The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 10 years to get that many views.
Cafe Baba: Courtney Place, Wellington
So this is a post to explain some of what I’ve been doing running around in the dark on Courtney Place in Wellington in recent months.
I’m currently taking photos on Courtney because I’ve a street photography project with a focus on nightlife in Wellington. Many of the people I’ve taken photos of on Courtney ask me the same questions, so I thought I’d post to explain. The first question most people ask is; why?
I can explain some of the motivations but at the moment I can’t fully answer that question; I’ve not taken enough photos to be able to.
A year ago I came across a book called Street Photography Now, one of the photographers was a Polish guy called Maciej Dakowicz. His photobook Cardiff After Dark is a series of photos taken over a period of several years of one of Cardiff’s night spots. He documents public bad behaviour and lewdness in a humorous and poignant way that ultimately gives an ironic dignity to his subjects. Here’s one of his more famous pics:
Pink Hat – Cardiff Wales UK St Mary street on a Saturday night, Cardiff, UK. see more in the Cardiff After Dark set My facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/MaciejDakowiczPhotography “Cardiff After Dark” book: on Amazon UK, on amazon .com, worldwide on bookdepository. http://www.maciejdakowicz.com
His photos resonate with me because of where I come from; Scotland. The scenes of comic mayhem are exactly those I saw in Glasgow and Edinburgh when I was a student. Dakowicz was one of the reasons I started street photography – photos taken in the street with and without permission.
Street photography is a genre of photography that focuses on people in an urban environment. Here’s how Eric Kim defines it:
“Simply put, the main focus of street photography is taking the everyday and the mundane and making it into something unique and beautiful.”
Cafe Baba: Courtney Place, Wellington
My photos tend to be of people and mostly they’re portraits. They’re of normal, ordinary people in New Zealand. I’m interested in Courtney Place because it has energy and darkness. It also lets me show an aspect of contemporary New Zealand culture that seems to be missing elsewhere.
I’m a little tired of seeing photos of New Zealand that hark back to some highly stylised Cartier-Bresson era. The kids I see hanging around Courtney and Newtown don’t really fit with that. And although I take landscape photos myself, don’t get me started on what I think is wrong with New Zealand landscape photography. Contemporary Street Photography has a power to tell New Zealand stories that few seem to have grasped. As an outsider here I suppose I have a different perspective than most Kiwis.
Someone who’s work in New Zealand I really like is Julian Ward.
Bus Stop: Courtney Place, Wellington
Most of the photos don’t get used at all. There are only a small number of pictures that are actually well composed and, well lit etc. Most of them turn out blurred or having just missed the moment, so most of the photos end up on a hard drive and will never be used for anything.
The small number of photos that are any good I’ll usually post on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadwriter/
From there I’ll submit them to various groups, including:
Some of the portraits and photos will appear in January at Photospace Gallery as part of a Documentary Group Show that I was part of. I’m hoping that I can exhibit more photos in the future.
Cuba Street, Wellington
I’m about to start a remote workshop with Charlie Kirk so many of the photos will be part of the projects he sets me.
Once I’ve got a collection of photos I think have a focus I’ll self-publish a photobook through Blurb
I don’t post on Facebook. I don’t name people.
There’s a long history of people like Bruce Gilden and more recently Charlie Kirk who take confrontational photos on the street. I’m interested in that style of photography because it’s honest and direct; you know that I’m taking your picture because I’m at most a couple of metres away and I’m waving a flash in your face. I’m not lurking with a telephoto lens and a raincoat. You can ask me why I’m taking your picture and if you are uncomfortable with me having taken your picture you can ask me to delete it. I enjoy talking about photos, so I like interacting with people on the street. I don’t respond well to being told to ‘fuck off’ and I don’t respond well to people being aggressive towards me.
Shop Window: Cuba Street, Wellington.
Yes it is. Here’s some stuff that I’ve pulled together from various sources with regard to New Zealand Privacy Law in regard to taking photos on the street.
“Interestingly enough in New Zealand, there is no strict guarantee of privacy, particularly when it comes to photography. Instead, restrictions on photography come into play when it may be construed as “offensive” to a reasonable person. How offensive is defined as been a point of argument amongst the courts.”
Photography Rights in Different Countries
“Q: Isn’t it Illegal to publish a person’s photo on a website or other media without their consent?
