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Daido Moriyama

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Beinagrind from Bill Newsinger on Vimeo.

Woods and rivers. Autumn. Stop motion photography. Homemade music - soundcloud.com/billnewsinger/beinagrind

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101217 from Bill Newsinger on Vimeo.

Daniel Arnold

#daniel arnold #street phototgraphy #documentary photography

thephotoregistry

Jean-Michel Basquiat, NYC, 1979

Marcia Resnick

erickimphoto

How to Photograph MORE LIFE

Dear friend,

I want to write you a letter on how and why to photograph life:

1. Why photograph life?

The world can sometimes be a depressing-ass place.

War, famine, genocide, death, misery, poverty, and suffering.

I don’t want us to be blind to all that human suffering, but at the same time— we need optimism. We need hope. We need something to look forward to. We need more life.

2. LIFE

LIFE magazine which no longer exists was all about capturing life. Unfortunately, LIFE is no longer around.

We should photograph our own LIFE. We should photograph our hopes, dreams, happy moments, and the moments which make us feel human.

3. DEATH

On the other hand, every photograph we make is a meditation on death. Whatever we photograph will eventually perish and die. This also includes your loved ones.

4. What brings you joy?

What puts a smile on your face? What brings you joy and hope in your life?

For me, that is photographing Cindy. There is nobody who makes me giggle, laugh, and feel like a kid again. I can be serious with her, but I can also be silly with her.

My family also brings me joy. My mom (umma) was the one who raised me, taught me all my morales, and seeing how curious she is (she is like a big kid) — she inspires me. I love my sister and her boyfriend, I love Cindy’s family, I love my friends, and I love strangers, and I love all of humanity.

I like laughter. I like capturing it in a photograph. Whenever we see a photo of a laughing lady — how can you not smile and feel a more positive?

5. Positive photography

The world needs happier and more positive photos. Why is it that us photographers are so obsessed with photographing war and famine? Why not happiness as well?

We need both — just like yin and yang. But there is too much white—not enough black. Too much black—not enough white. We need to balance it out.

Whatever you consider a ‘positive’ photograph — pursue that. Photograph happy moments with your kids, your partner, your friends, family, or strangers you meet on the streets. Share positive photographs with people on social media, or print them out and hand them to you.

6. Positive street photography

Shoot with your heart in the streets. Don’t just do ‘hit and run’ type of street photography. Talk to your subjects, smile, and interact with them. Share your joy and happiness of life. Give them a smile. Show them your LCD screen. Offer to email them the photograph.

Be a more ‘humanist’ street photographer.

Of course, still shoot your candid photos — but whenever possible, make eye contact, and smile.

7. MORE LIFE

Photograph growth. Photograph growing trees, growing children, or growing adults.

Photograph organic matter — photograph nature, the water, and anything green.

Photograph concrete — the organic material of man. Photograph your own concrete jungle, and your own reality.

8. Death & Life

Photograph your life in reverse. Think about your death. Think of yourself at 90 years old, looking back at your life, and thinking about how you lived your life.

Then hit rewind, and start to live your life and photograph it.

If you were 90 years old, on your deathbed— what kind of photos would you want to look at? Which photos would you really care about, and not care about?

For me, if I were 90 on my deathbed, I would not care about any cappuccino or food photos. I wouldn’t care about snapshots of landmarks in touristy foreign cities. I wouldn’t care about my street photos as much.

I would care about photos of Cindy, my mom, my sister, my family, my friends, myself (self-portraits), and some meaningful interactions I’ve had with strangers on the streets. I would care about the photos that help me meditate on the joy of life. But then again — I would also like my bitter-sweet photos of (some) pain and misery in the world. We need both to balance out life.

Conclusion

So dear friend, go out and photograph whatever brings you joy in your life. Which of your photos bring a smile to your face?

Photograph more life.

