Archives for October 2013

Street Photography Composition Lesson #7: Perspective

Click to read more — © Bruce Gilden / Magnum Photos

All photographs in this article are copyrighted by their respective photographers.

For today’s compositional lesson I want to talk about perspective.

Google defines “perspective” as the following:

The art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.

In street photography utilizing unique perspectives or vantage points make images have different impressions and feelings. I often find that street photographers don’t utilize interesting perspectives enough– most photos are just from eye-to-eye level.

To make more edgy and interesting photos, try embracing more unique perspectives (shooting from a really low angle, or getting on top of a roof and shooting from a high vantage point).

I wanted to show some great examples of how some master street photographers used low and high perspectives to make more interesting photographs.

Capturing Proof and Evidence on the Streets of LA: Mehdi Bouqua on Shooting with an iPhone

Eric’s Note: This article is written by Mehdi Bouqua, a street photographer based in LA. He shares his experiences shooting with an iPhone– and the importance of documenting life. Mehdi shares more of his thoughts and images below:

Mehdi: Today’s society is definitely over equipped/ flooded with many different types and genres of technological gadgets for all sort of necessities. Photography has become an essential tool of proof and evidence, showing, duplicating a moment and emotion by capturing the exact frame, reflecting it, and documenting it all at once.

Street Photography Composition Lesson #6: Framing

All photos included in this article are copyrighted by their respective photographers.

For today’s street photography lesson, I want to talk about framing. Framing itself is a pretty basic compositional technique, something I am sure we all learned when we first started. But let us delve deeper into framing. Let us see examples from the masters– and how they framed their images to retain focus, energy, and depth in their images.

Street Photography Composition Lesson #5: Depth

All of the photos in this article are copyrighted by their respective photographers.

For today’s composition lesson I want to focus on a compositional technique that is more utilized by intermediate/advanced photographers. It is the idea of depth.

What exactly is “depth” anyways? Well, the Merrian-Webster dictionary provides this definition (which we generally think of when it comes to spatial relationships):

a: the perpendicular measurement downward from a surface
b: the direct linear measurement from front to back

For the purposes of photography and composition, we will use b (the direct linear measurement from front to back).

Making a Fiction in the Mind of the Viewer: Interview with Jack Simon

Eric’s Note: This is a full transcript of an interview I did with Jack Simon, a talented street photographer and practicing psychiatrist (over 45 years). I interviewed him at his home, and got to know more about his philosophies and ways of working in the streets. Jack is also member of international candid collective Burn My Eye and based in the Bay Area, California.

Listen to the interview

Why I Killed Street Photography

Eric’s Note: This guest article is written by A.G DeMesa— a street photographer based in Manila.

A.G.: What is street photography for me?

Surely it isn’t the mundane. Nothing gets more mundane than a 16 year old’s meal taken over Instagram. It’s not about capturing history or the little human acts because you will just be beaten by the lens of an experienced journalist. How about the perfection of form and the elements like rhythm, texture, layers, lines and others? Well, can’t photography stand on its own two feet and not rely on the concepts of painting?

So I killed my street photography. I murdered it because I became obsessed with making sure everything aligned together. I was mulling over the small details that should be present. I was looking out for the lines that should converge. I had to find the layers that will highlight the human or non human elements. I lost sight of what is important in photography: Seeing. I was doing photography and being a slave to what it means to photograph. There was no flow and joy in it for me anymore.

5 Things I Don’t Do in Street Photography

Some of the photos included in this post are from my on-going “Colors” project.

I am an ardent believer in the idea of “subtractive knowledge” and “via negative” meaning that we learn most from learning what not to do. For example, when I played tennis the maxims I was taught by my amazing coach Greg Lowe was the following:

Don’t be tight
Don’t miss a day of practice
Don’t try to show off
Don’t try to muscle your shots
Don’t worry about losing
Don’t worry about the racket (tennis players have the worst Gear Acquisition Syndrome [GAS])

Through this negative principle, I was able to excel in tennis– going from not making the tennis team my first year as a freshman in High School, to making the #1 doubles team by my Senior year in Varsity.

I feel that the same can be applied in street photography too.

