Streettogs Gallery Feature: “Lost Faces” by Mikhail Palinchak Jr.

Eric’s Note: Streettogs Gallery is an on-going feature and intiative by Manila-based street photographer A.G. De Mesa. Check out more info here.

A.G.: I always defined street photography as “Photographing people in a public place with or without permission”.  That is how I go about shooting but when I encountered the work of William Eggleston, my definition shattered.

It seemed that his work doesn’t fit how I understood and read about photography. His photos are so simple, mundane, and very uninteresting. So much so that I think Eggleston’s War with the obvious is the anti-thesis of Bresson’s philosophy The Decisive Moment.

Luckily, I stumbled upon this diagram posted by iN-Public photographer Nick Turpin through his blog sevensevennine. This diagram helped me understood that Eggleston is in between Fine Art and Street and just within the confines of Documentary.

Which brings us to this weeks’s streettog gallery feature, Mikhail Palinchak Jr. His work, Lost Faces, is on the same vein as that of Eggleston but quirkier. Urban settings showing human reactions. His collection varies from wise use of light, popping colors, literal smiles, and forced perspective showing the expression a place. It becomes somewhat sort of game what emotions these lost faces are trying to convey. Mikhail is part of Eggleston’s war with the obvious by actually showing us something that is not what it looks like.

Mikhail has this to say about Lost Faces:

Lost faces lies the idea of a personification of a city . Often people say that this or that particular city has its own face, that a particular city is different. If you think about this a bit more, you will have to ask, “What does this face of the city looks like?” To answer this question, I decided to search for a tangible and recognizable face to shoot…

 Here is Mikhail Palinchak Jr.’s Lost faces:

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To see the rest of Lost Faces  and other works of  Mikhail, check out his portfolio here and be sure to follow him on 500px as well!

To read the rest of what Mikhail has to say about Lost Faces, check out Points of Simplicity Magazine issue #4 here

Keep sending in your works and click here for more information on how to get featured in the Streettogs Gallery.

What do you think about this week’s feature? Do you think Mikhail and Eggleston’s bodies of work fit with street photography? Is this the way for street photography to be considered Fine Art? Feel free to share your thoughts on the comments below.