Always, Eric

Learn more: How to Photograph Death >

salenagodden

🎥 #WeBelongHere is on #YouTube now!! @thespacearts @church.kate ‘We Belong Here’ (full length): youtu.be/HOOFTRtGU90

. . . . . . #lovethis powerful poetry documentary featuring superstars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ @holliepoetry @sabrinamahfouz @jtaylortrash @madimaxwelllibby @raymond_antrobus @thestinkypink #jackunderwood #lemnsissay @lemnsissay #salenagodden #poetryontelly #bbc #poetrycommunity #poetrycommunityofig #poetsofinstagram #poetsofig

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Katharina Fitz

Post-Industrial England’s Boarded-Up Houses

In Europe today, there are around 11 million empty and unoccupied homes, 610,000 of which are in England. Large-scale vacancy in cities is often a sign of great upheaval within the urban space.

Focusing on typical, Victorian working-class terraced houses in post-industrial Liverpool and Manchester, this project highlights the sheer volume of long-term vacancies in the UK. It is a critical reflection on the unoccupied homes in England—as well as Europe—and their relation to the social housing market.

In times past, these historical houses symbolized the collective past of a flourishing industry and a strong working-class community. Nowadays, hundreds of houses in fairly good condition within former industrial cities stand abandoned and boarded-up awaiting demolition.

From an aesthetic point of view, boarded-up windows create a melancholic, mysterious, and sculptural atmosphere. In Gaston Bachelard’s book “The Poetics of Space,” windows are described as the souls of houses: when lit up at night, they give us access to their inner lives, their histories, and memories of past times.

By contrast, these images radiate uncertainty in relation to their future, which produces a sense of instability. The aims of the project are to create a conscious reflection of vacant houses and an awareness of the constant structural changes of our cities.

—Katharina Fitz

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Image by William Eggleston

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Greenwood, Mississippi (1973) – William Eggleston

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Bored of the usual head shots and lookbook portraits? The Cooperative of Photography has some new, awesome portrait photography tricks for you to try out.

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Vincent Moschetti, an Ireland-based photographer, celebrated Saint Patrick's Day with a bang. Here's his recipe called "beernol".

erickimphoto

3 Tips I Would Give Myself if I Started Photography All Over Again

A list of stuff I wish I knew if I started photography all over again, at age 18.

Dear Eric,

This is your 29 year old self, writing to your 18 year old self. Mom just bought you a Canon point-and-shoot, SD 600. You will love it.

The next 11 years, you will experience a lot of bullshit and false information on the internet about photography. I am going to drop some bombs of wisdom on you:

1. Megapixels don’t matter

Disregard the megapixel myth. More megapixels doesn’t equate to better photos. If anything; more megapixels, more problems. The bigger your megapixels, the harder to backup your photos, and to upload and share them with others.

More megapixels doesn’t equate better image quality. It is all about the sensor.

You can have a camera with fewer megapixels, with better image quality.

And don’t even care about the sensor too much. Funny enough, 10 years from now, nobody will even care about DSLR’s that much anymore. There will be this thing called a ‘smartphone’ which will probably be the easiest way to document, photograph, and capture your life.

2. Don’t be distracted by social media

You’re going to (one day) become famous for being a blogger. You will think social media is what is going to help you build your name. Not really. Most people will discover you through Google search, or from your YouTube videos.

So don’t get caught up in the treadmill for getting more likes. It is like money; you can never have too much of it.

And caring too much about likes is going to cause you frustration, anxiety, and despair. Because no matter how many likes you have, you will never have as much as Justin Bieber. Who funny enough, deleted his Instagram recently.

3. Photograph your loved ones

Don’t care about traveling and seeing the world. Rather, photograph your loved ones, and document them faithfully.

You’re going to regret that during your time in college, you didn’t take enough photos of your precious memories, at school, at church, or of your friends or loved ones. You are going to be too focused on making ‘artistic’ photos— not meaningful photos.

So photograph with your heart and soul. Photograph your loved ones like it is their last. Because in a few years, your grandfather is going to pass away. And one day, your mom is gonna pass away too.

So don’t waste your time. Photograph your loved ones immediately.

Conclusion

You’re on the right path. Have faith in yourself. Care less about traveling, and more about documenting your own personal experiences, and your local community.

Don’t get caught up in the hype of DSLR’s and Leica’s. You will waste a lot of time, effort, and money.

Instead, relish that little point and shoot. Always keep it in your front pocket, and don’t think too much. Make photos and have fun. And make your soul sing through your photos.

