Robert Walker

[32BT]

Before you set your mind too irreversably about HCB and surrealism, Oscar, check this: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2017/12/25/henri-cartier-bresson-was-a-master-surrealist-street-photographer/

I'm obviously not going to argue with the master ;-)

Though i maintain that these scenes are either not surreal or are already surreal irl. The fact that there is some remarkable similarity with a surreal painting doesn't make a captured scene surreal. Something in the image much defy or transcent reality. With photography that is necessarily already in the scene or some form of perspective distortion.

Ivo's image of the girl on the beach is surrealism, but already available to viewers irl.

[Telecaster]

Contra Rob, I'm fond of photos that show how lenses see the world, particularly when used at their extremes. IMO "straight" photography is every bit as much a gimmick or artifice as any other form. We deem it the norm or a standard only because of its long-time ubiquity. "Everyone else speaks with an accent, but I have none!"

A good deal of what falls into the "street" category has, for me, an off-putting undercurrent of narcissism. Street photographers with an empathetic sense of humor, Helen Levitt for instance, are exceptions. Humans are but a tiny part of the world.

-Dave-

[Rob C]

Maybe there is more.
P.E.: Human kind left sufficient footprint to be present, even while not there. This makes it possible to smell the flesh, even when it is not in the frame.
Absence of the obvious...
Finding effective absence of human trace is a real challenge, at least, here in west Europe. This could be a nice subject of a series or even the dogma of an ism.
The nohumanism. 

We start a sub forum and get upset by all those rascals posting images not compliant to the dogma.




I guess you point quit accurate to the photographic caveats, technology is very dominant in the result (the image) and the process to create ‘easy mood’ is dominantly dictated by the adobe / Nikon / Fujifilm / Canon or even Nick/Google engineers.
I find converting to B/W a bit in the same corner.

Converting to black/white.

You see, I started in black/white and much of my work used to be in it too; it became the natural go-to option because of the film I loaded into the camera. Today, it still is my natural option and I believe that pretty much every shot I make with my digis is converted to black/white almost immediately it gets numbered and I start to look at it on the monitor as what it has become, and I mean prior to making if more than it's out-of-camera self - as distinct from what it was or still is in reality.

So for me, the artificiality or conversion step that disturbs your willingness to accept, is replaced instead, in my case, by the colour stored in the file. You might say: well then, buy a mono Leica. No, because I can neither afford to spend my money on things like that, nor does it let me use the internal filters that normal digital files allow. It would be a pointless sacrifice both ways. Anyhow, I prefer the way an slr functions. I understand its generic mindset very well.

The human traces. Try the local beaches during the tourist season when the people have mostly gone away to clean up and go eat. Not a pretty sight, and hardly different, one beach from another. I guess that Wabi-Sabi offers the best chances for second-stage presence, but as you suggested, hard to find emptiness anywhere unless you take up landscape, hiking and climbing up dangerous things like mountains. Include me out, as he said. Or exclude me in, it just struck me, could also make the same sort of logic.

[Ivophoto]

Converting to black/white.

You see, I started in black/white and much of my work used to be in it too; it became the natural go-to option because of the film I loaded into the camera. Today, it still is my natural option and I believe that pretty much every shot I make with my digis is converted to black/white almost immediately it gets numbered and I start to look at it on the monitor as what it has become, and I mean prior to making if more than it's out-of-camera self - as distinct from what it was or still is in reality.

So for me, the artificiality or conversion step that disturbs your willingness to accept, is replaced instead, in my case, by the colour stored in the file. You might say: well then, buy a mono Leica. No, because I can neither afford to spend my money on things like that, nor does it let me use the internal filters that normal digital files allow. It would be a pointless sacrifice both ways. Anyhow, I prefer the way an slr functions. I understand its generic mindset very well.

The human traces. Try the local beaches during the tourist season when the people have mostly gone away to clean up and go eat. Not a pretty sight, and hardly different, one beach from another. I guess that Wabi-Sabi offers the best chances for second-stage presence, but as you suggested, hard to find emptiness anywhere unless you take up landscape, hiking and climbing up dangerous things like mountains. Include me out, as he said. Or exclude me in, it just struck me, could also make the same sort of logic.

Working in B/W is very fine, Rob, in whatever workflow, be it avoiding color or removing color.
I can imagine you’re pre visualization is in B/W.
I come out the same corner. I consumed Trix in wholesale quantities. I love working with a 2push trix in my Mamiya, sadly, stupid me, I sold my LPL 4*5 enlarger, and the hybrid flow is just not it.....

[Rob C]

Working in B/W is very fine, Rob, in whatever workflow, be it avoiding color or removing color.
I can imagine you’re pre visualization is in B/W.
I come out the same corner. I consumed Trix in wholesale quantities. I love working with a 2push trix in my Mamiya, sadly, stupid me, I sold my LPL 4*5 enlarger, and the hybrid flow is just not it.....

Previsualization. Now there's a thing. You know, to be brutally honest with myself, I can't really claim that much of it in anything I do. I guess I react, most of the time, unless as with my recent power station trip, where I really did begin the adventure with a very clear idea of what I wanted from the place; so, in that instance, it was like just another assignment, rather than my usual fairly undirected wandering about.

However, that aimless attitude has become incapable of motivating me these days; maybe it's the heat, maybe not; whatever it is, I'm back where I was some years ago, unwilling to take the camera out unless I have had an idea first. That's probably more to do with over-familiarity than much else, but it has resulted in the next (current) dry photographic spell. Also, there is no escaping that bad weather has far more natural appeal that boring blue sky, and one or two clouds. That was great for a certain market, but for my own desires today - nope.

[Ivophoto]

Pr

However, that aimless attitude has become incapable of motivating me these days; maybe it's the heat, maybe not; whatever it is, I'm back where I was some years ago, unwilling to take the camera out unless I have had an idea first. That's probably more to do with over-familiarity than much else, but it has resulted in the next (current) dry photographic spell. Also, there is no escaping that bad weather has far more natural appeal that boring blue sky, and one or two clouds. That was great for a certain market, but for my own desires today - nope.

I know the feeling. I started to make series to find a way out of this kind of photographer block. Unpretentious subjects, bolt documentary, Narrative assembly of pictures or simple little fictional stories.
I’ll try to upload such a story later today.

[Ivo_B]

I know the feeling. I started to make series to find a way out of this kind of photographer block. Unpretentious subjects, bolt documentary, Narrative assembly of pictures or simple little fictional stories.
I’ll try to upload such a story later today.

I started a topic in the coffee corner: Photographers Block

A shot for a photocomic I made in an attempt to kill my photographers block.

[Rob C]

Reposted in the appropriate thread, as above.

Rob