Erwin Magbanua - Celia Enayo Nuptials
November 13, 2008 - Abu Dhabi, UAE
More photos here :)
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
The No-Rules Photography, feat. Matt Stuart
"Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more.
Stare, pry, listen eavesdrop.
Die knowing something.
You are not here long."Walker Evans (in a draft text to accompany the hidden camera subway photographs)
no special gear (too heavy).
no instruction books (too boring).
no calculations (too calculated).http://www.nonphotography.com/ [non.photography]
The term street photography seems to define its own self so I won't bother detailing it more for you. Beside, such body of work simply is too free, unrestrained and completely non-uniform to be put down into words. We can understand more about it instead by looking at one of the leading photographers of this genre, Matt Stuart, who shoots street photography and does commercial work in London. He is a member of In-Public, an online street photography site. Here's a collage I made of some of his mot impressive photos, as taken from his personal site.
Matt Stuart:
I can’t hide behind lights and technology, I am reliant on a small Leica camera, patience and lots of optimism. But what I get in return is the chance to make an honest picture which people know immediately is a genuine moment and which hopefully burrows deep into their memories. (All photos copyright Matt Stuart 2008)
He has this to say, on an interview here:
"This is one of my favorite photos and one that I get most compliments on. I shot it in Trafalgar Square. Unusually I didn’t take this photo on a Leica. I was using a Canon film SLR. The Leica was in repair. I knelt down on the step and focused my camera on the white wall in the background. I was hoping to get lots of black legs walking along in various graphic shapes. I had been bent over with my bum in the air for about half an hour when a rather confident pigeon walked past. I instinctively shot this frame but as I was doing it I noticed something had happened with the human legs as well. It all happened so quickly that I wasn’t exactly sure what I had got but something felt right. When I received my contact sheets back I was delighted to have found the legs within the legs and the way that the coats mimicked the pigeon's tail. I like to think that humans aren’t the only ones that need to get up early to go to work."
I posted about this because on my tinkering with the DSLR, I often got caught in a crisis of what really is the point of my existence as a photographer. Nice to know I can legalize my 'prying-on-other-people' and 'catching-that-candid-out-of-this-world-smile'. Now, just how can I explain that to the police force of UAE, who seems to mind street photography very much?
Which is why, when I happened to pass by Singapore on transit, I took it upon myself to capture Singapore's bustling street life as much as I can, even while I was on a speeding bus, tinted by a darn blue window :)
This, I took while I was on Changi. This is technically not on the streets but it certainly embodies the spirit of the genre. Its so refreshing to see this mature couple, after staying on an Islamic country for more than a year now :)
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