marc-fairhurst: Thanks, glad it had an impact. This is my 6th such article on the BME site, and I've written a bit more here and there on the subject; a book would require a little more structure, but thanks for the vote of confidence. Even though I suspect that most photographers are not really interested in discussing such things, it would be interesting to find a relatively happy medium between Robert Adams and, say, Matt Stuart.

Huh.

Since I don’t bother tracking SP talk on social media and have absolutely zero engagement with twitter, reddit, or DPreview, I guess I’m totally of of the loop on the current state of SP as it is actually being practiced by the multitude. I had no idea that the issues involved, especially those surrounding the matter of egoism, had become reduced to the simple dichotomy TC describes.

His article leaves a whole lot of space in the room for the great big elephant he seems to ignore.

The egoistic practice that is really killing SP has to do with neither the poser poseurs who want the control their social interaction into a situation of ‘ethical street photography’, nor the SP 'bros' who insist on ninja-ing themselves into a completely unsympathetic mastery of the subject matter they’ve gotten in the face of. Both of these sets are pretty easy to ignore, margins really, and focusing on them seems to induce a bit of sleight-of-hand.

In addressing the broader and much more serious ‘where the rubber meets the road’ issue of photographers inserting themselves into the image, TC would need to deal directly with the pervasive desire of shooters to be artistically expressive in a situation which in reality should be a blunt and matter-of-fact pursuit of recording a scene. But that might not be, um, in the best of taste, given the setting of his presentation.

SP, whose value as a form rests on it’s special and inextricable relationship to documentary, has become saturated with shooters who find it desirable to jump-up their images with flash-for-effect, shutter drag, crushed blacks, ‘chrome filters, vignetting, compositing, and a multitude of other falsifying effects achieved by 'creatively' enhancing camera settings or PP sliders.

It's this kind of insertion of the photographer's ego into the image that I think is much more truly pernicious.

The world at large, and the range of human interaction in it, rather than being given the room to be beautiful and strange, wonderful and gut-wrenching, and every other sort of interesting in and of itself, is instead treated as simply being the raw material for an individualistic personal projection: “Hey! I’m making Art here!”

Not a lot left up to the viewer in terms of mystery, interpretation, discovery; the author has taken care of it.

Of course the reasons for this is the voracious hunger of an instantaneous media, the suck of an insatiable blackhole against which anyone wanting or needing attention must vie against the whole world with ever more spectacular images.

And of course people are going to take shortcuts. Real street photography is deadly slow. Go back 10-12 or more years ago here and in the threads it was a basic accepted fact that you were awful damn lucky, and awfully damn good, to get even one really worthwhile shot a year.

Now you have people developing formulas, gimmicking strategies, and trick manipulations of the process to reliably produce showy pictures on a semi-predictable basis. urg.

And as these techniques arise they foster imitators. Imitators beget fashions. Fashions beget tides.

And in the long run all this effort produces a wasteland of fattening eye-candy. All the SP fashions of today will, in 10, 20, 30 or more years, draw the same arched eyebrow and moue of amusement we reserve for the poodle skirt, elephant bell-bottoms, polyester leisure suits, and parachute pants - ‘what were they thinking?’

What will last is the straight stuff. Too bad that for the last decade everybody has wimped out on stating a hardcore definition of street photography and sticking to it.

Sixft Whiterabbit:

Well-said.

Another good writeup.

I did wonder what had driven the piece from TC - what had triggered it; was it something in particular or was it a view built up over time? Are the concerns about how others go about making images and their conduct really as affecting on other SP practitioners as one may think? I don't know. I too have zero engagement in social media, just this place, and this place doesn't really map out what's going on in the SP world; what's being said, what's being debated, what's hot and what's not and all the rest.

What I do know is that people outside of the SP community care little-to-nothing about most of what is said within it. I cared little for any of it when I stepped into the SP community, care equally as little whilst being a part of it and will not care for any of it in the slightest when I step out of it, and that day cannot come soon enough.

I have never been a fan of certainties, because many things are perceptible to shift and change, in art and in our minds. And so I have never been a fan of those who will say how things are and how things should be with such a hammering force of certainty.

Nothing is certain, not even the standards presented here. Most things are suspectable to change and that's fine. That doesn't mean you have to go along with it.

And of all the rest and everything else ... it's all just fucking noise.