Have fun, Eric

erickimphoto

Cheat Sheet: Masters of Photography

We’ve all heard name-droppers at photo exhibitions, galleries, and other places. I’m going to give you a cheat-sheet of all the

masters of photography

you need to know:

Alfred Stieglitz: One of the original curators and promoters of photography as art.

Alec Soth: Famous for large-format color photographs, and his intimacy with his subjects.

Alex Webb: Probably the best street photographer working in color, layers, and depth. His best book is “The Suffering of Light” and “Istanbul”

Anders Petersen: Soulful, intimate, high-contrast black and white photos (inspired by Daido, and Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken). A personal favorite of mine.

Andre Kertesz: One of the great masters of photography who got discovered late in life. Older than Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Ansel Adams: The most famous landscape photographer. Famous for creating beautiful darkroom prints.

Araki: Mostly known for his controversial ‘bondage-style’ porn-esque photos of beautiful Japanese women. But probably the most prolific photographer to have lived, publishing several hundred photo books. Him and Daido are the two most famous Japanese photographers.

Blake Andrews: Prolific blogger, street photographer, and overall funny guy.

Bruce Davidson: Best body of work is 'Subway’ (photographed the Subway of NYC in the 1980s, shooting color and flash). Probably one of the best color photographers to study.

Bruce Gilden: Known for up-close and personal 28mm photos, shot with a flash. In real life, he’s actually nicer than he seems.

Constantine Manos: Got recruited into Magnum by Henri Cartier-Bresson, first famous for his 'Greek Portfolio’ (classic black and white), then transitioned into shooting color photos. Manos taught me.

Daido Moriyama: Gritty high-contrast black and white street photos of Tokyo, mostly Shinjuku. Was inspired by William Eggleston.

Dan Winters: Probably one of the best writers on photography, portrait photographers, and also very skilled at illustration. I highly recommend his book: “The Road to Seeing.”

David Alan Harvey: Another prolific living photographer, he also taught me at a Magnum workshop. Super cool down-to-earth guy, whose no-bullshit approach to life and photography is refreshing.

David Hurn: Wrote 'On Being a Photographer’ which I consider to be one of the best, most practical books on photography. Also Magnum member.

Diane Arbus: Known for photographing outcasts of society, in a tender and loving way. I love her portraits, but unfortunately she committed suicide at a young age.

Dorothea Lange: Everything you’ve seen from the Great Depression is probably from her.

Elliott Erwitt: Funny, ironic, witty photographer. From the similar era as Cartier-Bresson.

Eugene Atget: Photographed urban landscapes of Paris, was discovered late in life. Classic photos.

Eugene Smith: The most intense photographer who ever lived, his work ethic was incredible. He sought perfection in photography, and pretty much got it.

Garry Winogrand: The most prolific street photographer to have lived, incredible work with layers, shooting close and head-on with 28mm lens. Hated being called a 'street photographer.’

Helen Levitt: Intimate photos of mostly kids playing in the streets. Her color street photographs are amazing.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Godfather of photography, street photography, and coined 'the decisive moment’ (initially from a poem he read). Almost all contemporary photographers have been influenced by him in one way or another. Advised us not to crop our photos, to always think about composition, and retired photography after shooting 30 years.

Irving Penn: Classic portrait photographer.

Jacob Aue Sobol: Another great contemporary photographer, close friends of Anders Petersen, shoots very intimate black and white photos of individuals, couples (often having sex). His photos ooze with intimacy and soul.

Jeff Mermelstein: Intense street photographer from NYC, great color photographs, and great eye.

Joel Meyerowitz: One of the early color street photography pioneers, shot on the streets of NYC with Garry Winogrand.

Joel Sternfeld: Famous for large-format color photos (8x10) in America.

Josef Koudelka / Part 2: My top-3 favorite photographer, who shot 'Gypsies’ and 'Exiles’ (his two great bodies of work). Lived as a vagabond for his entire life, and has stayed true to himself for his entire life. Now currently does mostly panoramic landscape work.

Josh White: One of my best friends, who taught me everything I know about 'Personal Photography.’

Lee Friedlander: Funny, wry humor – great self-portraits, urban landscapes, and was one of the big innovators in photography (alongside Garry Winogrand)

Mark Cohen: Innovator shooting close-photos with a flash, mostly 21mm, famous for decapitating body parts (in an interesting way)

Martin Parr: One of the most prolific photographers living, Alec Soth calls him the 'Jay-Z’ of documentary photography. Has intense, social commentary through his photos – shoots color and with a flash.

