Transmitting Andy Warhol...

Managed to catch this exhibition at Tate Liverpool on the last weekend.It was the first solo exhibition of Warhol's work in the north of England and even at this late stage was packed out with viewers. 

I've seen some of Warhol's black and white photographs at the Photographer's Gallery last year but this show gave me an opportunity to how his work ranged from film, publishing, music and broadcasting. And it showcased his iconic 'Marilyn Diptych' described by the Tate as 'the third most influential work of modern art and remains one of the most enduring images of all time'.



Unfortunately, you were not allowed to take any photos in the exhibition as I'd like to have captured some of the artwork he did for LP covers and examples of his celebrity magazine Interview which I hadn't seen before unlike the Brillo boxes, soup cans and celebrity portraits.
Can't say I was 'moved' by his multi-media 'The Exploding Plastic Inevitable (EPI) described as a 'total art' environment but that's modern art for you..I'm always drawn more by shape, line and texture,even if I cannot explain work it can still engage me on a number of levels...EPI is a multi- media live performance experiment,  a discordant mix of strobe lighting,live music, multiple slide and film projectors and provocative dances that debuted in 1966 in New York. Afterwards I discovered that the Tate website has a very interesting feature about its legacy http://goo.gl/LFqSWi    It gives you an idea of where Warhol was coming from. Even with this insight,  I still look back at my experience of EPI as being more overwhelming  than  anything else.

Exercise: A public space

On Brighton Pier...

Back to Brighton Pier - one of my favourite seaside places - this time at half term for this exercise focusing on a public space.Winter or summer the pier attracts young and old, families, groups of friends and the solitary. I wanted to capture how these visitors used their time on the pier...

From previous visits, I know the challenges it can present. For example, the position of the sun can determine where you can shoot to avoid pointing the camera directly into the sun.But it does have a nicely rounded end out in the sea (where the pier theatre used to be until removed in 1986) which allows a little more room for manoeuvre scope than some seaside piers on the south coast. 

P839: F8 @ 1/250  37mm ISO 100

P840: F8 @ 1/320 51mm  ISO 100

 

P841: F8 @ 1/200  61mm  ISO 100

P842: F8 @1/160 51mm  ISO 100

P843: F8 @ 43mm  ISO 100

P846: F8 @  1/250 51mm ISO 100

P844: F8 @   1/125  31mm ISO 100

P847: F8 @ 18mm 1/125  ISO 100

P846: F8 @1/250  51mm  ISO 100

P848: F6.3 @ 1/400  31mm  ISO 1600

P849: F8  @ 1/400  51mm ISO 400

I'm pleased with the activities captured above - they are definitely representative of the varied use that people make of Brighton Pier. It was an enjoyable exercise to do though I can see that I'm still relying too much on my telephoto lens..

Exercise: Standard focal length

31mm is the standard focal length for my DSLR and my starting point for this exercise was here in the Lanes area in Brighton:

P826: F5.6 @ 1/60  31mm  ISO 800

P827: F5.6 @ 1/200  31mm  ISO 800

P828: F4.5 @ 1/250  31mm  ISO 800

Thinking that maybe using narrow lanes was a bit of a 'cop out', I went over to Chichester to see what might present itself there. By this time I also wanted to experiment a little encouraged by my street photography research.

This time I set out with a borrowed smaller digital camera that fitted in my coat pocket and in my hand and used the 'P' setting recommended by Eric Kim with the ISO set at 800.The Canon Powershot A720 IS has a zoom lens which at 5.8mm I reckoned came to about 34.8mm in 35mm terms.

P830:F4 @ 1/800  5.8mm  ISO 800 ( Canon PowerShot A720 IS )

The lady above saw me with my Powershot as she came to sit down and thinking that I was taking the view through the arches, she obligingly lent back so as not to spoil my shot. That gave me a much better shot of a tired shopper taking the weight of her feet. 

 

P829:F4 @   1/500  5.8mm  ISO 800 ( Canon PowerShot A720 IS )

P829. I saw this stand being unloaded from a van and in true street photographer style followed it for a few minutes to see what exactly it was and where it was going. It turned out to be a doughnut stand offering some interesting images as in P852 below ( though at a about 70mm not a standard focal length).

