Public art?

To be honest I have not really been that interested in graffiti until the Tate modern had that extraordinary exhibition on the outside of the building. At well over a hundred feet high you couldn't really miss them. Before that, like most people, I was blind to it to a certain extent as I walked the streets of towns and cities across the country. What I did notice after viewing these wonderful drawings is the proliferation of tagging which in my view is a blight on the built up environment. If you are going to do it make it interesting otherwise save the paint.

The other day I had my arm gently twisted to purchase a copy of Wall and Piece by Banksy forcing my interest in graffiti to another level. His book is more a picture book than a read. One of the things I picked up from the photo's in the book apart from his sense of humour, is that we still walk around with our eyes wide shut even though picture taking is at epidemic proportions. On a subsequent visit to another book shop I checked out the art section to see if there were any other books on graffiti and there are quite a few. Leafing through some of them they also depict some wonderful public art. I know! a lot of people think it degrades the neighbourhood, but done well I think it lifts it, maybe it is time to make spaces where it is legal for anybody to post.

What's this got to do with photography? Quite a lot. It is about keeping your eyes open to picture opportunity even if you walk the same streets every day. It has happened to me on a number of occasions where a set of circumstances falls into place, opening my eyes to a composition that I have been blind to in the past. It is a strange sensation to think I have walked this way over the years and this is the first time I have really seen this view. I suspect this happens to all of us from time to time.

Graffiti what are your thoughts?

The Catier Bresson influence.

I have been studying Henri Catier Bresson's work for some time among others. Which brings me to a new acquisition Published by Thames and Hudson about  Cartier Bresson. It has been a joy to read and is a pocket sized which accounts for it doing a lot of travelling with me being read at those odd times when I'm having coffee, waiting for an appointment or in a quite moments snatched between jobs. It is a thin volume that  has surprisingly taken quite a time to finish – which is  a good thing as it is one of those books I will be sad to see the back of.

It was not until recently that I noticed that all this reading about Henri and his methods, has influenced the way I have taken a number of pictures. All be it at a subconscious level. It is true to say HBC was a bit of a snapper, an opportunist when taking a number of his most well known pictures. His method in a number of cases was to wait at a location that interested him pictorially and watch life unfold in front of it. Some  favorites that illustrate this are: The stairway down to the street with the cyclist rushing by and the man jumping the puddle.

 

The picture of the lady walking her dogs along the sea front is a Bresson inspired image although at the time I did not realize this. My intention was to take an empty picture depicting the lamp post and line of the wall for a project that has been coming together over the years as an odd shot here and there. I was about to take the picture when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that a group  were about to walk into shot or what I thought were people only to be present in the view finder as dogs. The next thing I know I had taken the shot with that little voice in your head saying that's a better shot. Having printed the picture it is not as good as when I took it. The day is depicted a lot duller than I remember but I do recall how brass monkey the weather was.

Do you find this happening to you when you have been reading about other photographers?