Finding Focus

THE NEXT STAGE IN MY PHOTOGRAPHIC EVOLUTION, OR: HOW TRYING PURE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY HELPED ME TO FIND MY ROAD AHEAD

Have you ever looked at a vintage photograph and wondered who the people in that image were, how they lived, and how the cities seemed so different then?

As you can read on my About page, I grew up in a small village in the Netherlands, and when I got my first point-and-shoot camera in the early 1970s, I could not foresee that it would ignite a lifelong passion for photography.

While I explored different photographic genres over the years, since moving to the US and being driven by my passion for people, I have come home to my true passion: documentary-style street photography and essays.

When I talk about documentary-style photography, I don't mean documenting the 'big' things: famine, the US border crisis, global warming, deforestation.

Of course, if I get the chance, I will take images at a Women's March or similar events I might be able to attend (or stumble upon), but in general, I am more interested in the mundane of daily life.

Creating stories about regular people who make up the diverse population of my adopted country, showing how a small town looks today and the people in it; documenting small events like car shows that show the enthusiasts who come together there and create a unique culture; people at a horse race track, dancing, eating, gambling, having fun; telling the story of a master craftsman, who creates beautiful objects with his tools.

While maybe mundane, these all are unique pockets of the world we live in and the people who inhabit it. And when I do take pictures at events, I am more interested in the individuals attending (the proponents, the opponents, and the spectators) than in the event itself because I firmly believe that the individual stories provide the human connection to those events.

For some time, I thought creating and focusing on pure street photography images would satisfy my urge to tell these stories. So I started making what I thought were nice street photos and joined street photography groups on Facebook and Instagram.

The critique I received from experts in the field was an eye-opener and made me more critical about my and other photog's street images. And the more I learned about street photography, the more I (tried to) create street photography, and the more I looked at other photogs street photography, I found it unsatisfactory, boring, disappointing, and repetitive. So many images tagged as street photography are not, and I often saw a lot of copy-cats (how many iterations of pictures of people walking through a patch of light in an area otherwise in darkest shadow can one create?).

Understand me well: pure street photography is excellent, and I love looking at those images! But it also is rare and challenging to create.

Pure street photography is very much dependent on a decisive moment, and I realized there is so much more than the decisive moment: I want to capture a current moment, documenting in 1/125th of a second the sociohistorical situation of a particular place at a specific time. Wow, those are big words! But you probably understand what I ideally want to achieve.

Capturing a 'decisive moment' for me is a bonus, not a goal. There is so much more to show, achieve, share, and create awareness of that might not be captured when focusing on the decisive moment. Instead, I want to tell that broader story, which can be about people, a place, or an event and which, for obvious reasons, in most cases, is a combination of these.

While I like to work on projects to create photo essays, you can ask if a single 'snapshot' also can tell this broader story.' I think so. But I also want to explore how that single image relates to other pictures looking for patterns in human behavior.

Reading photo books helps me understand what I want to create.

On my journey to finding my focus, I have 'met' several current and past photographers whose work has influenced my thoughts about what I want to achieve and how to achieve it: Eugène Atget, W. Eugene Smith, Jill Friedman, Bob Friedlander, Helen Levitt, Robert Frank, Inge Morath, Sally Mann, O.N. Pruitt, Berenice Abbott, Jacob Riss, Dorothea Lange, Lewis Hine, the photographers who took the images in Lost London, Elliott Erwitt, and many others.

As mentioned above: making a good street photo is challenging. Is this next stage in my photographic evolution possibly a flight because it is too complicated?

To answer my question: No, composition, situation, image quality, light, and all other ingredients that make a pure street photo are also crucial to making the documentary-style photos and essays I (want to) create.

As I mention in my artist’s statement, inspired by a quote from Anais Nin, I want to share not the obvious but what we usually are unable to see: when I document, what can I show that others might not see?

