“Burn My Eye” is an international collective aiming to show the extraordinary within the ordinary using candid photography. They use a fresh and new perspective when it comes to street photography, and are comprised of twelve members from all over the globe. Burn My Eye will be holding their first exhibition at the prestigious London Photography Festival this June. Eric Kim had the chance to interview the members of the collective and find out what Burn My Eye is all about.

Burn My Eye: An International Street Photography Collective « The Leica Camera.

by Andrew Glickman.

Today should have been the last day for the PhotoVoice Street Collection print sale, but it looks like they’ve extended the sale deadline until the 2nd of May 2012. Be sure to head there and purchase some fantastic prints by amazing photographer all for a good cause. Go check out the listings here: http://www.thestreetcollection.net/

“Street Photography has been enjoying an extraordinary renaissance in the last few years with a raft of dedicated publications, festivals, magazines and exhibitions. Now leading practitioners from across the world have come together to offer their work in an online sale to raise money for the charity PhotoVoice.

“The Street Collection includes beautiful, dramatic, comic and moving images that capture the energy and idiosyncrasy of everyday life on streets across the globe. Over 300 prints will be available at just £100 each. This is a unique opportunity to buy outstanding street photographs at an affordable price. Many of the prints available are well known but have never previously been available for purchase.

“Participating photographers include: Nick Turpin, Matt Stuart, Ying Tang, David Gibson, Maciej Dakowicz, Nils Jorgensen, Mark Alor Powell, Stephen McLaren, Mimi Mollica and Polly Braden. The sale is curated by Sophie Howarth, co-author of Street Photography Now (Thames and Hudson, 2010).

“Every penny of the sale price will go directly to supporting PhotoVoice’s work enabling marginalised communities around the world to tell their own stories and represent themselves visually. You can find out more about how buying a print will support PhotoVoice’s pioneering work here.”

by Jens Olof Lasthein

It was after reading a small’ish tidbit from Sunday’s NY Times Magazine that got me thinking about numbers. When  Vivian Maier‘s collection was discovered, we learned she took at least 115,000 photos in her lifetime, a treasure-trove now split between two owners. In contrast, Garry Winogrand took some 130,000 frames and it seems most of it is being preserved at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. And, by his own account, Fred Herzog, who might be the Shutter King, took some 150,000 photographs. At 82 years of age, he’s slowed down but he hasn’t quite stopped with the obsession of documenting the city he calls home.

Copyright Fred Herzog (Vancouver, Canada)

A few hours later after the photo-count accounting tables had closed, a gambling discussion turned up on Twitter after Los Angeles-based Ludmilla Morais, a Street Reverb family member, was talking about her recent trip to Vegas. Even though she left home with a sack full of Portra and Neopan, she was leaving Las Vegas with most of it still packaged, unfazed by the blinking lights of the casinos’ bright lights. To Milla’s credit, I know film isn’t so easily “loseable” in Vegas, especially compared to chips, money, greenbacks and the dollars & dineros. But that’s neither here nor there.

Copyright Martin Parr/Magnum Photos

While I’ve had my own brief stints in Vegas and also Nevada’s awkward little cousin named Reno, I found it not all too comfortable shooting within the confines of the casinos. Since I’m not a gambler, I spent most of my time walking oustide of the casinos along the streets and the parking lots. If you walk far enough, you can even find greener pastures. It’s not that there is a lack of subject matter on the gambling floor. Far from it.  In Vegas, it’s not that the photo-ops are missing but rather the omnipresent security looking down like a perverted god, keeping tabs on the customers’ sins. Either way, it got me thinking: what chance does one have to take good photos in a casino? The answer is, not that great. I tried last summer when I returned home to Detroit when, before ever hitting the casino floor, I was told by a rather burly security agent that if I wanted to enter, I would need to return my camera to the car. But hey, they don’t call it the Motor City for nothing. As in the City of Angels, it’s understood that even those who are visiting have a car to store their non-essentials, which in a casino, means a camera.

