess in an instant, I would likely say Daido Moriyama, or possibly Anders Petersen. Elsewhere, there are photographs that require careful study to distinguish them from a painting – L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue 1988, for example. This is the charm of HCB – he is a master in multiple genres and Prestel has done a magnificent job of lying that bare in this collection.

Cartier-Bresson possessed a unique ability to make a fantastic portrait. Some are candid, others are posed, but all of his portraits are uncanny in their capturing of the subject’s personality. Whether on the street, or in a makeshift studio, Cartier-Bresson was able to identify the best setting to sit the subject and the precise (dear I say, decisive) moment to fire the shutter. This feat becomes all the more impressive when one studies his contact sheets. Cartier-Bresson was not a machine gun photographer. He was decisive. There is much to be said about this skill in contemporary times when even skilled photographers shoot hundreds of frames to make a single portrait. We could all take a lesson from this more thoughtful approach. I believe one way history will sift out the master photographers from our “everyone is a photographer” times will be through a careful examination of contact sheets or complete archives. Photographic archives have an uncanny way of exposing the master photographer from the lucky striker.

If you have decided to invest in just one volume of work by Henri Cartier-Bresson this is the volume to buy. It is beautifully printed with quality materials and it presents a comprehensive and eclectic overview of HCB’s full body of work. The images are all reproduced at a generous size for proper appreciation and the layout is straight-forward and uncluttered. The introductory essay, by the late art historian, Yves Bonnefoy, points out that HCB claimed to have no understanding of photography. I would challenge you to keep this claim in your mind as you allow the stunning quality of each image to unfold in this book. If it was, indeed, a lack of knowledge about photography that allowed HCB to produce these images, then this volume is the best argument I’ve ever seen for dispensing with the MFA in photography. Far too many photography editors get it wrong these days. I don’t even review some of the books sent to me, as they are simply not worth the effort. This book is different in every way. Prestel got it bang on!

Henri Cartier-Bresson – Photographer

From Prestel Publishing

With a foreword from Yves Bonnefoy

Hardcover with jacket, 344 pages, 29,5×28,5, 170 photographs

£60.00

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Book Review: Street Photography: A History in 100 Iconic Images

Michael Ernest Sweet — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 18:54:02 +0000

Book Review: Street Photography: A History in 100 Iconic Images

By Michael Ernest Sweet

I am often skeptical about books that claim to be authoritative. Can any one writer actually distill the 100 most iconic images in all of street photography? Can a writer compile the history of the genre in just 200 pages? The answer is, no, on both counts. What a writer can do is provide their opinion – their own list of the 100 most iconic images. This is precisely what David Gibson has done in his latest book, Street Photography: A History in 100 Iconic Images, from Prestel publishing. And, the resulting list is pretty good.

David Gibson has been writing about photography for some time. He is also a photographer himself. These are good qualifications for setting about an ambitious project, like the one suggested by this book’s title. The most immediate trap for anyone taking on an endeavour like this is politics. That is, will they be able to write the book objectively, or will their own opinions give way to a list glaringly absent of their enemies and over-crowded with their friends. We’ve all seen those lists. I must say, I had my doubts when I first saw the book announced. Gibson has long been associated with the controversial (and now defunct) photography collective, In-Public, and this clouded my judgment going into this review. In-Public has not been known to produce particularly great photographers by objective standards. But I digress. The point is, I was looking forward to a bad book. Yet, what arrived at my door is a wonderful book, a book that has captured many of the greatest names in street photography.

Gibson seems to have compiled most of the book with clear-minded objectivity. I really only found a couple of names in the hundred that jumped out to me as being out-of-place in a collection like this one. No big deal, although I must say the names did jump! The book, as a whole, is an admirable stab at what I am sure was no easy project. Gibson himself, in the book’s introduction, which, by the way, is very poorly laid out, speaks of this challenge in a self-effacing way. Indeed, his whole introduction, which I quite enjoyed, is an attempt to qualify what comes in the following pages. Certainly a neat trick, but one I think Gibson employed honestly. He really works to explain to us the various things one might notice – the limited number of women, the choice of one “iconic” image per photographer, or, even, whether to include photographs which, in his judgment, are “set up”. It reads not so much as a justification or defense, as it does a genuine rationale for the project’s unfolding. There are times when I prefer the typical foreword by some famous name, but here, in this volume, this introduction is a good compliment to the work that follows.

