I’ve been wanting to share a workflow I’m exploring. Usually I edit photos with a sequential system of several passes. In the case of my own photos I try to leave a long time between a pass, months or years.
The normal cycle is to do a review of all the material immediately after capture and let it sit for a year before doing the second pass (on all the material). From the combination comes the “draft” of my work, which I post on my
photoblog. At this stage I already nominate some photographs as “
my-favs”, which are the ones I show when someone asks for a theme. To do something I consider meditated I leave it even longer.
Since I had the book
Street Photography Now in my hands I wonder how it is possible that under the title of street photography
Alexey Titarenko and
Matt Stuart can coexist? I like both, but I think the only thing they share is the setting. I know it is just a book, but asking questions is not bad. In the search for an answer I structured the problem into three parts:
the documentary function, the experience and the aesthetics of street photography. It is in the experience where I find more certainty, especially in the phrase by
Nick Turpin “It is a simple ‘Zen’-like experience…” It is precisely here that I see clearly where street starts and ends. A “streeter” must feel the street, breathe it, live it, must be passionate about the urban environment and the “casualities” it “encounters”. Some time ago I mixed in
“Intuitive Photography” Cartier‑Bresson, Zen and archery to talk about the photographic experience and how we learn to “flow” shooting. Regardless of style, or possible documentary intention, I think all of us who do street share this:
A few weeks ago, while selecting photos for the photo blog, I came across this pair of images. I thought it would be interesting to create a series of posts with them, exploring the doubts I have during the editing process. Although in the end I leave some certainty, most of them are questions.
Sooner or later, all of us who love street photography will receive a copy of
Street Photography Now. The gift brought a smile to my face and sparked curiosity in the pages:
Alexey Titarenko. His series “
City of Shadows” captivated me. It is certainly not what one would call classic street photography; in fact, the book often skirts the boundary of the classic, even quoting the famous line “reality can only be explained through fiction,” which I first heard from my most important influence, Krzysztof Kieślowski.
October 27, 2014