Copyright Martin Parr/ Magnum Photos (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Nevertheless, if you page through the Magnum Photos archives, you’ll find most of the Las Vegas photos were taken outside of the watchful eyes of security and even further away, like (are you ready for this?) the parking lot. So, I’m back to this: are there are any good Las Vegas photo projects or even good singles from within the walls of Vegas casinos? Or, Atlantic City, Detroit City, or Monaco for that matter? As it turns out, there are some good photos if you carefully page through their archives, including imagery by Parr, Glinn and even Cartier-Bresson and others. Unfortunately the lack of resoltuion and watermarks don’t make this a particularly fruitful use of your time (Sorry Magnum, but it must be said: you need a new website). But in this age of heightened security, it it likely even more difficult than ever to capture that real-life strangeness we seek in a street photograph even when the potential given in a place like Vegas, with its surreal characters and theatrical backdrops, are hoarded by casino bosses and their information technology security goons. In contrast, that carefree spirit of American airport-life was plainly seen when Garry Winogrand created his  ”Arrivals & Departures.” It seems today that the creation of a similarly dedicated work about casinos is simply not possible. If you were to try, you might have to gamble with a sort of roulette -styled friction manifesting itself not only when the casino thinks your trying to play their hand with your own form of surveillance but also when a customers don’t take kindly of you characterizing their poker face on 35mm film plus flash. Either way, I suspect you and your camera will be relegated to the parking lot in two shakes of the dice.

Copyright Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos (Las Vegas, USA)

If you’re still curious about casino photography, as I am, the Magnum website makes for a likely one-stop-shop. As it happens, there are 777 (Jackpot!) photos tagged “casino” on the site. Of course, not all were taken in the heavily fortified gambling empires of America but Thailand, Japan, England, and what looks to be rural Mississipi, to name a few. Of course, the irony with taking pictures in a casino is that they know your every move and have pictures documenting them all. Magnum photo credentials aside, I guess what stays in Vegas, really stay in Vegas, including the money and the photos. Crap$.

$oth $hoots $cripts

Lastly, it occurred to me during the writing of this article that Magnum’s Alec Soth, who has evolved from being a publisher rather than solely a photographer, already figured out how to shoot Vegas. And, it can be yours for only $4000 US dollars. That’s roughly 600 rolls of Portra 160. But who’s counting? They’re just numbers, I suppose.

Copyright Alec Soth. Las Vegas Birthday Slideshow from Little Brown Mushroom on Vimeo.

In every village, town or city there is more than likely to be some stalwart of photography. A photographer who at one point or another will have shown their work around extensively, appeared in local news, in the paper or speaking on the radio, maybe even running their own gallery. This is pretty much how I became aware of the work of Berris Conolly who is a photographer based in Sheffield.

I wasn’t exactly aware of his work, but I’d been a resident artist/curator at a local gallery for a couple of weeks and his name had already cropped up a few times: “You should speak to Berris.”

Berris used to be part of a dedicated photography gallery in Sheffield, the untitled gallery, which later became known as site gallery, and after moving from photography to lens based media then visual art, it’s almost lost all of it’s identity and the city most of it’s photography output.

I jumped onto the internet to do a bit of hunting and discovered his website and his work. Like many photographers out there his work hadn’t really done the rounds much on the internet. I suppose coming from a different model of photography where prints were more important to getting work out there than pixels, this is to be understood.

I found his work full of charm and simplicity in a strange sort of way and given the glowing recommendations I’d received I thought it was only right that I actually meet the man to discuss his work and the scene in Sheffield a little.
When I did speak with him, he spoke about a specific picture which he became known for in the local area, and I could understand why. The image in question was of a local landmark which was now lost forever. A massive “hole in the road” as it became known, existed in the city I grew up in and a photograph of it by Berris donned many a wall of local people, including that of my parents’.

His work I suppose is documentary landscapes, and despite being produced in and of the streets, but I don’t think street photography would ever be where Berris considers his work to lay. It’s more urban landscapes actually, occasionally occupied with people. He said as much to me when I spoke to him about his Hackney photographs work last year.

