Videos

DL Cade  Eric Kim Hits the Pavement with SF Street Photographer Jack Simon'  published on 30 November 2013   available from
http://goo.gl/C4pnPg ( Accessed 25 February 2015)

British Journal of Photography Magnum Photos' Bruce Gilden photographs Derby - Head On, a Format International Commission for the FORMAT Photo Festival in June 2012. published on 17 June 2012 available from  http://youtu.be/ejlIgyYhlJ8 
(Accessed 22 February 2015 )

WNYC Culture Street Shots with Bruce Gilden published on 27 December 2009 available from http://youtu.be/IRBARi09je8 
(Accessed 19 February 2015 )

Nigerian elections 2015

Spotted this image posted on the Guardian website ( The weekend in pictures section ) last weekend...It shows election officials in Yenagoa, Nigeria start the counting process at a polling station. I really like the composition and lighting here ...the emphasis on the official through position and lighting  and a good  sense of focused movement ....a telling moment image... 

Photograph: Florian Plaucheur/AFP/Getty Images

Photoworks - Deconstructing the world leaders picture at the Paris unity march

I've been meaning to post these two images for some time alongside a very interesting and thoughtful article by Marco Bohr in Photoworks on 26 January 2015 which deconstructs the image of these world leaders.

World Leaders lead the rally through Paris, 11 January 2015 (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

I remember seeing the above image in my newspaper and it was widely used by the media. I guess like many people I thought at the time I was seeing an impressive turnout of world leaders in Paris at the head of and leading the unity march.

Not so, as the image below shows. The initial and symbolic image which winged its way around the world was created by the position of the camera in relation to the leaders.

Mark Bohr 's deconstruction is well worth reading ...check it out at : 

http://bit.ly/1OZgfH4

Bruce Gilden

Bruce Gilden Rochester, New York, 2012

Bruce Gilden is among a number of portrait photographers that my tutor suggested I take a look at. My research uncovered his website at www.brucegilden.com and I was so taken by his images that I bought a copy of the Thames & Hudson Photofile on him.

Better still were the number of youtube videos showing him at work where his running commentary as he took shots added a further very interesting dimension to his work. For example:

 Magnum Photos' Bruce Gilden photographs Derby - Head On, a Format International Commission for the FORMAT Photo Festival in June 2012.
British Journal of Photography  http://youtu.be/ejlIgyYhlJ8

Street Shots with Bruce Gilden 
WNYC Culture published on 27 December 2009 available from http://youtu.be/IRBARi09je8 
(Accessed 19 February 2015 )


Gilden's first major project in the late 1960s recorded people enjoying the pleasures of Coney Island. And though maybe best known for his street photography in New York, he has worked on projects for many years in Japan, Haiti and Ireland - always looking for the essence of the people he sees - looking carefully at how they appear within their own social settings..He uses a Leica and a flashgun and often favours a portrait format for his images.

Bruce Gilden Untitled,New York, 1990

What do I like about Gilden's portraits?  I like the dynamic angles, the edginess, the spontaneity of image, created by his 'photographer's eye' , his apparent fascination with people on the street, his use of flash photography and his often used technique of angling the camera up at people which makes for interesting and unusual compositions... 

I can see that his work might well to polarize opinion.In the words of Christian Caujolle* quoted on the introduction to the T&H Profile, Gilden is " one of the rare straight-on and direct portraitists' and 'unquestionably one of the most radical and interesting photographers of his generation in the US' . 
Some may well think his tactic of leaping out at people is almost like mugging them for their image.

Personally I like the unposed 'snatched' portraits with their often blurred background as they seem to reveal more of the person than a less dynamic approach might capture.

* Caujolle,Christian,(1992) 'Coney Island beach fauna', in Vis-aVis,no.12, cited in Bruce Gilden, Koetzle,Hans-Michael (2014) Bruce Gilden.London: Thames &Hudson, p.4 (introduction )