Hipshots

Telegraph stories

© Robert Frank

The weekend editions of The Daily Telegraph frequently feature some excellent pieces on photography, and this weekend was no exception. Check out:-

Here for an excellent article on the reissue of Frank’s The Americans (one of many such articles over the coming weeks I am sure…).

Here for a piece on Martin Parr’s Postcards - a new book about his postcard collections by Chris Boot.

and perhaps most interestingly…

Here for an excellent introduction to next week’s New York Photo Festival.

Racing Seen - April 08

© Martin Amis

More Racing Seen images here.

Online photography collections

Check out a great article in today’s Guardian art blogs by Liz Jobey about browsing museum photography collections online. Special mention goes to the Met’s excellent photographic archives, which runs from the origins of photography all the way to Thomas Ruff’s 2004 nudes, via gems from Winogrand (below), Walker Evans and Thomas Struth.

© Garry Winogrand

The recommendation does come though with the slight caveat that I did find the archive rather slow to browse, perhaps access to all that data does comes at a price?

Simon Roberts & We English

Appropriately enough for St.George’s Day here, I have just stumbled across Simon Robert’s latest project We English.

In Simon’s words:-   “My aim is to create a photographic journal of life, specifically documenting landscapes where groups of people congregate for a common purpose and shared experience. It will be about what people do in their spare time, their leisure pursuits and pastimes and how people derive meaning and identity from these activities.  It will also be about people’s relationship with their environment, whether their immediate surroundings are urban or rural.  Recreation will provide the basis for a wider exploration of people’s attachment to place and the way in which the inhabitants of England derive meaning and identity from everyday events and activities.  The project will focus on events that take place on a local level and at locations where everyday rituals are played out.”

Simon’s most recent book Motherland , was one of the photobook highlights of the past year, so I am already eagerly awaiting images from his take on Englishness.

To accompany the new project, Simon has started a blog here, where he is encouraging the public to email suggestions for events that he could photograph.  Also check out his excellent post giving a photographic timeline on photographic projects in his post here and a similarly illumating piece on Tony Ray-Jones here.

Martin Parr in The Times

There is an excellent lengthy profile of Martin Parr in this past Sunday’s Times newspaper. Check it out online here. It’s well worth a read, documenting everything from his early work to his current Luxury project - the Flickr group “Martin Parr We Love You” even gets a mention!

As a photographer in the UK, its very difficult to escape the influence and spectre of Martin Parr. Take a photo of something with a hint of humour, saturated colours, a measure of irony or just a portrait of quaint Englishness and it’s hard not to worry if you have gone all Parr…

Racing Seen

Sleeping by the Mississippi THIRD EDITION

© Alec Soth

It appears that one of the most popular contemporary photobooks is about to have a 3rd printing. Complete with new cover, the new version is available for pre-order here direct from Steidl. There is probably not a photography student or emerging photographer out there who doesn’t own or crave a copy of this modern classic. Little did I realise some 4 years ago when I grabbed the last copy of the first printing at Strands that it would be such an influential book (and worth over $800!).

More coverage of street photography

Thanks to Patrick for sending me this piece in the Times about the current public/street photography debate. With thoughtful contributions by Matt Stuart and Jeff Mermelstein, the article nicely rounds up the current situation for street photography. Hopefully the rest of the heavyweight press can get behind this issue. A “What Street Photography has given to the Visual Arts” style multi-page photo feature in the Sunday supplements would probably do wonders….

UPDATE 31st March

Amateur Photographer magazine (news central for all matters street photographers v nanny state) has a complete round-up on all that has been going on here. 

Photograper’s rights protest

Amateur Photographer reports on the news that The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) will stage a protest this Friday outside New Scotland Yard, London in reaction to the police’s recent anti-terror publicity campaign. Read the full article here.

So come along, wave your monopod in protest, take a few snaps of the CCTV and, of course, try not to look too odd.

London Photography

With all the current furore about photographing in public in Britain (see the latest stories here, here and here), I thought I would post 3 London “street” photographs that caught my eye recently.

© Polly Braden

Excellent use of light in Square Mile, a project by Polly Braden, seen in Issue 9 of Photoworks. There is a little information available online about the project here, although sadly no further information at the photographer’s site. The images looked wonderful in print.

© William Woods

Found via the consistently excellent FlakPhoto, this image at Canary Wharf by William Woods. Once again, sadly very little information about the images at his website.

© David Solomons

From David Solomons’ excellent series Up West, see all his work here. From my experience street photography in London is never easy, and requires a great deal of patience, so hats off to David for the work he produces.

Hopefully common sense will prevail, and the current storm about photographing in public in the UK will blow over soon. Good luck to Austin Mitchell with his early day motion in the House of Commons.