“There’s no format concept to my photography, I photograph whats on my doorstep” was  one thing he mentioned which I suppose does describe his work in the simplest ways. Berris left his job as studio photographer in order to be more creative with his work: “I’d been photographing catalogues of watches, not exactly a creative use of photography, even if for some time I did actually enjoy it. I was heavily influenced by great photographers such as John Davies and Lee Friedlander and I felt I needed to leave the studio to produce the sort of work I enjoyed looking at, and to become an independent photographer.” and this work was his local haunt at the time.

Adrian Wynn says it better than I could in the statenent for Hackney Revisited, which I’ll discuss later:

“In his spare time [Berris] walked the borough, noting the street corners, the facades and signage of the city, following the waterways and exploring the aesthetics of the ordinary – what is seen and how it might be seen. Some of the photographs from that period form the basis of this exhibition. 
Memories of the 1981 city riots were still fresh, and the Metropolitan Police had lately been earning their overtime in the northern coalfields, public services in Hackney, as elsewhere, were under assault from the advocates of the political and economic virtues of market forces. Conolly is not directly concerned with this narrative, he was walking his usual beat, assessing the visual weight of the everyday, sifting it and sieving it, ensuring that his camera bestows on the commonplace its due dignity.”

Berris continued this form of photography when he moved to Sheffield, documenting it’s river bridges and the developments which were taking place in the run up to the world student games in 1991.

Architecture forms much of the basis of his work. From general street scenes with the buildings bustling with one another for attention, to photographs showing these buildings in context to their environment.

“I’d occasionally wait for someone to walk through a scene and fill a certain space or perform a specific role but people were never really the main focus. From time to time I’d get children come up to me and pose for a photograph, like the River Lea image, I didn’t ask them or position them, it’s just what came natural to them and I suppose it would almost have been rude not to”

For me the images do speak of a different time, when children would do things like this and there wasn’t as much of a stigma placed onto the shoulders of photographers as there is today. The photographs are largely about nostalgia and I imagine are stronger images today than they were when they were taken. Berris mentioned in passing that he wished he’d taken more straight documentary images of the surrounding areas too because as time passed he could see the value in these types of images more clearly.

Berris left photography in the mid 90′s only to return to it some years later as he began digitally archiving his negatives. His digital revalation didn’t stop there as he’d later pick up a digital camera and begin going over his work again looking at how the world had changed.

Something I take from Berris’ work and his journey (photographs aside) is that I imagine there are many other photographers out there in these local regions, whose work, whilst well known to the small art circles in that geographical location, are largely unknown to the rest of the world and more specifically the photography consumers on the internet. It almost seems a shame to not share this work and bring fresh eyes to it which I suppose is my driving thought behind this post.

My previous post to this is also a similar story. Paul Baldesare’s work has hung in quite a few galleries, but I only became aware of his work with thanks to fellow photographer Matt Stuart, who passed on my details when Paul was enquiring about a website for his work.

How many photographers are there out there who remain relatively unknown to the internet circles or our internet circles? Is it here where we could find this elusive definitive body of London street photography work which Martin Parr feels we currently lack? And if so how are we to find it? Is there a London equivalent of Vivian Maier somewhere out there that is waiting to be discovered?

You can see more of Berris’ work on his website along with the interesting project of revisiting the Hackney images with photographer Alex Pink.

With bodies of work ranging from it’s main transportation method, the buying habits of the inhabitants and how they spend their leisure time, it’s easy to say you’re work largely concentrates on the documentation of London.

Most of my projects are shot in and around London simply because that’s where I live and work and the place that has influenced me visually and emotionally since a child. In the last three decades the fabric of London has undergone many changes and it is these changes that have increasingly influenced the projects I’ve undertaken.  It’s also important for me when developing a project to be able to return to a location again and again if necessary to refine and improve rather than hopping around from one distant location to another, spending most of my time traveling rather than photographing. From home I can be in in a Central London train terminal in half an hour and start shooting while on the train.

A project which I finished around five years ago “The English Carnival Event” was shot over a twelve year period simply because I couldn’t find carnival events that were representative of what I felt was ‘Englishness’ in London so it necessitated travelling often many hours from my base and sometimes staying overnight.]