A: Only in Quebec or France. In every other country, including Australia, publication is fully legal, provided the following criteria are met:
(1) The pictures aren’t defamatory;
(2) They aren’t indecent, offensive or otherwise demean the people in them or;
(3) They aren’t being used for a “commercial purpose”
Q: Can I stop people from taking photos of my children?
A: Only if the images are indecent or offensive. Otherwise children are not afforded any special protection under current law.”
http://www.hellophoto.co.nz/showthread.php?1954-Privacy-law-and-photography
“It is the role of the Privacy Commissioner to receive written complaints from the public outlining potential breaches of privacy. The Privacy Act 1993 enables the Commissioner to either disregard or investigate the complaint and assess whether the grounds amount to a breach of privacy.
An action for breach of privacy may be brought by the Commissioner where a breach has occurred and that
breach has caused;
(a) Loss, detriment, damage or injury to the complainant; or
(b) The rights, benefits, privileges, obligations of the complainant to be adversely affected, or may do so; or
(c) Significant humiliation, loss of dignity or injury to the complainants feelings, or may do so.“
Photography Law in New Zealand – The Clendons Guide to NZ Law Relating to Photography
More Links:
http://erickimphotography.com/Downloads/Blog/Australia_Street_photographers_rights.pdf
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/PLPR/2006/2.html
In summary: it’s legal.
Doormen: Courtney Place, Wellington
I try wherever possible to give the people I take photos of the opportunity to get a printed copy of their photo. Many of the doormen and security guys on Courtney now have a print as a result. If you are one of the people I’ve taken a picture of and you want a copy just get in touch. If you would like your photo not to appear on Flickr then please just email me and I’ll remove it.
I hope having explained some of the reasons for taking photos it might make it easier for more people to start taking photos in the dark and on the street.
Protestors on Willis Street central Wellington
Aotearoa is Not for Sale Hikoi on Willis Street caught in reflected light
Aotearoa is Not for Sale Hikoi
Aotearoa is Not for Sale Hikoi
Chicks ‘n’ Picks
I recently spent time down in Queenstown at the first Remarkables Ice and Mixed Festival. There were a total of 115 attendees at the annual festival – many from overseas. The festival combined instructional clinics with awards for hardest new climbs and hardest repeats. Climber Steve Fortune, one of the notable winners, was also awarded the Black Diamond New Zealand Alpinist of the year and won the Grand Traverse Challenge in a swift one hour twenty nine minutes.
Wye Creek ice
I was there taking photos at the Adventure Consultants‘ Chicks ‘n’ Picks women-only ice climbing clinic. Over August 17th and 18th we spent time overnighting at Wye Creek in the heart of the Remarkables. Eight women climbers were coached by mountain guides Jane Morris and Tim Steward over the two days learning a range of ice climbing techniques including efficient movement and ice axe placement.
Accommodation provided by Adventure Consultants
The clinic is modelled on the American Chicks With Picks clinic held during the annual Ouray Ice Park Ice Festival. The success of Chicks With Picks is due to its ethos of ”women climbing with women for women“. That concept also worked well in New Zealand judging by the enthusiasm of the climbers.
Steep ice on the second day at Wye Creek
I’ve more pics online at Flickr: Remarkables Ice and Mixed Festival
Thanks also to Remarkables Ice and Mixed Festival event photographers:
Adventure Consultants’ Jane Morris climbing at Wye Creek
Tokyo Salary Man
I was taking photos in Tokyo recently. Mainly street stuff. I’m fairly new at taking pics in the street and here’s some things I learned.
Do not, under any circumstances, make eye contact with the people you are taking photos of. If you make eye contact they will see the following:
Here’s a quote I saw recently :
But if you make eye contact from 10m the chances are the subject will duck or cross to the other side of the street and not give you the opportunity to take their photo in the first place. It’s about timing really.
This is one of my favourite photos from the trip to Tokyo. It catches two people in conversation. It was taken without eye contact. It was taken without the guy knowing he was being observed. His friend sees it, but he doesn’t. It’s not a great shot, but it’s moment captured that that makes it interesting.