I know that we all hate being told what not to do. After all, we should do what we enjoy, right?

I totally agree with that mentality as well– but I believe it is restrictions that can help develop our creativity.

Intimate Stories and Raw Images: Jacob Aue Sobol Lecture at Nordic Light ICP

Jacob Aue Sobol, Magnum Photographer and one of my favorite black and white photographers, shares his work and insights in this presentation at the Nordic Light ICP. If you are looking for inspiration this weekend, make sure to kick back with a glass of wine and enjoy this video [1 hour 33 minutes long]. You can see more of Jacbob’s photos on his Magnum Photos Portoflio.

Street Photography Composition Lesson #4: Leading Lines

All photos in this article are copyrighted by their respective photographers.

For today’s street photography composition lesson– I would like to discuss leading lines.

Leading lines are one of the most basic photography compositional techniques– I am sure you have all heard of it before. But it is a technique that we often don’t listen to or follow. For example, it is easy to have a leading line in the background (for example, a background) that leads your eyes away from the main subject, rather to the main subject.

Whenever I look at a photograph, the first question I ask myself is: who is the subject?

Saul Leiter’s “In No Great Hurry” Film Releasing Nov 16th in NYC!

The team of “In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Leiter” is releasing the film Nov 16th in NYC and releasing a download/DVD at the end of the month. Stay updated with all of the news on Twitter.

Trailer

Saul Leiter Interview

Below is also another video of the 88-year old Saul Leiter talking in Hamburg where he exhibited his work:

You can also see more of Saul Leiter’s work on In-Public.

On The Importance of Street Photography Books

I think one of the best ways to become better in street photography is to look at a lot of great street photography books. Books by the masters. Books by Magnum Photographers.

From the point of this writing, I have been shooting street photography for 7 years. However it wasn’t until around 3 years ago that I started to seriously read photography books.

I had several problems:

Capturing Moments of Complete Disorientation: Interview with Mark Powell by Todd Gross

Eric’s Note: I am excited to share this interview as a collaboration between Todd Gross (Quarlo) and Mark Powell (locaburg). I first discovered Mark Powell’s work through Todd Gross- who has been a big fan. I thought it might be a great idea to have Todd interview Mark – as he knew his work far better than I did. Enjoy the interview and images below!

Todd: I’m pretty sure it was my friend, Eliot Shepard who first tipped me off to Mark Powell’s work on Flickr way back in 2004. I was immediately struck by the unique atmospherics and equally out there cast of characters present in the photos. Although I’m fairly certain Mark could point his camera at a blank wall and the resulting image would still have that “locaburg vibe”, Mark has an eye that’s finely attuned to the odd in-between moment.

I had the good fortune of meeting Mark on a couple of occasions and his personality certainly mirrors his work–vivacious, affable, inquisitive and a touch bent.

Street Photography Composition Lesson #3: Diagonals

For today’s street photography composition lesson, we will discuss a compositional rule that is simple enough: the diagonal. Credit goes to Adam Marelli for teaching me about this important design element which can help street photographers all around the globe.

Diagonals are one of the strongest and most fundamental compositional elements– something that we all know quite well.

There are 3 types of main lines: the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal line. They also go in degrees of intensity (the horizontal line being the least dynamic and the diagonal line as the most dynamic).

“American Sequitur”: Interview with Joshua Yospyn by Brian Eden

Eric’s Note: I am excited to share this interview which was conducted by Brian Eden, a street photographer in New York City. He interviewed Joshua Yospyn, a freelance photographer from Washington D.C. about his “American Sequitur” project. Find out more about how Joshua got started and see some more of his photos in the interview below!

Street Photography Composition Lesson #2: Figure-to-ground

All photos in this article are copyrighted by their respective photographers.

To continue my street photography composition lessons, I want to now move onto the topic of “figure-to-ground”.

What I learned from Adam Marelli is that one of the most important things in a photo is if it “reads” well. Meaning– if you look at a photo, can you tell what is going on– and see all the subjects clearly?

One of the most important principles is if a photo has strong “figure to ground.” Pretty much what figure-to-ground is having strong contrast between your subject and the background. For example, having a light subject against a dark subject, or a dark subject against a light background.