This type of project would now be a problem financially and again sitting behind the wheel of a car seems to me a waste of time.

Martin Parr recently said in an online discussion, that he felt “It is strange that when one thinks of New York we think of those bustling streets and the many great street photographers who have worked them, yet despite the revival, there is no real ultimate body of work on the streets of London”. What’s you’re reaction to this?

It has some truth to it but it certainly isn’t the whole truth.  There are some fine bodies of work taken in London some examples of which appeared in the ‘London Street Photography Exhibition’ at the Museum of London last year, although there were many important omissions.

The photographers that come to mind are Paul Trevor in particular a fine photographer who should be better known and in particular his personal long term project ‘EastEnder’. Also Roger Maynes project on the streets around North Kensington which has at least been well published and exhibited recently. Bert Hardy’s candid street photos, Marketa Luskacova’s long term project on Spitalfields and Brick Lane Market, to name a few. These photographers often show working class communities at a time of great social change, but often found it difficult to get their work seen by a larger audience. The internet has given photographers greater opportunities to show their work and this has clearly been taken up by a new breed of street photographer’s with a more modernist approach to the subject which makes the more traditional documentary approach look very much of a different time, although no doubt this will be the same in time for the work presently being shot. When I started photography seriously in the early eighties there were very few outlets for ‘independent ‘photographers i.e. those engaged in their own projects and not with any commercial or journalistic value.

The photography that I’m engaged upon in London is still very much work in progress, although it would be good to think that some of it would be a bench mark of our ‘time’ in the future but there is still a long way to go. I would add though these are exciting times for street photography in London with many fine young practitioners who will hopefully be there for the long haul and not be put off by the fickle nature of the photo establishment and public.

But to get back to M.P. comment:  I would add that the States has a stronger tradition of street photography simply because culturally it’s had a stronger photographic tradition which was not stifled by a class and economic system that restricted access to talented individuals to the medium, although we shouldn’t believe that they were any more able to give up the day job to follow their passion.  It’s easy to forget that photography in this country has only recently been accepted into our major galleries and their collections. Briton for long time was a photographic back water and it wasn’t until well into the latter half of the twentieth century that photography became accepted within the established visual arts scene.

You’re work down the tube has a very intimate feel to it and instantly takes me back to almost any journey on the tube where I will ultimately end up people watching, what was it that drew you into documenting this?

I’d been away from London for three years and I was living only five minutes’ walk from a tube station so I started to use it to travel around Central London to photograph at various locations. The more I travelled the more I saw and I began to spend more and more time on the tube and at a variety of different times. After a month I had several images that I was pleased with so I continued with the goal of producing a series on the tube which initially I thought would take around a year.

Could you explain a little about how you worked on down the tube, were the photographs taken on a daily route to work, did you purposely travel extensively just to document, which lines did you find most interesting etc.

I would purposely travel to photograph on the tube although some images were taken on the way to a job or on social occasions going into town, I’ve always travelled with a camera and it still surprises me how often I get an image when I’m not actively looking for it.

I shot the pictures candidly and rarely with the camera to the eye. The reasons were that the angle of view was much more interesting shot from the waist, it made the pictures more feel more believable and also most importantly I wasn’t influencing the outcome of the situation.  It took only a couple of weeks to work out how to shoot this way i.e. I was no longer cropping people’s heads off or getting too many off centre shots, very few of the images in either tube projects had to be realigned or cropped when printed.

I kept things very simple. I used a Leica M series camera fitted with a 28mm lens set to 60^th second at 2.8, pre focused to four and a half feet when sitting across to the subject. I worked out the distance from camera to subject for a variety of different situations and could easily alter this when needed. The exposure on the trains was ninety per cent of the time the same nothing more was used other than a small piece of electrical tape to stop the aperture ring from being knocked accidently. I started later in the project to carry a backup Leica CL with a 40mm lens for the rare occasions I put the camera to eye. The camera was either on my lap on a camera bag or padded plastic bag to steady it or when standing I shot from the hip. The most interesting lines for me were the Central and Piccadilly but when I went back and reshot the project in colour in the 1990’s I travelled more on the Circle and District lines, simply because Id shot very little material on them in the 1980’s.