Shibuya
Good photos are as close as you can get. For me getting as close as possible and filling the frame is the hardest part of taking photos of people. Getting as close as you can means pre-focusing on an object 2m away before starting to take pics. And prefocusing to 2m forces you to wait; you have to wait until someone gets close. And then wait until they are closer still before raising the camera, pointing it directly at them and releasing the shutter two or three times as they pass. That’s the confronting bit for me. That’s when they know you are taking their photo. That’s when you are exposed and people know what you are doing but they don’t know why. That’s when Araki’s game begins.
Shibuya
Forget ISO 200. If you shoot with a low ISO like the books say then the photo will be blurred as the shutter speed won’t be fast enough to catch them sharply as they walk past. A low aperture helps, but that makes the area in which the person can be in focus smaller as the depth of field is reduced. Prefocussing and using a small aperture of f8-f11 gives you some breathing room. Grain is good and sharp capture of movement is more important.
So right now I’m still not sure why. That’s the creative process of doing something for a dedicated amount of time and learning in the process. I think its about urban environments, people and connecting with people. One of the things I’m currently working on for Photo Course 2 at Photospace is street portraiture where you actually have to engage with the people you are taking photos of. This isn’t getting any easier for a shy person but that’s part of the game.
Photos from the recent anti-mining protest at Pencarrow House where New Zealand Prime Minister John Key attended the opening of Australian mining company Bathurst Resources’ Wellington office. Bathurst are the company with resource consent to mine the Denniston Plateau on the West Coast of the South Island. Bathurst still require consent for access from the Department of Conservation to extract coking coal for steel production from Denniston.
Remember this?
2 Precious 2 Mine
Ours not mine
Police
Pencarrow House
Please don't make me extinct
Windmill
Building a brighter future
Clean Energy
I’ve used black and white for the photos because it was a pretty overcast day, and some of the colourful signs on the nearby buildings distracted. A few of the placards aren’t as clear as they could be in colour, but I think the portrait shots work better in B&W.
The portraits were taken with a Nikon 24 – 70mm, the establishing shots with a 12 – 24mm and the girl with the placard from high on a nearby car park with a 70 – 300mm.
The pictures I took at Pencarrow House were mainly taken with permission. I’ve left all the people nameless including the trench coated member of the security services and the little girl with the placard.
“RW: But you are clearly an outsider and we never learn much about these people.
PG: I have no problem with that. I don’t want to feign being intimate with somebody I meet 5 minutes ago. I accept and embrace that so much of life is ships passing in the dark. The world is comprised of 99.9% strangers.”
http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/interviews.html
“I suddenly realized that photography was something you did physically, and there was movement to it. You didn’t have to direct your models to stop, to hold that pose, or to move their heads a little bit to the right or left: all that was unnecessary. Robert was barely speaking to these girls: just moving around them; and every time I heard the click of the Leica it seemed almost like a seizure in time, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I learned that life has these little clicks in it: and you can keep moving; and as I was watching the models, I started trying to anticipate when the clicks would come, and he and I were in sync a number of times. As the shutter went off it seemed, for an infinitesimal part of a second, as if life had set itself, and then started moving again. Leaving there two hours later I couldn’t get it out of my mind; and walking out into the street, I kept seeing moments frozen in time: people sticking out a hand for a taxi, or pausing momentarily to look into a shop window, suddenly seemed framed, and infinitesimally frozen for the camera. Innocent everyday non-incidents, became stop time moments; and by the time I got off the bus at 53rd Street I was so hooked that I went upstairs and quit my job. I went straight to Harry and said “I’m going to quit this job and go out to make photographs.”
Joel Meyerowitz quoted on Nick Turpin’s Falling for the Street (http://nickturpin.com/words/falling-for-the-street/)
Corner of Hunter Street
Courtney Place
Lambton Quay
Hunter Street
Wellington is very small place to be taking photos of strangers on the street. It feels very confrontational in a small city to point a camera at a stranger and press the shutter. It also feels very far from my home in Scotland when I’m standing on the street taking pictures. You feel like even more of an outsider than usual. That makes it very hard, personally, to take photos I find. It feels . . . lonely. There’s no other word for it.
But something I’ve begun to notice; I recognise the people that I’ve photographed. I see them in the street at other times, and on other days: going to work, shopping, catching the bus, holding hands. They are at that time no longer just subjects of an image I post online. They are, in a small way, no longer strangers, and I am no longer an outsider in quite the same way.