Well, it _is_ the blatant self-promotion thread, so I suppose the "I don't even _own_ a TV so I have no idea what you plebeians are on about!" commentary is not out of place. I also know what Harvey thinks of me so I won't bother with a response to that. Suffice to say that people see different aspects of the issue as more important that others. The vacuous trappings of SP style these days are a valid issue, but I was talking about another issue, and it's fine if others don't think it's a big deal. There's a lot being produced so it's completely expected that we are looking at different work and thinking different things.

I commented on the IG post about the article saying such, but I was looking at the BME site recently before this and kinda bummed a shocked it had been so long since an article was posted and the last one was from you and also a good read. I wish there was more of this competent content on the subject. Whether I agree with what is written or not, it's written well (and I mostly do in at least the last two). Maybe we'll get another in 6 months this time? here's to hoping.

"What I do know is that people outside of the SP community care little-to-nothing about most of what is said within it." The one thing I'm certain of is that this is the truth. And that's what gives it both it's total freedom and it's total integrity if you choose to make it your project, or one of them. Let SP and all personal doc be dead, buried and ignored until the end of time so I can watch my little view play out by its own design.

I share my album on flickr with a selection of photos from my last trip to Egypt, focused on street photography.

www.flickr.com/photos/104194307@N08/albums/72177720299343255

I love these.

another album for you: flic.kr/s/aHBqjzYwct

Hi all, I just published my website:

www.davidealbani.com

Actually, it all started as a way to review and re-organize my work done in the last 8 years or so but...this is the final result :), so, if you wish, please take a look at it and, of course, any comment and feedback is always well appreciated.

Thank you!

Davide Albani: Cool site Davide, very nice work. What did you use to make the site?

Poagao:

Thanks, I appreciate it.

I'am using wix (www.wix.com) as I found it easier to use than other platforms (e.g. squarespace), considering that I have 0 website building skills :)

Thanks Davide, always a pleasure to see your work on a large screen.

Good stuff Davide 👍

Rammy Narula:

Thanks mate!

Like the last time, another album of my recent trip to Indonesia focused on street photography,

www.flickr.com/photos/104194307@N08/albums/72177720302139894

cheers

Hi everyone, I have something to promote and it's not even all mine. However, I did start it and yes, it is my business :)

PAPER PICTURES
It's an exclusive temporary online photo print sale from 1 – 31 October 2022 (so hurry up, less than one week left): www.paperpictures.nl/en

38 Dutch photographers (among them Peter de Krom, Julie Hrudova and myself) provide 1 photo each. Each photographer individually choses the printing method, the paper, the formats, the edition and the price. All photo prints are shipped with a numbered certificate of authenticity, signed by the photographer.

FINE ART PRINTING & FINISHING
The photo prints are printed by fine art printing & finishing specialist FotoLab KieKie in Amsterdam. Fotolab Kiekie is a Hahnemühle Official Certified Fine Art Print Studio.

WORLDWIDE SHIPPING
Orders are shipped worldwide, at standard rates.

INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS
For every sold photo print €10 will be donated to the International Red Cross.

This new, exclusive print sale will be held yearly, every October, with a new collection.

Cheers, C

Marc Fairhurst - Photo I’m so happy you’re sharing your work. Social media sucks, but it also allows us to see all the work youve made for a decade. The people who use it mostly use it in horrible ways, in their hands it’s a Frankenstein gone wrong, which is why we need more true voices, not less. Here’s to the quiet kids in the dark corners who are still smart enough to question this tool, I wish more people would, but they are caught up in a system they barely realize they’re being caged in by more and more each day.

Um, you geniuses do realize flickr IS social media right?

is that what they call a dad joke? 😉

Robert Michael Johnson:

Nice, Robert.

lol, Alex coghe.

where's Eric Kim when you need him?

...not to piss on Robert or anything eh?

Robert was always cool. he can be on my top 50 list, if I ever made one.

justinsdisgustin:

LOL

No offense to Robert. Plenty of people I admire on that pointless list made by an irrelevant idiot.

*contemplating the relative criteria for judging pointlessness, irrelevance, and idiocy in the context of online presenters of SP*

Hey, I see I rolled over a million and a half views this week!

For a lot of guys who've been on flickr for twelve and a half years 1.5 mil is fucking ridiculous, but for me it's huge!

