Reflections

It’s rained and rained here for what feels like weeks. Every now and again the rain stops and the sun might show its face briefly – but not necessarily at a time I can get out with my camera. Which has made me think a lot about opportunity generally. I live between 2 small county cities and a bunch of rural market towns – none of which are particularly inspiring in terms of street photography. They are all a very long way from anything resembling urban or gritty! But it is perhaps too easy to blame ones circumstances for a lack of inspiration. There are some great photographers out there who have made a name out of photographing the mundane and the very ordinary scenes around them eg. Stephen Shore, William Egglestone. It is easy for me to look at their images and envy the wide American ‘scapes on offer to them but I would be missing the point. It is always a subjective journey and it is for me to find a way of reflecting the essence of my own local streets.

Which brings me to the image below. One brief dry afternoon I drove to the edgelands of Worcester (edgelands is a personal project I am pursuing). I walked about for an hour or so with little inspiration and diminishing enthusiasm. And then I discovered this bridge. Initially it was the colours that appealed to me but I quickly spotted the painted yellow figure and thought it would be amusing to juxtapose it with a moving person. It was chance that such a small child appeared running ahead of his mother and even greater chance that I snapped at exactly the right moment. But the visualization was mine and out of something fairly uninspiring I succeeded in capturing a great shot. I was chuffed and it reminded me exactly why I so love the serendipity of street photography.

Reflection

I have recently become aware of a great photographer Sylvia Plachy. I thoroughly recommend checking her out. There’s a fascinating little film about her life and her work SELF PORTRAIT WITH COWS GOING HOME AND OTHER WORKS: A PORTRAIT OF SYLVIA PLACHY https://vimeopro.com/user11323782/rebecca-dreyfus-short-films

Here are a couple of her quotes that really speak to me:

“I think almost all great pictures have ghosts in them.”

“I’m interested in what’s beyond the surface, what’s in the corners, what’s underneath”

Reflection

I recently saw the film Suffragette and was fascinated to learn about the very first use of covert surveillance photography – the establishment’s attempts to ‘capture’ those pesky militant women in their midst. Simon Schama spoke of this in programme 2 ‘Faces of the People’ from his excellent series Face of Britain. So I wonder – does this represent the germination of street photography…..? In turns out, however, that Hogarth was the first person to portray the ordinary person in the street so to speak.