The book opens with some of the usual suspects – Edward Steichen, HCB, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, Joel Meyerowitz, and William Klein. Some more obscure, but certainly talented, names also appear – Minor White, Marvin Newman, Bruce Davidson, Ralph Gibson, and Richard Sandler. Minor White, of course, is a famous photographer, but not one that we often see between the covers of a street photography book. Kudos to Gibson for his inclusion here, as White did, indeed, contribute to the genre. I also want to take note of a good number of more “international” names included in the anthology – Werner Bischof, Thomaz Farkas, Ferdinando Scianna, Raghu Rai, and Ramon Masats, to name but a few. It is clear that Gibson made a significant effort to make the book truly international in scope and he seems to have succeeded.

On the subject of including women, Gibson claims, “Yes, there are only 13 women photographers in the 100. What can I say? I chose the photographs regardless of gender.” While I understand Gibson’s point, I am not sure I completely align with this way of thinking, at least not anymore. The old “good work is good work” argument has been used to discriminate against women and minorities for far too long in the white-male-dominated world of the arts. Big names in literature have pushed back on this argument and I believe we should do likewise in photography. Women and minorities need to be sought out. The action must be deliberate. The fact that they did not “arise” naturally is no longer a valid excuse.

When it comes to looking at the photographs in the collection, I am pleased, at least visually. The photographs are good ones and have been carefully selected. My only gripe in this regard would be the use of some highly anthologized images. I know the book is meant to present iconic images, but, in the case of Joel Meyerowitz, for example, the included image has appeared in print more times than one could possibly count. Joel has made thousands and thousands and thousands of photographs over his life, must we always be subjected to the same one? Further, the image, Paris 1967, represents a serendipitous moment caught on film. In some ways, it may be argued that this image neither typifies Meyerowitz’s skill or aesthetic. I know this is one of the images Joel normally sends out in response to requests, but Gibson would have done well in this situation, and others like it, to dig a little deeper and find us another glimpse into the photographer’s archive. Elsewhere in the book, Gibson tells us that “it is ridiculous to highlight just one photograph” with any one photographer, yet, this is precisely the project he undertook. The ridiculous nature must be directly confronted and tamed by the author. In many ways, Gibson accomplishes this, but there are some, like Meyerowitz, where he seems to have given in to what was easiest. In other examples, the images do not strike me as iconic to the particular photographer. Put another way, we have some very over-seen images present in this collection and some very obscure ones too, both of which leave me wanting something more. Happily, these instances are not the majority.

The accompanying text in the volume is neither lacking nor outstanding. Certainly a project like this one requires some written word to contextualize the chosen photographer and the selected image. Yet, Gibson could have done more to situate both the photographer and the “iconic” image within the history of street photography. Art is a conversation. Works speak to one another and fit into a “grand conversation” in very particular and exact ways. Gibson omits this conversational thread in his writing. Each photographer’s profile is just that, a profile. One could, for example, take these pages and toss them into the air and reassemble and not disrupt the book’s flow. I’m not sure that arrangement is sufficient to glue together the history of a genre. That said, the profiling is done well and kept this reader engaged throughout.

In the end, Street Photography: A History in 100 Iconic Images by David Gibson is an admirable stab at what was surely an insurmountable undertaking. Street photography has existed, in some form or another, since the inception of the 35mm camera. That’s a long time – about a hundred years, actually – and many, many photographers, and photographs, have come into being during that time. To represent a century of creating between two covers, and in a mere 200 pages, is certainly no mean feat. Gibson has delivered, despite all the cards being stacked against him. I have no reservations in recommending this book for every street photographer’s library.

Hardcover, 208 pages, 23,0 x 25,0 cm, 100 color illustrations

ISBN: 978-3-7913-8488-7

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Multiple Worlds, Identity and Magic Realism on the Streets of Brazil : Maximum Shadow, Minimal Light by Gustavo Minas

Sergio Burns — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:40:11 +0000

Multiple Worlds, Identity and Magic Realism on the Streets of Brazil : Maximum Shadow, Minimal Light by Gustavo Minas

Have you ever thought why one street photographer takes a particular shot which is then part of their personal photographic interpretation of the world, when another will willingly pass up on the same opportunity? It might be related to the street photographer looking for their own ‘identity’, though it also means that we live in ‘different personal worlds’ while simultaneously living in the same world – if you catch my drift?