In you’re series “New London” you mention that “The centre of London is no longer lived in the same way as many other large cities”, how do you feel this effects the overall street photography in the country’s capital?

It’s probably true of most capital cities in Europe now with the cost of building land. But In London it seems to be truer.
There are clearly exceptions but you only have to walk around Central London at the weekend to see how empty some areas are. This certainly would not have been true a generation ago, but large numbers of people have moved out of Central London so leaving a vacuum of offices and shops, people no longer living next to or close to their jobs. This is probably why so many street photographers in London are attracted to Oxford and Regents Street and its surrounding areas, the busyness and variety can’t be found in such abundance at other locations. It certainly makes things harder, I tend to walk around more to find locations that appeal to me and return to successful areas more then I really want to. The main plus with busy shopping areas is that the back drop of shop windows and hoardings around new or refurbished shops is regularly changing. The other plus is the number of events that take place around the year. These seem to have increased in recent years. There are the traditional London street events such  as the Lord Major of London Parade  or the newer Westminster Show on New Year’s Day but a new generation of party goers who dress up in a variety of guises including Santa’s and Zombies take advantage of the streets and the many pubs in Central London. So it’s not all bad and it’s important that Street Photographers respond to the changing face of the city and not stay to long with the tried and tested, it’s good to get out of a comfort zone before the work become staid and a pastiche of what we’ve already done.

You can see more of Paul’s work on his website: http://baldesarepaul.com/

Google Image search results for the term: London Street Photography

In all honesty I hadn’t even considered this before Martin Parr had said it, and I’m not sure whether I even should have.

His words rung true and the more I thought about them, London became an interchangeable term for just about any large city in the western world I had visited. For how can we expect one single body of work to perfectly capture the essence of the location they document? How can we even expect it to document the large amount of ground they cover and depict the many different cultures they house?

Questions starting ringing around in my head, none more important than what is the real London, or the real New York or Paris? Was the presentation of these cities I’d been exposed to based around tourist expectations or some sort of travel propoganda? Does the true identity of the city only become revealed to one of their own? London only really visible in the eyes of a Londoner?

I don’t know and I don’t think this is something we’ll ever really be able to answer as it’s so subjective.

But this doesn’t stop us from exploring some of the amazing for being produced in London and speaking to the photographers who produce it to hear their thoughts on Parr’s belief that despite the revival of Street Photography in recent years “there is no real ultimate body of work on the streets of London”.

I’m hoping this will mark the start of a series of posts, interviews and features exploring London street photography, but more importantly that it ignites the discussion. And you’ll be able to use the London Street Photography category to browse the articles on this topic.

So I’d love to hear what your favorite street photography work on London is? Whether you think there is one? Whether it’s important there should there be one? And whether there could ever be one?

If you have any suggestions for articles or features submit them to us.

Sometimes interesting discussions crop up in online forums that may deserve more light being shed on them, this is especially true of those conversations that occur amidst another topic and would otherwise lay hidden.But

A recent discussion of this ilk centred around Staged vs Candid street photography with a specific lean towards the work of Martin Parr and his Last Resort series took centre stage.

Several of Parr’s images such as the one shown above (Untitled girl service ice-cream) show some level of participation from his subjects, and it’s this level of acknowledgment from the subject which raises suspicions for some as to whether they are candid, posed portraits or even completely fabricated.

In this case Parr was fantastic in pointing out how the image came to being: “[I] can categorically state that no shots from The Last Resort were staged or posed. In the case of the woman looking at the camera, she did suddenly turn round to look at me, and it worked. Most times as you HCSP crew know, people looking at the camera is a disaster, unless it is a portrait. But then that’s the magic of photography it can really throw you, just when you think you know all the rules.”

But despite the confirmation that the image is on the whole candid, some will undoubtedly not see the image as a “street” photograph because of the  level of interaction implied between the subject and the photographer.