Are you familiar with the phrase "write down to remember"? I want to "photograph to remember" and to help others remember. Now and, hopefully, in the future. While I create images and stories for me and my current audience, it would be great if I could make the 'vintage images of the future.' If even only one.

Looking back at the images I created over the years, especially since I live in the USA, it is not surprising that my journey is taking me in this direction. But with the help of the critique I received, seeing what current and past photographers create(d), and looking at street photography on social media, I have found the focus I was missing.

Now that I know better what type of images I want to create, I also can better define the tools I want to use. So while my camera setup underwent some changes last year, my main tools will continue to be the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and the Leica M4. Both with 35mm (or equivalent) lenses.

Why these?

Both are (relatively) small and discreet cameras and very well suited for the work described above, most of which still will happen on the streets.

Digital has all the positive assets we have learned to appreciate over the last couple of decades and cannot miss from any photographer's toolkit.

But why film?

First, even after scanning, film still has that unique look that is very difficult to emulate in digital post-processing.

Secondly, because of its limitations, working with film makes me more aware of the 'why' and 'what' to photograph.

And thirdly. There is no third. I do not use film because it 'makes me slow down.'

Of course, it slows me down: hand-metering light, manual focusing, manual film transport, only 36 images before I have to rewind and change the roll manually. And I will remember every time before pressing the shutter release button that every picture on film is far more expensive than one taken with the X-Pro1.

Now here is a curve ball.

Talking about film, I ponder using medium format for my documentary-style work. But that is a story for another day.

My journey is not over yet, and I still have a long way to go, but I have found focus and a road ahead.

Reading, And Learning From Photography Books

2021 Book Review Schedule

With last year having been as it was, I did not want to post a review of 2020. And since we are still in the mids of a pandemic, looking forward to 2021 is a bit tricky. So I decided to not have a looking-back-looking-forward article at the start of this year.

However, this does not mean that I did not set some goals for my photography and this year's blog posts and one of the goals I have set for 2021 regarding the blog is to conduct 12 photography book reviews.

There is an abundance of photography books available, covering a lot of genres and topics. Therefore, to keep this effort manageable and cost-effective, the books I have selected (see list below) had to meet specific criteria:

• First of all, I want to start with books I already have, which means I don't have to spend any money on new books. And more importantly, it forces me to re-read and re-enjoy the books I am going to review.

• The books I will review have to be (social) documentary or candid street photography focused.

• Their content must provide specific learning points; e.g., improving my ability to see the world as a candid/documentary photographer.

• They must trigger new ideas for my projects: street or documentary topics and how to approach these.
  

Consequently, I will not include books with or about: fine art photography, technical aspects of photography only, or gear and tools.

Each of the books I will review covers one or more of the following:

• (auto) biography of a (social) documentary photographer;

• info about the events and circumstances the photogs had to work in;

• examples of documentary photography with background info;

• examples of documentary photography essays.

Also, the header of this article mentions Photography books and not Photobooks. Although some of the titles included can be considered photo books, my reviews cover a broader area like biographies and history books.

As an example of what to expect, check out my articles about David Hume Kennerly's book "Shooter", Simon Gabriel’s “On Ground”, and my comparison of “Abandoned America” and “Autopsy of America”.

The books I will cover this year are:

Hold Still [autobiography by Sally Mann]

Abu Dhabi - Life And Times [overview of the body of work of Noor Ali Rashid]

Lost London [documenting London from vintage pictures]

Armed With Cameras [history of the American military photographers of World War II]

Blood And Champaign [biography of Robert Capa]

Kids [an overview of Elliott Erwitt's candid images of children]

A Thousand Crossings [an overview of Sally Mann's body of work]

Imagining The Twentieth Century [documentary single images and essays]

The Genius Of Photography [documentary single images and essays]

The Modern Century [an overview of Henry Cartier Bresson's body of work]

Trip [a photographic essay by Susan Lipper]

Vivian Maier - Street Photographer [an overview of Maier’s body of work]

I hope you are as excited about these upcoming articles as I am. To ensure you won't miss any, subscribe with the form below!