P852: F4 @ 1/320  11.546mm  ISO 800 ( Canon PowerShot A720 IS)

P831: F4 @ 1/1500  11.546mm  ISO 800 ( Canon PowerShot A720 IS )

Sat down opposite, I was trying to use the background here as a frame and waiting for people to fill it for me ..something that David Gibson calls 'staking out' .I also held the camera low down, clicking when I saw people come in front of me rather than looking through the viewfinder. Interesting to do but not a very striking image above.

Then I switched to my DSLR with a fixed focal lens (40mm). Again not a true standard focal length but one forcing me to try to get closer to people.

P832: F5.6  @ 1/200  40mm  ISO 1600

Jack Simon is an interesting street photographer, a psychiatrist who has become fascinated by the possibilties of photography. I came across a very interesting video of his work published by DL Cade in November 2013 (  http://goo.gl/C4pnPg  ). The video' Eric Kim Hits the Pavement with SF Street Photographer Jack Simon'  follows Simon and Eric Kim walking round the Mission area of San Fransisco. The ensuing dialogue offers insight into Simon's way of working as well as interesting technical detail. He prefers to use a prime lens as not only does he know what he's going to see, it also reduces one level of decision which I thought was interesting. I noticed that he often uses F8 and auto ISO. 

Enough of the technical - he likes the different styles of street art  and the way it can sometimes provide a colourful background in street photography as I do. And his images are inspirational.

However, unlike San Francisco or Portsmouth come to that, Chichester has little street art or interesting grafitti to offer. So I was very surprised to come across some large figures in a narrow alley off the main shopping area. Definitely an opportunity! I waited until some shoppers appeared and took a number of images (no one took any notice -  reserve or too preoccupied? ) until I captured someone mirroring the gait of the figures.  I rather like the end result (P833),though it would have worked even better without the street furniture in the backround.

P833: F8 @ 1/320  40mm  ISO 1600

P834 :F6.3 @ 1/200  40mm ISO 1600

 

P835:F8 @ 1/320  40mm  ISO 1600

P836: F8 @ 1/320  40mm ISO 1600

P837 : F8 @ 1/320 40mm  ISO 1600

To my surprise, I enjoyed this exercise. OK, I adjusted the instructions a little but it was too good an opportunity not to draw on and practise what I've come across so far in researching street photography and photographers.

You cannot do street photography if you are anxious about people's reaction....

'You cannot do street photography if you are anxious about people's reaction' . ( Gibson, 2014,p.20 ). 

I've been reading David Gibson's The Street Photographer's Manual as part of my research into street photography to help me with this area of work. While I enjoy getting out into the street to photograph whatever strikes me as interesting , I often feel a tension and expectation that I might be accosted by the folk that wander into my sightline. Of course,it does depend on the circumstances. For example, where there are crowds busy with their own activity on the high street or at events or gatherings or where one might expect 'sightseers' with cameras, then I don't stand out and feel obvious in what I'm doing. Whenever I have been challenged which is not that often, an explanation that I'm a photography student has always placated the person in front of me but there is always a 'what if '....

So I've been looking for practical tips...what can I learn from past and present street photographers. But my appetite has also been whetted and I'm discovering  more about the different strands of this genre and their exponents. 

I discovered that David Gibson is one of the founder members of In-Public, the first modern international collective, founded in 2000 ( www.in-public.com ).  His manual is a really good  introduction..well illustrated, presenting different approaches,  a visual delight of images from a wide range of street photographers and styles and profiles of well known street photographers e.g. Bruce Gilden, Jack Simon - photographers that I've started to look at more closely. 

So what is street photography?  Gibson gives an initial brief description as 'any kind of photography taken in a public space' (p.8). He says that it's core value is that it is never set up and interestingly, 'does not necessarily require people - evidence of people is just as valid' (p.9). I rather like Bruce Gilden's take on things, ' If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, it's a street photograph.' (p.46).

And what tips have I picked up so far?