For me this is one of the most memorable photographs from this specific body of work, it could be because the person depicted brings back memories of someone I once knew, or it could be the nostalgia as around the dates the work was produced I would have been an extremely small child and these images bring back the thoughts of a simpler time that I now long for?

The interaction between the subjects is what makes the image tho, and Parr is right, these sort of gazes are usually a recipe for disaster. But throwing into the mix, the boys glance at her, which may or may not have lasted as long as the photograph implies, the resulting image almost comes across as some sort of cry for help or acknowledgement of what’s happening. Which I suppose is sort of apt given the date of photograph (1983-1985) and the use of breaking the fourth wall in film and media for teens around this time.

British-born photographer Shane Gray talks a little bit about his inspirations and aspirations. Shane will be showing his series of New York City photographs “Avenue Street” at Lunasa (126 First Avenue, New York, NY) until the end of March. The opening will be Tuesday, February 7 from 6 – 9 pm.

Jeanette O’Keefe: Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you found your way to photography?

Shane Gray: Norfolk, in rural England was where I was born – I’m a country boy at heart. But a series of moves to other parts of the country saw me living in four other counties before finally settling in London where I stayed for just over a decade.
As village turned into town and town into city I suppose I gradually became more urbanized. And quite recently I left the United Kingdom to start married life in the United States.

I grew up in the seventies which I suppose was just as popular for photography as in the preceding decades.
My first memory of the ‘family camera’ was of a strange plastic boxy looking thing -it apparently took instant photographs, a total revelation at the time of course. I remember looking through family albums – with the interrupting digits as people grappled with varying contraptions in pursuit of savoring those all-important family moments. So I suppose you could say that it all started within the arena of ‘domestic photography’.
My first camera was made by a popular British chemist and used a tiny format called 110. From that day on I honestly think that something ignited – my first reckoning of what has commonly been termed the ‘decisive moment’, was my feeding a swan trying not to have it confuse my fingers for the chunk of bread. Couple this with the fact that I was always drawing as a child and I guess I became quite visually aware from an early age.

Later an Eastern bloc 35mm camera finally saw me putting my pencils down for good and after some relative successes and a growing stack of 6 X 4 prints, I soon found my way heading towards the city of Sheffield where I was accepted onto a course teaching many aspects of ‘professional photographic competences’. It just happened that the same college ran a press photography course for  the NCTJ (National Center for the Training of Journalists).

I was soon heavily influenced by my busied peers and their gritty B + W prints. Permission was granted to travel with an aid convoy to former Yugoslavia, where the war had not long started, and a growing fascination led me to the renowned Documentary Photography course in Newport, South Wales.

Do you see your personality reflected in your work?

Ultimately, the answer would have to be a resounding yes to this very interesting question – it’s just that the strength of the reflection varies from subject to subject or situation to situation as photographed. Some photographers indicate the complexities within their work as totally curiosity driven, or embark on some aesthetic stance which points to a strong personal influence; a personality trait even, maybe even fetish in some cases. Others appear to distance themselves or at least appear distanced. At times I feel like either photographer, if that makes sense.
When you see emerging patterns or commonalities within your own ways of working there has to be some hinting at the photographers make up or psyche. Even within genres whereby the subject retains all impetus or importance there can still be a suggestion of personality I think.
Experiences in a photographer’s life affect their outlook and interests which in turn affects personality thereby acting as a vector for their own working. As we know there’s that matter of subjectivity of course, but when you look at the work of photographers such as Parr, Gilden or Mermelstein they seem to give off strong signals alluding to their true personality.

All photographers do at some point and I’m no exception.

As someone who works in an art museum, I am interested in a photographer’s influences. Your work has a very strong aesthetic to it – bright colors, bold shapes – and it seems you have a clear idea of what you like to photograph. Do you have any influences in the photography world, art world or any other world that you can tell us about?

Having spent some time in Arts Education in London (post degree), though only at a fairly ordinary level, I have certainly looked at artists work with a view to it influencing my photography and maybe on a less conscious level it has. Cross-visioning is something that I feel truly exists for anyone involved with any artistic endeavor. The color usage of Pablo Picasso (especially in emotional terms) or the feelings of angst with Edvard Munch, even the abstraction of Joan Miro, I would never discount a smaller influence on some level.

