I recently received a copy of a new book by Jesse Marlow to review. After recently purchasing his previous book Wounded, I was very excited about the new publication from Jesse. Jesse is a Melbourne based photographer, and this is one thing that I find drew me to his work. From a slightly selfish perspective, its a source of inspiration to see someone roaming the same streets that I search and coming away with such strong work. Its great to see the locations and know where they are. It lets me become just a little more immersed in the images than with a book shot in a location that I am unfamiliar with. This is all well and good for me as a Melbournian, but I have no doubt the book is hugely successful without this locational connection. Maybe even more so, I dont have that perceptual advantage.
Read MoreJournal
This is the second highlight post for the Collaborations that I manage on Urban Picnic Street Photography. I take a lot of pride in the work that I put into these processes and I like the fact that I can share a little snippet of them here on my own page. The collaboration this month was between Peter Kool and Larry Hallegua. Two great photographers, and also a couple of stand up guys that were a pleasure to work with. I get to make some great contacts through this process, and this one was no different.
Read More
I have a slight obsession with Jacob Aue Sobol that was already well developed prior to buying this book. It would be an interesting survey to complete of the people who have purchased this book, how many bought the book for Petersen and how many for Sobol? I was squarely on the Sobol side of the fence when I made the purchase, but may be sitting more on the fence after taking in the images. This is a fantastic thing. That youre able to take in the pages and not have a clear favourite artist in a collaborative book is on a simple level good value for money. On a more complex level, its a great achievement by the two artists involved in producing a book that flows so well even though its not the product of a single photographic eye. Sobol is just an amazing talent and also a very interesting and passionate man. I am sure thats a statement that applies to many of the past and current Magnum crop. After seeing a long video of him speaking at the Nordic Light Festival about his latest project, this was further cemented. Its a long video, but its well worth sitting down to with a nice glass of red and taking in what Sobol has to say.
Read More
Disco... What are you thinking of? Gloria Gaynor? Dianna Ross? You bet ya! That period of time in the 70's that you hear so much about, or maybe some of you even lived it... Im not that old. That period that created so many classic musical moments. Due to this, I thought we would start by adding a sound track for this post. Cool track this one... Not one of the disco classics that we are referring to, but a more modern take on the theme. This track is not the norm as far as disco music goes, neither is the 'Disco' that is reflected in Andrews book.
Read More
This is going to be a really interesting and quirky kind of review if it does any justice to how quirky and interesting Koji Onaka's wonderful little book Luck Cat is. The basics are that its a simple soft cover book. The paper quality is really nice, and the vibrant colour and contrasty nature of the prints is well done also. I do prefer hard cover books, they seem to add a touch of class to a book, but the soft covering on this edition of Lucky Cat is actually quite well done. The simple utilitarian design on the front cover of the book really matches the nature of the images within.
Read More
I read something that resonated with me recently and I wanted to both share it with anyone that would like to read it, as well as discuss my thoughts on why these couple of paragraphs weighed on my mind for a while. I think that this process of writing some text might help me take the words apart and analyse them for myself, so here we go. This is the short statement that I found on a site that I have been spending a lot of time on recently. I have stated already that an addiction to Japanese photo books is on the way, the site sells a lot of great titles. But this statement was on their main section: "To me, the recent use of the term street photographer is similar to calling oneself artist or art photographer with an intention to add artificial value. I don’t think any respectable practitioner worth their salt would proclaim themselves with this title in this day and age. Nonetheless it appears that it is often banded around, especially on the social interwebs, with an intention to gain credibility or cool the same way teenagers would display branded clothes or gear to gain attention from peers or lowly outsiders.
Read More
I have already posted about the fact that I am going to spend 2014 with one lens and one camera, but I thought that I would also make some public outlandish statements that I will hopefully hold myself to for the upcoming 12 months. Some of these will be photography related, others will not. Dont expect this to be a massively read blog post. Its more one of those things that I am putting out there for myself more than anything. So here we go....
Read More
The other day I posted on Facebook that I was thinking of going to one camera and one lens for 2014. It was interesting as I got a few replies from people saying that they were thinking of doing the same thing, or had done in the past. I knew it was a popular learning tool, but it was just intriguing for me that as we come to the close of a year, people are having similar thoughts to me for a photo related new years resolution. I thought this would be a good time to post something outlining my thoughts on what it is that I am hoping to get from this, and maybe some assumptions about what I think may drive others to pursue such a project. I dont know if project is the right term for this decision for me. I dont think that my decision to use only one camera and lens for 12 months has anything to do with the subject matter of the images that I will be making, but this may be a statement that I come to be totally off base with this time next year.
Read More