Mary Ellen Mark: One of the best documentary photographers to have lived, great photography teacher, and believed that each photo should be a perfect image.

Rene Burri: Famous for his compositions, also recruited into Magnum by Cartier-Bresson.

Richard Avedon: The most soulful portrait photographer who lived. He was famous, rich, and prolific for his entire life. One of the pioneers shooting portraits with simple white backgrounds.

Richard Kalvar: Humorous candid black and white street photos.

Robert Capa: “If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” (was his motto). Co-founded Magnum with Cartier-Bresson and Chim. Unfortunately died while photographing in battle, by stepping on a landmine.

Robert Frank: Photographed 'The Americans’ – one of the favorite photography books by most modern street and documentary photographers.

Saul Leiter: Known for abstract color photos, he photographed beautiful scenes like a painter (he also painted).

Sergio Larrain: Mostly obscure photographer, who was the ultimate Zen photographer.

Sebastião Salgado: Photographed 'Genesis’, 'Workers’, and was a former economist turned photographer. Probably the best humanist photographer.

Shomei Tomatsu: Mysterious, surreal, Japanese photographer.

Stephen Shore: Famous for 8x10 large-format color photos (similar to Joel Sternfeld).

Todd Hido: Poetic contemporary photographer, combines lots of different formats in photography. Very intimate and lovely images.

Tony Ray-Jones: Unfortunately passed at a young age, greatly inspired Martin Parr and other British street photographers.

Trent Parke: Australia’s finest photographer, with the most hustle and drive out of any photographer I have witnessed. “Minutes to midnight” is his masterpiece.

Vivian Maier: Former nanny, but passionate photographer in her time-off. Was discovered by John Maloof, and has achieved great fame (after she died). Humanistic portraits of street people.

Walker Evans: One pioneer in the early days of photography, was also photography professor, and his best work was for his street photos and urban landscapes.

Weegee: Pioneer using a flash, he photographed crimes, and murder scenes. Probably one of the biggest inspirations for most living photographers (who shoot with a flash).

William Eggleston: Mostly mundane photos of ordinary things, photographed in a poetic way. He taught the world that color could be artful in photography, and that any subject (no matter how boring) could be interesting.

William Klein: The ultimate badass in photography; he didn’t give a fuck what others thought of him or his technique. Innovative with his use of blur, high-contrast, and grain in his photos. His “New York” book was the best.

Zoe Strauss: Amazing contemporary photographer, who gets close to her subjects, talks to them, builds connections with them, and photographs them. She inspired me by reminding me that building connections with your subject is more important than photographing them.

Learn more:

100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography

istillshootfilm

Ilfotec DD-X and Fomapan 400: Stand Development Tutorial

Guest Post By Vincent Moschetti

The World of analog photography keeps surprising me every day a bit more! I recently read about a technique called Stand Development so I have decided to try it myself. For those of who never heard of it before, let me explain you the differences between a normal development process.

When developing, as recommended by manufacturers, we are supposed to make regular agitations to ensure that the exposed film is always in contact with fresh developer. This is because the developer exhausts itself after a while and is no longer able to transform the particles of silver on the emulsion. Agitations also ensure that all the tonalities are evenly revealed.

On the contrary, stand development consists in letting the developer sit inside the tank with only one minute of agitation at the very beginning. Without movement, the areas that require more development quickly exhaust all the developing agent whilst it keeps acting on the less exposed areas that don’t weaken the developer so much. This has for effect to preserve highlights and reveals more details in the shadows.

On top of that, I see two other advantages that are directly linked with this lack of movement in the developing tank:

1. High Contrast

This is a question of tastes but I tend to prefer my pictures to be more contrasty, especially for black and white. I believe that it gives more character and help to drag attention on the subject. This is, of course, a personal opinion and it may not work with all styles of photography. The pictures that you are going to see next, barely received any adjustments and came out naturally contrasty. Fomapan is not known for having contrasty films, it’s more the opposite, they tend to be more of a flat look.