However, the Photographers who have influenced and inspired me along the way; these luminary figures are innumerable and mentioning all of them possibly may go beyond the scope of this interview – it would be a long winded answer for sure. As I’ve gone about my photographic practice there have been many influences either from a genre perspective or chosen method of approach; be it B + W or color or chosen format even. Then there are the time periods involved throughout the history of photography as well. Probably the most notable in contemporary color working and in either ‘street’ or documentary would be Alex Webb for his sophisticated arrangement of picture elements, keen sense of observation, and color appreciation. Martin Parr I very much respect for his sensibility in the observations he makes; his social commentary either on my motherland or someone else’s I find both astute and amusing. Joel Meyerowitz – again the complexity of his street work I love but at the same time his photographs really inspire because of his mastery in juxtaposing form often interjected with emotion or questions.

Picking up on personality again though – Bruce Gilden, I admire for his ‘chutzpah’ – his spirit in getting done what he wants, and the same with Jeff Mermelstein, apart from their work, it’s their modus operandi that inspires too. Constantine Manos is another photographer who I quite admire, his use of shadow and color combined I love to observe. Lastly but definitely no less importantly Lauren Greenfield and Mary Ellen Mark have influenced on some levels as they have gotten ‘closer’ to some of their subjects more than many others – investing both time and understanding it appears. Their intuition and sensitivity is important and relevant when you consider much of their subject matter. I try to remember this at times.

I see that you used to focus a lot more on documentary photography in the UK, but your work in the US tends to veer more towards street photography. Do you see a difference between the two? If so, is there a reason why your work in the US is mainly street? Are there any documentary photography projects in New York that you’d like to work on?

Really I’m pleased that you’ve picked up on this. Personally I think it’s just an indication of how we grow or sometimes just deviate as photographers. Whilst I appreciate that consistency can become expected it can also stifle. The last photographs of someone’s life are very rarely similar to their earlier exploits or even those mid-career. Getting back to your first question though; I still see much of my street work as documentary photography. In these street photography renaissance times the genre (or sub-genre as I think the case may be) there seems to be almost a struggle with its terminology. In 1972, the Life Library defined the term ‘documentary photography’ as ”a depiction of the real world by a photographer whose intent is to communicate something of importance – to make a comment that will be understood by the viewer”. Further to this three types of ‘reality’ were proposed by the same authors in conveyance of: visual reality, social reality, and psychological reality. There’s often a move towards the visual pun or reliance upon some arrangement of quirky elements in much of street photography. Nowadays it can appear very different from the more ‘concerned’ workings in documentary photography so it’s quite confusing at times.

My current work since I’ve been here in the United States is primarily street photography. I have spent much of my time photographing within the frenetic environ of Manhattan which has lent itself to photographing different types of behavior and people sometimes in unusual situations. There is also a different type of tolerance level found in the crowds in general, maybe even a desensitization to the probing camera lens which has permitted a different working for me. Technically a certain level of subterfuge exists with the wide angle lens as well. All of these factors have tempted me towards more street photography.

There are many documentary projects that I’d like to see get off the ground however – one of these is in upstate New York, an area that has certainly piqued my interest. Other projects within New York are still ongoing though including ‘Avenue Street’ my Manhattan based work. Inspiration levels are quite high when you’ve recently moved to a new country or culture so you could say that I’m just letting the ‘dust settle’ for now. Having said that I did start a project soon after moving here based upon Roosevelt Island which is just off the east side of Manhattan, this is likely to expand and encompass other islands of New York.

Are there any projects in general that you’re itching to work on in the future?

In the past I’ve enjoyed photographing at home and overseas so I often have thoughts on turning the camera back towards the UK. Probably after some time in my new home country these feelings will increase – it’s too early to tell. India is a country that I’ve visited before and got ideas for a project a couple of hours away from Delhi. Likewise with the Indonesian side of Borneo, again after visiting there the wheels started turning on possible projects but they seem out of reach right now. For now though the US holds so much interest I don’t necessarily need to look too far. In essence, I find that things can happen in front you just as easily as far away. Whether this constitutes a project or not I’m uncertain, but I have a backlog of negatives both in color and B + W that need printing. I would look forward to becoming a darkroom hermit for a number of months!