It is really all about that particular street photographer’s eye for the shot. Of being ready and prepared and being ‘out there’, searching for that elusive photograph and looking for our own particular ‘Idaho’ in street photography. Our own personal journey of discovery and our own ‘identity’ – shooting the world – and its ‘multiple individual worlds’ as it goes about its multifaceted business.

I can’t help but think of ‘identity’ and ‘multiple worlds’ when I consider the work of Gustavo Minas’ and his new book ‘Maximum Shadow, Minimal Light’, a series of 95 photographs in 192 pages from the publisher, Edition Lammerhuber..

True, ‘Maximum Shadow, Minimal Light’, takes Gustavo toward his own ‘identity’ as a street photographer, but, more importantly, delights the rest of us in the process.

Minas, a journalist and freelance photographer, once studied with street photographer Carlos Moreira on the streets of mega city Sao Paulo. A feature of his development as a street photographer that eventually brought success.

In 2017 his work, Bus Station, won the POY Latam Award in the category ‘Future of the Cities’. In the same year Minas was also was included in the David Gibson curated collection: 100 Great Street Photographs.

‘Maximum Shadow, Minimal Light’ resonates with great shots carefully selected, as he worked the street, by the award winning street photographer. Shots hinting not only at location, a sense of place or what people are doing or appearing to do, but at Minas himself as a street photographer, and his use of shadow, light and all the reflective subtleties of the world around him.

I have questioned before if South American street photography gives us, with its vibrancy, colours and rhythms, a sense of magic realism?

“I’ve no pretensions about messaging anything,”

Gustavo Minas once said to me, as if reading my mind and circumnavigating any theories of identity, multiple worlds and/or magic realism.

“Photographs can have totally different meanings and incite totally different emotions and sensations in different persons. This is one of the things I love about photography: it’s ambiguous nature.”

Of course, he is right. How we interpret and what we see and feel in one frame of photography differs between different people. But he does not shake me off so easily.

For me, there is real ‘identity’ in Gustavo’s work and an intriguing real sense of ‘multiple worlds’ at play – I am still working on magic realism in street photography.

In one shot from ‘Maximum Shadow, Minimal Light’, called Bela Artes and taken in Sao Paulo, Brazil, it is the movement of the woman central to the photograph cutting across the scene, strident and confident, that attracts our focus. Moving from some unknown starting point to an anonymous destination somewhere distant she crosses our field of vision with her head in the world of whatever it is she is listening to on her headphones – she seems oblivious to the street photographer.

In addition to this woman in the foreground, Gustavo has also caught several actors in mid flow, going about their own individual business but now captured together in one frame, and from here the image unfolds.

Another lady is revealed passing at the other side of our central subject and it makes me think of a metaphor – of life flowing in different directions good and bad. Perhaps the woman is moving toward the first lady’s starting point?

In the background a third lady is seated and making a mobile phone call is also reflected several feet away in glass (or maybe she just exists in a parallel universe?) Meanwhile a man to her right, our left, puffs longingly on a cigarette.

In one frame shot on the streets of Sao Paulo are multiple individual worlds. Where is the woman in the foreground going? Where is the other woman headed? Who is the seated woman phoning and what could it be in connection with? What is the smoking man thinking as he takes a drag of his cigarette -‘I should really give up’?

“If I have a goal,” Gustavo once told me. “It is to inspire people to look at their boring daily lives with other eyes.”

‘In Maximum Shadow, Minimal Light’ Gustavo Minas succeeds in doing just that. It is full of some really great street work and it does make you think. His work IS inspiring and he does have that way of all great street photographers of pulling us into to these ‘multiple’, separate, and yet connected worlds, and we do so with fresh eyes.

This book is a wonderful album of street shots that can be looked at from many different angles.

