Innholdsfortegnelse for #10 Nature i Improve Your Photography

Photographers frequently go to great lengths to capture their images. Some camp on the sides of mountains in the middle of winter, driven by the desire to photograph the first chink of light as it breaks over a remote landscape. Others risk their safety to travel to inhospitable climates in pursuit of rare wildlife. Then there are those who have made their living from photographing war zones, where the risks so often outweigh the rewards. Why is it, then, that the simple act of approaching an ordinary, unthreatening human going about their everyday business, and asking to take their portrait, is enough to strike terror into even the boldest photographer’s heart? ‘Every single one is an absolute nightmare,’ laughs Niall McDiarmid. This, despite him having spent the best part of…

Social documentary photographer Patricia Anne ‘Tish’ Murtha was at the beginning of what looked like a very promising career in the 1980s. When her daughter Ella was born, faced with life as a single parent, everything changed. Her photography career never truly recovered and, tragically, on 13 March 2013, Tish died suddenly from a brain aneurysm, just one day before her 57th birthday. Ella herself had a child under two at the time. Now, Ella manages the Tish Murtha archive – a full-time job. At the end of 2018, images from Tish Murtha’s extensive archive were shown at Photo North in Harrogate. While there, I sat down with Ella to discuss her mother’s legacy and the work she’s been doing to preserve it. After spending her childhood in north-east England,…

In truth, any camera can be used to take pictures in the street. Some time before I was born, hardy photographers were using gigantic wooden-plate cameras to document the life and activity on the pavements of the world. Even I have used monstrous medium-format bodies, with flapping barn-door mirrors, to record the buzz of city streets in this century. It is pretty obvious, though, that just because a type of camera can be used to take street pictures, it doesn’t make it the best type of camera for the job. I’m not especially old, but in my time I have used just about every sort of camera to shoot in streets. I have come to the conclusion that models that are small, quick to use and don’t make any noise…

Nobody knows how the Isle of Dogs got its name; one theory suggests it’s a corruption of the Isle of Ducks, which seems pretty feasible given it’s a patch of land that once regularly flooded, while another claims it’s down to the number of dead dogs that used to wash up along the banks of the river here. Whatever the reason, no one can dispute that this peninsula, created by a bend in the River Thames, is highly unusual. What started out as an area of marshland is now a major financial district, home to Canary Wharf and some of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe. Visit on a weekday and you are sure to find city traders milling about where cattle once grazed. Mike Seaborne stumbled across the Isle of…

Only a few decades ago, the term ‘street photography’ didn’t really exist. But while more formally posed portraits and urban or rural landscapes were fashionable in the 19th century, a lot of early travel and documentary photographers were, of course, taking photographs of street scenes. By 1897, French photographer Eugène Atget was taking images of a Paris he saw expanding and developing quickly. As well as capturing old buildings, he was keen to record ordinary people on the streets, and how they lived their lives. Atget went on to influence future generations of big names, including Man Ray and the surrealists, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, William Klein and so on. Martin Parr, arguably Britain’s best-known photographer, along with David Bailey and Don McCullin, is also best known for his street…

WE SPOKE to Nick Dunmur, the legal advisor at the Association of Photographers (AOP), for some general advice regarding street photography. ‘To be clear from the start, there are no laws in the UK preventing anyone from photographing anything, or indeed anyone else (note: including children), in a public place. The issues start with, firstly, defining and understanding what exactly is a “public place” and secondly from the use of the resulting photographs. One cannot take photographs of things for criminal or terrorist purposes, for example, and one should not use an image of an individual to advertise a product or service without proper permission from that individual (often called a “model release”). ‘So, to reiterate, as long as the photographer is on public land or in a public space,…

The first glimpse of the sea is always a thrill. Released from the car, often hot and sticky after a long drive, you make your way through the dunes, grass whipping at your legs, salt fizzing on your tongue. The sand is warm beneath your feet, but carrying the obligatory cool box and windbreak makes progress slow. Ascending the final dune, your heart quickens as you anticipate the view. One more step and you are at the top, marvelling at the shimmering water stretching out below you. Propelled by some primitive urge, you drop your belongings and race towards the water. The first wave hits your legs and you flinch at its icy touch, but when the second wave arrives you find yourself remarking, ‘It’s not as cold as I…