Only 2 Weeks Left to Submit to the Miami Street Photography Festival Contest 2013!

Hey guys, as a reminder– there are only 2 weeks left to submit to the Miami Street Photography Festival Contest 2013! This will be a great opportunity for you to get more exposure for your work! The winner of the contest will be exhibited and win a new Leica X2.

For those of you who can make the festival, there are also some great street photography workshops lead by Magnum photographers Bruce Gilden and Alex Webb / Rebecca Norris Webb. More details on the workshop here.

The Miami Street Photography Festival is also a registered non-profit, so don’t worry– this isn’t just some money-making scheme. They truly do it for the love of street photography! Read more for all the contest details.

More info about the contest and how to submit here.

Follow Miami Street Photography Festival

Variety is the Spice of Life: Interview with Peter Kool

Eric’s Note: I first noticed the work of Peter Kool on Flickr (and in another interview with Leica Liker) and loved his jolly, whimsical, and fun street photographs. He has a superb eye for details and timing.

Peter was born 1953 in the Netherlands, and moved to Belgium in 1973 to get married. He started to shoot from the birth of his first son, and went to the academy from 1980-1985. He also says, “The life expectancy of a Belgian male is 77 at the moment, so still 17 years of photographing to come.” Read the interview and see his images below.

Street Photography Composition Lesson #1: Triangles

All photos in this article copyrighted by their respective photographers.

One of the things I don’t talk much about is composition on my blog when it comes to street photography. To be quite honest, I am not as interested in composition of photographers when it comes to their philosophies when it comes to photography. However it is still something important to consider. Therefore I want to start a series inspired by Adam Marelli on how you can improve your compositions in street photography. Some of these lessons may be new, others familiar– and I will use the best examples in the history of street photography to illustrate the compositional techniques (while throwing in a few of my own).

Triangles are one of the best compositional techniques you can use in your street photography to fill your frame, add balance, and add movement in your images. (Thanks also to Patrick Bryan for the inspiration for doing this article).

On the Streets of San Francisco with Jack Simon

I recently had the pleasure of shooting on the streets of San Francisco with Jack Simon, a well-known street photographer in the community for this month’s fiestamovement mission. I followed Jack around the streets of San Francisco, seeing how he worked the streets, his philosophies on street photography, while listening to his tips and learned a ton from him.

I also have an hour-long interview that I am in the middle of transcribing that will be live on the blog soon as well. Stay tuned!

Announcing Street Photography Workshops in Stockholm and London (and Online Workshops!)

My talented (and beautiful) girlfriend Cindy is going to Umea, Sweden for a conference which gives me a excuse to visit Europe! Therefore I am excited to share that I am teaching my popular “Introduction to Street Photography Workshop” in Stockholm (in association with CUP Stockholm) and London this December. I know it is a bit chilly in December, but this workshop will give you an excuse to get out of your house, push yourself out of your comfort zone, and meet other passionate street photographers.

For those of you who cannot attend an in-person workshop, I am excited to announce my Personal 1:1 Online Street Photography Workshops! This is a great opportunity if prefer the flexibility and convenience of improving your street photography from the comfort own home.

I also still have a few spots for my upcoming workshops in San Francisco and Los Angeles, so don’t miss your chance before it is all filled up! The full schedule of my workshops for the rest of the year is below. I am looking very much forward to having you and assisting you on your personal street photography journey!

October 25-27th

San Francisco – Intermediate/Advanced Street Photography Workshop – FEW SPOTS LEFT!

November 1-3rd

Los Angeles – Introduction to Street Photography Workshop – (featuring Rinzi Ruiz and Dana Barsuhn)

November 8-11th

Los Angeles – Intermediate/Advanced Street Photography Workshop – (featuring Rinzi Ruiz)

December 6-8th

Stockholm – Introduction to Street Photography Workshop – SOLD OUT!

December 13-15th

London – Introduction to Street Photography Workshop – NEW!

For more questions regarding the workshops, student discounts, and returning student discounts, email my manager Neil Ta at Neil.ta@erickimphotography.com