• Don't crop your images
• Better to slightly under-expose
• Use a quiet camera and one that is light and easy to hold in the hand  
• A medium aperture between F/4 and f/8 seems to be generally preferred for fast shooting in daylight
• Use an ISO 800 or 1600 in daylight unless using a tripod

Eric Kim in his street photography blog (  erickimphotography.com  ) post  'The Ultimate Beginner's Guide for Cameras in Street Photography '  at (  http://goo.gl/KCb7ij   ) also prefers small cameras. He uses a Ricoh GR with a fixed 28mm lens which fits into the pocket. He recommends using prime lens with the benefit of being 'smaller, lighter, and force you to get to know one focal length really well'. I have a 40mm prime lens so might take that out with me to see how it works for me. While his posts concentrates more on different kind of cameras, it does have some very useful tips ( with helpful pros and cons ), particularly :

• P mode  - I was interested in Kim's recommendation to use a "P" mode setting , using autofocus and an ISO 800-1600 during the day. 'You can focus more on composition, framing, and shooting'

Worth trying out....

Exercise : Close and involved

The idea here is to draw the viewer into the scene....and in search of locations that might offer some scope, i.e. busy streets or activities that would allow me to move in close to people without being easily spotted by potential subjects. I realised early that a good street camera needs to be quiet, as well as light, quick to operate and comfortable in the hand of the photographer. None of which applied to the camera that I was using! I can understand why the 35mm Leica rangefinder is thought by many to be the 'classic' street photo camera.Jack Simon, for example, uses a fixed 35mm equivalent for his work in San Fransisco - see
www.jacksimonphotography.com

Before setting out,I researched a number of street photographers to see how they worked. This is where You.Tube.com can come up trumps. Bruce Gilden is well known for his 'up-closeness' though his style would take me way out of my comfort zone being too aggressive for me. I was fascinated though to hear him talk about his work both stateside and, in some respects  in Derby, England where he had a similar experience initially as I did locally...streets with very little going on.. Look at Magnum Photos' Bruce Gilden photographs Derby - Head On,  a Format International Photography Commission  for the FORMAT Photo Festival in June 2012 published by the British Journal of Photography. I like the fact that the film was shot in black and white but more interesting is the way he works the street and deals with one lady who questioned him at length as to why he had taken her photo.

  http://youtu.be/ejlIgyYhlJ8

Maybe the wrong way round datewise but I found it useful to have a second take on his working methods and the images captured in another the YouTube clip below Street Shots with Bruce Gilden filmed earlier that the Derby commission in New York in 2009 and published by WNYC Culture. I really like the dynamic feel of his work and I can respond to his famous quote ' If you can smell the street by looking at the photo.It's a street photograph'. 

http://youtu.be/IRBARi09je8

Back now to the exercise in hand.I adjusted the focal length of my zoom lens to 18mm rather than use my wide angled lens which is a larger attachment on the camera and I felt  more conspicuous.

Firstly in Brighton...
 

P820 : F4.5 @ 1/400  18mm  ISO 400

P821: F4.5 @ 1/30 18mm  ISO 800

P822: F8 @ 1/100  22mm  ISO 100

P825: F8 @ 1/640  18mm  ISO 200

P825. Not actually a real close up more an experimental shot. I was sat down enjoying a cup of tea when I saw these two walking towards me. I had really wanted to get a close up picture of someone eating candy floss during the day but had found this too tricky to manage without feeling really intrusive. So, tilting my camera a little as it lay on my lap, I just pressed the shutter as they walked by. In a  funny way, although the light was going and I didn't have time to adjust the camera etc., I rather like the composition..the tilting deck somehow compliments the young girl leaning into her candyfloss tongue outstretched.Would it possibly work better slightly cropped?

And then nearer to home. 

I guess that I am not the first or likely to be the last student to find it much easier to get close if you come up behind a subject or alongside. Using a wide angle lens here allowed me to focus on the spectator and commentator while appearing to be looking at a wider view of what was in front of us.. 

P823: F10 @ 1/200  18mm  ISO 400

P824: F10 @ 1/500 18mm  ISO 400

Applying the same tactics here in P824, made it possible to capture this young spectator turned away from the runner looking towards the finishing line. I like the light highlighting her face and the shadow from the lamp post creating a false finishing line for the runner.


Looking back at all  my images here, I feel that this exercise has not been a great success. Perhaps P821 and P823 get the closest to the subjects and what I was trying to achieve.I found it very difficult to get close to the subject without 'tipping them off' and certainly found it easier to approach from behind which I guess is a bit of a 'cop out'. Maybe a smaller camera might have helped i.e. give me more confidence to approach closer. Worth thinking about and trying out. Certainly need more practice!