We see the head of a pretty young girl above a glass partition. She is wearing a t-shirt with an image slightly distorted by the glass. At first we sense it is a fairly innocuous shot until we see the dark, shadowy figures on either side of the girl. Lurking menacingly and reflected by the glass, could those silhouettes be the darkness that foreshadows all our lives? Each and everyone of us never knowing – or being completely certain – of the future. Never knowing what could happen to change our lives in the very next instant, or what lies ahead for any of us.

But, I am fascinated, that in this shot, the sky reflected by the glass bisects the girl through her middle – ‘Heaven in the gut’? While to her right, the torso of another young lady, this time in a red dress is also reflected.

There is so much happening in this photograph – Moca e Reflexos – taken in Brasília, that we could easily take a few thousand words to properly analyse.

All these images, reflected in glass or otherwise, while sharing the same frame of photograph also exist in differing lives with different and distinct motivations and agendas, each of them trying to play out against all the other motivations and agendas of all the other people on the planet. Hold that thought…

I won’t deny that I am big fan of Gustavo Minas’ work, and, for me, ‘Maximum Shadow, Minimal Light’ adds to his reputation as one of the best street photographers around.

There is much to be found in this collection from the streets of South America. There is much to be had from this book: ‘Maximum Shadow, Minimal Light’. Multiple worlds, identity, magic realism and more, much, much more.

To Learn More, Visit Gustavo Minas

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Good Morning America How Are Ya: Street Photographer Michael Ray Nott Offers A Powerful Visual Insight Into Contemporary USA

Sergio Burns — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 17:35:15 +0000

Good Morning America: Street Photographer Michael Ray Nott Offers A Powerful Visual Insight Into Contemporary USA

History, some say, is the mirror of the moment. Maybe we could also say that street photography is an equally important visual mirror of a particular historical era, or socio-economic and/or geographical reality? The two, for me, are not mutually exclusive.

For street photographer Michael Ray Nott it is the most natural of things to do. Hold the camera up to the eye and shoot the reflections of that existential mirror out on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee.

Captured over four years in Nott’s adopted hometown – he moved south from the snows of Wyoming – and deposited into a wonderful new book: ‘Good Morning America How Are Ya! Nott’s street work is candid, edgy and a succinct and fascinating reflection of USA circa now (ish).

It is a book that reinforces Nott’s own belief: We are all on camera all the time – street photography’s version, I suppose, of The Trueman Show (where the remarkable Jim Carey discovers that his life is a wall to wall 24/7 reality television product). In case you didn’t know if you take to the streets…well…

There is, what I would describe as, a powerful socio-politico-religious and psychological thread to this street photography collection. A post-modern, late capitalism window on an increasingly restless society, tied together and symbolised in black and white as well as art and text. As if we are being thrown messages from an an altered world somewhere beyond our own existence.

In Good Morning America Nott provides a series of intriguing visual representations of a time and a place. Photographs which prove compelling, exciting, and historically planted in contemporary America. A posturing, often protesting US of A in all its wonderful glory and rabid eccentricities.

It is a book filled with many visual gems, and in one essential sense Nott combines the power of the visual with the impact of the literary. ‘Southern Strong’, ‘Stop The Hate, Trump is Making America Great’, ‘Enough’ all scream out at his audience in a real and authentic fashion. For me, Nott is more ‘real’ and much more ‘authentic’ than art and text maestros Barbara Kruger and Gillian Wearing (both favourites of mine).

His, is a living, breathing candid chronicle of the streets as it happens, when it happens and where it happens.

Every Michael Ray Nott photograph in this book offers a highly charged visual and (often) textual representation of today’s America. A layered effect that produces messages emerging from a variety of signifiers, hand made placards, clothing and facial expressions.

From a couple dressed in militaristic apparel, the man in his near sinister pose de guerrero, complete with bandana covering the lower half of his face and the good old American flag sprouting from his head, to a young child with, what looks like, a military issue M16 training rifle. There is the man with the Jesus tie to the man holding the sign that says ‘Stop The Hate, Trump Is Making America Great’. All these images speaking to us of American modernity in all its divisive symbolism: social, religious and political.

It is a sweeping portrait of a time with references to President Trump and the questioning of capitalism. A ‘Homeresque’ character ( I thought an aged Homer Simpson resplendent with beard? Whining on about the bullying of capitalism and blaming a system – we all have a hand in creating – for all the ills of the universe, and, maybe even beyond?).