2. Fine details

Because the developer is not moving, the acutance is very high. If acutance is a new word for you too, check out the definition here on Wikipedia. It makes edges very sharp between dark and bright areas, hence the increased sharpness. I was already very satisfied with the quality of the glass on my Hasselblad Xpan but, as you will see below, the amount of details that came out from my last roll is insane…I feel like I have a new lens!

Another advantage is that it’s a low dilution process. With normal development, the dilutions are usually between 1+1 and 1+4. Here we are using a very low dilution so you can save a lot of developer. Depending on the developer, you can dilute up to 1+50. This means that for 1 litre of pure developer, you can do 50 litres of developing solution!! Considering that one roll of 35mm needs more or less 300ml of solution, you could develop up to 150 rolls… Knowing that one litre of developer cost in average 18 $ so it would less than 0.12 $ of chemical to develop per roll !!

Before we end with the math lesson, let me share with you in details how to reproduce this at home.

You will need :

A roll of Fomapan 400 exposed

A developing tank, I use a Patterson tank

Developer Ilfotec DD-X

The Recipe :

Step 1 - Prepare the developer

To get enough developing solution for 1 roll of 35mm you need 300ml of solution. The dilution of the Ilfotec should be 1+9, which translate into 1 dose of developer for 9 doses of water. So here we need 30ml of developer and 270ml of water, it should be around 20 degrees Celcius(°C) or 68 Fahrenheit (°F). Put these two together into a jar and stir well.

Step 2 - Develop the film

Pour the solution into the developing tank. Then I agitated for the first minute, tapped the tank on the table 3 or 4 times to remove all the air bubbles from the surface of the film and let it sit for 45 minutes. Once time is over, empty the tank and get rid of the developer as it is a one time use.

Step 3 - Stop the development

Put the stop bath into the tank and agitate for 1 minute. For better results, I use Ilfostop from Ilford but you can also use water. FYI stop bath is reusable so keep it for later.

Step 4 - Fix the film

Last but not least, you have to fix the film so it can be revealed to the light. Put the fixer into the tank for 3 minutes, agitate 10 seconds at beginning of every minutes. I use Ilford Rapid Fixer but any other fixer will do the job. Likewise, you can also reuse the fixer.

Step 6 - Wash the film

At this stage you can open the tank, your film is no longer sensible to light. You have now to wash it with clear water. This last step ensures that all chemicals are removed from the surface of your negatives. It takes 5 minutes with running water to completely clean it. Once this is done, hang your film and let it dry in the dry and quiet place for 1 hour. It’s important to find a place without too much movement otherwise dust will stick on the film while drying.

Enough talk and math for today, let me show you a few more images to thank you for reading until here!

As soon as I saw the negatives, I knew that these images would turn good (for my taste at least). I have developed a few rolls already but never saw a negative so dense and contrasty. Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate the shapes but here everything was clearly distinct and sharp. The comparison with a normal negative of Fomapan 400 is unbelievable, it looks like I shot a completely different film.

The only downside I have found so far it is the time it takes. Some stand development can take one hour and more so you have to be patient. But it’s the perfect opportunity to scan some negatives for example. You can also read that some people experienced uneven development or the apparition of streaks due to a chemical reaction that falls at the bottom of the tank. This can be avoided by making one or two inversions mid-development, in this case we talk about semi-stand development. Personally, I didn’t notice anything strange, but it might have something to do with the low dilution I used, comparing to what it should be with Rodinal for instance.

Another important point to mention: With this process, you can mix in the same tank two films that are rated at different speeds. This also lets me think that it doesn’t matter too much if you pushed your film, but I am not sure about this and will have to make some tests to determine if you need to extend the time when pushing film. I feel like I have just opened another door that will lead me towards more adventures into the film photography experience! It’s like I am playing with Russian Dolls.

I hope you have found this article useful, if so, please share it with someone that might be interested in this process!

About the Author:

Vincent Moschetti is Frenchy based in Ireland. He worked exclusively with digital equipement until recently when he had a revelation and discovered the beauty of shooting with film cameras. If you would like to learn more about his work, you can visit his website, Facebook, and Instagram pages.

Find & Follow Vincent Moschetti:

https://www.instagram.com/one.year.with.film.only/

https://www.facebook.com/oneyearwithfilmonly/

http://www.oneyearwithfilmonly.com/

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