Behind the Veil

This is in response to a blog post by Tamara Voninksi over at Life @ Random

Tamara poses the question, “Would Henri Cartier-Bresson use an iphone to capture decisive moments if he lived in this day and age?”

Of course it does not matter what tool is being used, it is the photographer’s voice that set him/her apart from the next guy walking down the street with a camera.

I was thinking about this and of course we’ll never know if Bresson would use a phone or not but I think as photographers, we should be asking a different question. I will keep this short and straight to the point, mostly because I’m a crappy writer, so hopefully this all makes sense.The question I want to pose is, “Would Henri Cartier-Bresson be still capturing the decisive moment if he lived this day and age?”

Let me explain. Bresson was a pioneer of photography for his time. A time when walking around with a small black camera didn’t exist. Travelling and capturing the world one decisive moment at a time and then sharing those images with people who had never seen such wonders.

In today’s world, everyone has traveled. The online and digital media-scape is suffering from stylistic and image exhaustion. Would Bresson be adding to this magnitude of imagery or as a pioneer of documentary photography and photojournalism would he be thinking about photography in a completely different way.

Just like Winogrand was a pioneer for his time or even Eggleston “at war with the obvious” made way for millions of photographs of the mundane. It is just something I have been thinking about with my work and why I have started experimenting a little more, not just for the sake of being different but just to keep myself interested in the medium.

Not yet….. just processed 8 rolls of B&W. Once I go through and put up an edit you will see some colour start to emerge onto the blog. “WHAT??? OMG?? COLOUR????”… yep! You better believe it. I have just switched to using Portra 400 so wish me luck :)

Although modern society is pushing further away from the idea long form journalism, I have been recently inspired by the idea of the ambiguous narrative. Photojournalism or press photography in particular tries to capture the whole story in a single image, almost forcing a subjective opinion onto the viewer. I have been studying the work of Paul Graham and younger photographers like Rob Hornstra who push the idea of raising questions instead of giving answers. Their sentiments have struck a chord with me and I have begun treating my work like a novelist, slowly chipping away, looking at each frame with more detail.

I am also working on a 2nd project which involves the use of colour and a medium format camera. An idea driven project which I am not entirely sure where it will take me but I am very excited about it!

Here’s a series of images taken earlier this year in Granville and Auburn.

Someone should open up a pro-lab in the western suburbs! I need to buy and process film but I’m never in the city. That is all. Here’s some photos at a park.

I guess I see these images as sketches. As I roam the streets of Auburn, not much thought goes into the process. Something catches my attention, I lift the camera to my eye and I take a picture. Anticipating movement, looking for interesting subjects, I catch up with people as I do happy laps every few days.

Street Photography, Documentary, Reportage, Photojournalism, Street Yo! Whatever you call it, it’s all about hitting the streets on foot, aimlessly, like a stray dog. Chasing light and even sometimes chasing an interesting subject! I love the process of discovery, experiencing life and recording what I see. Something Gary Winogrand said which I think rings true with aspects of my photography, “I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs”. It is as much about the process as it is the result, photographing without any preconceptions and with respect.

I enjoy taking portraits but I mostly prefer the results of street photography. Arranging subjects in a frame without the interaction whether it be on the street or other setting is much more difficult and therefore much more rewarding for me. My next post will be a series of what I consider street photography.