The derelict beauty of a beat up automobile carrying the US flag could be read as a subliminal image of a dented, polarised America in an age of divisions. The run down car mirroring a decaying industrial spirit, while the flag representative of the emergence of a national populism that looks for someone or some group to blame for all the country’s ills – as it glances backward to some long, lost mythical era.

The haunted, defiant look on the faces of the pro-Trumpers to the snarling demeanour of those who want nothing to do with the US President spelled out on t-shirts.

In truth this book has everything. Symbols of nationalism and exclusivity while it speaks to us of the street in modern America as a potential battleground of different opinions all coalescing around there own private badges of what it is to be American in these, often confusing times.

These photographs in their own way make me feel like Michael Ray Nott is holding up a mirror to the socio-economic and political now of Nashville which, in many ways, filters out to what is happening around the fifty states.

This is a book of the visual now and America in the throes of a first term Trump administration.

Photographs of Jesus ties, holy bible holders, Trump lovers, Trump haters…I am never sure if Michael Ray Nott is a street photographer, or maybe even a documentary photographer or photojournalist. But, none of that matters when he can produce a great work of art like Good Morning America How Are Ya!

Michaels New Book in UK can be purchased from AMAZON UK

And in AMAZON USA

To see more of Michale, Visit his Website

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Jonathan Higbee’s First Street Photography Book: COINCIDENCES

Johnny Mobasher — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 21:15:26 +0000

The post Jonathan Higbee’s First Street Photography Book: COINCIDENCES appeared first on Street Photography.

Museum of the Revolution (2019) by Guy Tillim

Laura Noble — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 17:27:55 +0000

Museum of the Revolution (2019) by Guy Tillim

Published by MACK & Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson

From 2014 – 2018, South African photographer Guy Tillim took long walks through fourteen African cities, compiling an expansive collection of street photography. Each image is simply titled with the location – some including the street name – the city and the year. We, the viewer, are left to decipher the cacophony of information presented within each vista.

The series takes its title from the Museum of Revolution on the Avenida 24 Julho, Maputo, a post-colonial capital which has seen much conflict, two major revolutions and a civil war ending as recently as 1992. Street names have changed and buildings once owned by the Portuguese now belonging to the state remain. As silent spectators, they observe the passing changes in the political, social and economic climate. Layers of history are built in the form of bricks and mortar, yet the people that remain give each city its life.

There are several inclusions from 2012, incorporating the Independence Day celebrations in Gabon. These street photographs show the festive side of a city; with grand cars, military and bodyguards dominating the Boulevard de l’Independence in Libreville with an imposing display of authority and power.

Diptychs and triptychs cast a wider eye across the cityscapes on streets and junctions, revealing more populated cross sections of the same location. Tillim shifts the camera from one viewpoint to another, joining them together to create a scene that gives the illusion of continuity. Each section of the picture reveals its own narrative as if it is all happening at the same time. They may only be taken seconds or minutes apart but create a more occupied landscape with each addition. Tillim was surprised as to how much passers-by ignored him despite often standing in the middle of the pavement with a tripod. His ambiguity is occasionally questioned by approaching pedestrians, sometimes with a smile, at other times with a frown, giving a sense of ease or suspicion so commonplace in any city anywhere in the world.

There are tangible contrasts from place to place throughout. The crumbling buildings lining the streets of Addis Ababa being demolished by men with sledgehammers alongside street vendors and traffic seem distinctly fragile. Whereas the manicured grass area and palm tree-lined Avenida 4 Fevereiro in Luanda, Angola is overlooked by immaculate architecture and skyscrapers, feeling distinctly unappealing, sanitised and unreal. From two women laughing together on a busy to a billboard projecting the stuff of dreams, all gleam under the bright sunshine. Like the sun which can crack the pavement or illuminate the life it surrounds, we are reminded that a city is a place where life can both flourish and struggle. Each city and its people are photographed with respect and reverence in an even-handed way. Tillim’s street photography captures the true essence of the genre in all of its glory.

MUSEUM OF THE REVOLUTION (2019) by Guy Tillim, £30, is published by MACK and can be purchased from MACK BOOKS

To learn & see more about Laura Noble visit L A Noble Gallery

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