Some photographic projects seem to be easy to start and finish. It always helps if there are plans for an exhibition or publication, while other work may be produced primarily to see if an idea or theme might develop into something interesting. I also appreciate the immediacy of photographing a small series, producing a hand-made artist’s book, or using online printers considering the project complete. However, my series Nocturne, is one best classed as ‘ongoing,’ and one I keep returning to with new ideas and images. While based on the urban landscape at night, it would be difficult to present it as a text book example of how to photograph the city after dark. I purposely limit myself in the equipment and materials used, making things as basic as possible.…

What is street photography? The exact definition of this popular genre is tricky to pin down and means different things to different people. Even the word ‘street’ itself is misleading. Some would argue that it’s not so much about whether the photography is actually carried out in an urban environment; it’s about the kind of images you make. Street photography is more of an attitude, approach or frame of mind. David Gibson, himself a street photographer for three decades, offers his own broad definition in his book, 100 Great Street Photographs. ‘The term “street photography”,’ he writes, ‘can be applied to any photographs taken in a public space, with or without the inclusion of people, which are entirely natural, and not set up.’ He goes on to add, ‘Street photography…

Often the key to good street photography is becoming one with the street. Being as unobtrusive and unnoticeable as possible is the name of the game. As pretty much everyone – photographers and otherwise – has a smartphone in their pocket these days, they have become the perfect way to avoid standing out when taking pictures in public. Shooting with smartphones allows you to react to situations as they happen, whether you were preparing for a street photography session or not. You will always be ready to photograph the scene in front of you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve your approach. You should find inspiration from the photographs on these pages – all of which have been photographed using nothing more than a humble smartphone. Modern smartphones are…

In the early hours of 26 September 1950, an underground fire broke out within the Creswell Colliery in Derbyshire, trapping dozens of miners working below. As the day wore on and word spread about the accident, families and friends gathered for news. Standing in the crowd was an 18-year-old photographer from the local weekly newspaper. His name was Denis Thorpe. Working with a Contax rangefinder camera borrowed from his boss, Denis soon became aware that he was witnessing the aftermath of a mining disaster. ‘I just quietly wandered around and photographed what I could see,’ he recalls. ‘I don’t remember seeing any other photographers, but because I was a young man and had this little camera, I think people didn’t take any notice of me. Then, I realised what an…

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In 1990 I was a young photographer working for The Independent newspaper in London, covering news, features and shooting interview portraits. I carried a camera with me everywhere and always made candid pictures of the interesting and funny things I saw in between my commissions. I loved how extraordinary everyday life could be and started to build up quite a portfolio of these ‘observations’. These pictures were different from my commissioned work, they had no real subject and they were each self-contained little visual stories. In 1994 the picture desk handed me a book to photograph for the newspaper’s review pages – it was the first edition of Bystander: A History of Street Photography by the American photographer Joel Meyerowitz and Colin Westerbeck. Flicking through the pages of Bystander, I…

I wouldn’t necessarily tag myself as a street photographer, but I often use the genre as the building blocks of a reportage, exhibition or book. It’s the easiest style to do and arguably the hardest to get right, whatever right is. I have a set of rough guidelines that I rely on to try to help me achieve successes on the street. Man, Beer and Baby Blackpool, July 2008 GET IN! I believe you can be more inconspicuous up close. I like to be able to respond to my subject if necessary. Most people don’t mind being photographed. I always have a short, truthful, clear reply prepared if anyone asks what I’m doing: ‘Did you just take a photo of me?!’ ‘Yes, I’m doing a set of pictures on the…

When Tony Sellen walks into a building, his brain perceives a mix of lines, shapes, light and shadow. ‘Everything is a picture to me,’ he reveals. ‘When I walk into a hotel lobby, I notice the design and the thought process behind the seating arrangement.’ But it hasn’t always been that way. In fact, Tony only decided to take his photography seriously in 2014; before then it was more of an on/off hobby. ‘I would go months without touching the camera, but then I’d learn something new every time I did pick it up,’ he recalls. To hone his skills, he took up bird photography, experimenting with depth of field to get ‘a nice, blurry background’, before deciding to attend a workshop focusing on long exposures. ‘At first I didn’t…

I’ve never deep-dived into the work of iconic street photographer Bruce Gilden. I’ve not leafed through a book, read an interview, strolled around an exhibition or sat in an amphitheatre to hear him talk. That either makes me the best or worst person to write this article. I have seen Bruce Gilden, behind the Super Stage at The Photography Show UK 2016. My presentation followed his. As he sat silent in the semi-darkness, I could hear him breathe. The only thing I could think to say was, ‘Thanks for warming up the crowd.’ It could’ve gone either way. I’ve heard him described as difficult, a bully, blunt, but what about the work? It was time to get my Gilden going on, to take a taste of the Marmite man. *One…