These are two images from this past fall. They are different then the children, but I feel that they fit, or maybe I want them to :) Give me your opinions. When I get the next opportunity I will scan my new work to get some feedback during the process. Take care.
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I've commented on these in person, but what I find interesting about this body of work was your interest in the blurred figure framing the picture and constructing a more complex composition. Plus the looking off (which is in most of your images now) is nice in these because you are allowing the viewer to feel distant from the subject but they are turned ever so slightly so that we are just a TAD more let in. I think this very small difference in vantage point means a lot, it is a different position for the audience instead of just being shut out.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see some contemporary street photographers that are doing something other than "straight photography" and I don't mean really bullshitty and gross photoshopping but I'm thinking.. what would it be like if you made a few more decisions directing the audiences perception of the images. I don't think you should go by these "photographic rules" that you guys love oh so much.. why are all the images the same size.. is that because thats what photo paper you bought or because it has to be a "series" or does this format really encompass this photo? I don't think the latter question is always yes.. I'd agree yes some of them do but why not go another step into treating these images slightly painterly (which you are really beginning to explore esp with the blurry forms) and CHOOSE a size for THAT. maybe even go wild and crazy kid and crop some ahhh.
But my point, why keep it so straight Gabaybay?
yeah, i don't know if i think these fit with the kids. its not just the subject matter, but the way you're framing them. these seem different.
ReplyDeletei'm also not sure what i think about your shift towards photographing people turned away from you. i guess one of the things that was always so compelling about your previous work was you are one of the few people i know who will shoot a person staring right back at you. i guess i can't think of a lot of people right now doing street photography, in the traditional/historic/winogrand who aren't doing it from a commercial perspective. (please, feel free to correct my ignorance here.) so, it seemed like the work you were doing was really fresh - these unabashed photographic confrontations with people you found interesting, often at pretty close range. so, i guess, the stuff of people caught unaware/not looking seems less daring. maybe its all because i don't feel like i can take those dead-on pix? i dunno. i also know that work is difficult and has been extra difficult of late. so, you have my respect for working in that vein at all.
i do have to agree with erin about the framing, though. i love the blurred element to frame the person your focusing on. it really adds extra visual interest to the overall image.
erin, i hear what you're saying about trying to mix it up with the image size and stuff. and while i think sometimes it works, most of the time, i think it starts to look weird and incongruent. there is a certain desire for the rhythm that consistent print size gives to a body of work. while it might be one of those boring "rules," there's a reason for that. and to break it, i think one has to have a reason strong enough that the work, as a group, is stronger for the break. i don't know that this body would benefit from that treatment.
also, i think we print to a certain size, mostly because that's the MOST we can get out of a certain size of paper. either we print small, for a reason. or we end up printing as big as we can afford on the largest piece of paper we can afford. unfortunately, in some cases, there is a definite bias towards "bigger is better" regardless of the content. and yet, i have seen a lot of huge photos that would have lacked the impact if done on a smaller scale. there are still those who do it big for no reason. but in the end, a lot of work simply reads better big.
but, that's just me.
so good.
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