Your work, for me, encompasses everything that is great about street photography. It is well observed, balanced, captures a time and place, and is very funny at times. How do you see yourself growing as a photographer in the coming years?

Thank you very much for the compliments in your observation. Both portraiture and landscape are areas that interest me, though the former probably applies more so. This is how I would like to expand upon my repertoire and incorporate different ways of working, even within the same body of work I believe the observed moment and the more directed approach can sit beside one another. Growing for me really means incorporating more commercial acumen though I’ve been saddened to see some great photographers that I’ve personally known lose touch with their creative sides in place of strictly financial reward – it became just a job. This represents part of my quest to grow over the next couple of years and to maintain a balance. Photographic education currently interests me as does a community based photo project of some sorts.

Finally, if you were not a photographer, what would you be?

Again – a great question. This one is difficult for me, there have been so many persuasions, deviations and distractions in my working life that nothing else seems to fit now but photography. Everything that has gone before seems to have relevance though, it all goes through a form of filter which is photography. Dare I say a painter of some description – and not just for buildings or fences…

All photographs © Shane Gray
Interview by Jeanette O’Keefe

The fantastic Peter Dench, contributing editor of Hungry Eye Magazine, Creative Director of the upcoming White Cloth Gallery and recent addition to getty reportage (phew!), has recently announced an upcoming 144 paged book of his UK Uncensored project using crowd funding platform emphas.is. And he’s wanting photography consumers the world over to help make it a reality!

Here’s some notes from the emphas.is website:

“England Uncensored documents the ordinary and the extraordinary. It explores all corners, from cities to tired beaches, via nightclubs, dressing rooms, cathedrals and famous sites in the country, such as Lord’s cricket ground and Hampton Court Palace, as well as presenting some of England’s more unusual events, e.g. the War and Peace Show in Beltring, Kent – the “largest military vehicle spectacular in the world” – where civilians can dress in military uniform and carry weapons, or the central London themed disco with adults dressing in school uniform to relive the “best days of their lives.”

“Peter Dench was Made in England on the feast of Saint George, the patron Saint of England, weighing into the world at a sizeable 10lb 8oz and sharing a birthday with William Shakespeare. From day one, the salt of the English seaside filled his nostrils, the sound of seagulls burst the eardrum and saturated colours startled the retina. The south coast town of Weymouth was a violent place for the teenage Dench. A Navy base meant horny sailors were in the town centre most weekends. The train station delivered horny workers from the Midlands factories during shutdown. The locals were always horny and hungry, but mostly thirsty. Throw in around 180 bars to the mix and something had to give. Often it was his chin. This was his introduction to England and Dench loved it.”

“It is no surprise then, that despite photographing on assignment in over 50 countries, it is to England that Dench continually points his lens. It is his home and his passion. England Uncensored is an edit from ten years of shooting the English, a comprehensive portrait of the first decade of 21st century England. It is not an idealized brochure of a green and pleasant land, but more a laugh-out-loud romp through this often badly behaved nation.”

I’m personally glad to see an amazing rewards package on offer for funders too:
$25 gets you a Thank you card, $50 a Book, $120 a Collectors edition book, $500 a Book and unique print, $1000 a Book and set of 5 unique prints, $1500 a Book and personal rendezvous and with $2000 you’re a Dedicated sponsor!

As of today (1st of February) the project has 31 backers totalling more than $2000 dollars pledged so far. And this includes backers the likes of Martin Parr, Marcus Bleasdale, Simon Roberts and shortly you’re truly!

Be sure to tell your friends!

You can help fund the project on the following emphas.is page:
http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=485

And if you can’t personally spare the cash, but want to help the project, help spread the word on social networks.

A nice video of Kip Praslowicz shooting street and making some portraits.

www.kpraslowicz.com