Sixft Whiterabbit:


Some of those views have been mine. For example, this is a great shot:

www.flickr.com/photos/pookaharv/52464347502/in/dateposted/

I never knew about views.

I have 5.5 million. I must be famous!

Actually, I think that it matches up with Explore. Way back, maybe in 2010, I had two shitty pictures go viral here and picked up tens of thousands of fake followers. I took everything but an occasional pic offline 6 to 8 years ago. It's all bullshit and robots I think.

Lol, I have 14 million

You must be a Flickr influencer.

Don't Cry, Just Sigh: Thanks. That's the sort of crowd shot that's right in my wheelhouse, so to speak. I throw 'em all in an album called 'the warp & the woof'.

Hello everyone, I just wanted to share an album from my last trip to Indonesia-Bali (mostly street photography shots):

www.flickr.com/photos/104194307@N08/albums/72177720302139894

And here is a compilation of my favorite photos from all the years that I have been photographing on streets:

www.flickr.com/photos/104194307@N08/albums/72177720297322863

I got a bit of blatant selfpromotion for you. My solo exhibition "Stranger than Fiction" will hang untill September at Abecita Popkonst & Foto in Borås Sweden. Yes Borås, home of late Lars Tunbjörk.
Abecitas website

At the same time I am releasing my first book with the same name "Stranger than Fiction". More info here: Jehlbo.se
You can buy the book at Abecita Museum in Borås, at Neva Books or order through me at my website.

Johan Jehlbo:

Congratulations on the show and book. I think I still have a copy of Flash Gun #1 somewhere in my desk. I'll get a copy of STF as well.

alcohete:

Thank you!

Johan Jehlbo:
All the best, and congratulations!

Johan Jehlbo:

Congrats bro! Looks fantastic.



I also wanted to share an album from my recent visit to New York. It was a trip that made me especially excited because it is a mythical city in terms of street photography (and many other things of course xd)

www.flickr.com/photos/104194307@N08/albums/72177720307671703

And other little Street Photography album from a well known city of my country (Barcelona):

www.flickr.com/photos/104194307@N08/albums/72177720307667862

Thanks for watching!

Hi,

I'm opening my photography gallery - La Belladone - in Brussels.
BACK TO NOWHERE by street photographer Charalampos Kydonakis aka Dirty Harrry will be the first exhibition, starting june 3rd.
I hope to see some of you there.

La Belladone

Cheers

Sylvain

Hey!
Although i haven't been active here for ages (and never was that active) i do want to share with you my debut book, which is on sale as we speak.

Some facts:

"Using 69 black-and-white photographs, Bouwe takes you through the hussle and the bustle at the race track in the Frisian village of Blauwhuis. The book takes you from the audience through the tinkering of the cars to the final race itself.

The book is hand bound in our own studio in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. We chose an open spine binding that we eventually smeared with the mud from the race track itself."


Hand- bound hardcover book, 144 pages
19,0 x 25,0 cm (7,48" x 9,84")
Cover, digitally printed on coloured paper (B&W)
Inner pages, digitally printed (B&W) 69photographs
Mud-glued spine.
With an essay by Blake Andrews (English and Dutch).
Edition of 250

Available at: chemistrypublishing.com/shop/bouwe-brouwer-blauwhuis

Paper Pictures 2023 is an exclusive temporary online photo print sale from 1 – 31 October 2023. This year's theme is Empathy.

Paper Pictures 2023

42 Dutch photographers provide 1 photo each. Each photographer individually choses the pricing, the paper, the formats and the editions. All photo prints are shipped with a numbered certificate of authenticity, digitally signed by the photographer.

With every photo print sold we donate €10 to the Dutch Red Cross.

We ship worldwide.

This is my photo. Please check out the 41 other participants. It really is a wonderful collection.



Best, Caspar

Hi,

I wanted to let you know that my first book "A World Called Mumbai" is currently on sale with Eyeshot.

Some quick info:
In A WORLD CALLED MUMBAI, the initial impressions of India’s bustling city are challenged and transformed. Initially perceived as chaotic and overwhelming, Mumbai gradually reveals its unique rhythm and character. Suresh Naganthan’s monograph depicts how the city, known for its sprawl and noise, subtly entwines itself into the observer’s soul. As India’s financial heart, the city draws an eclectic mix from across the nation, presenting the city as a microcosm of the entire country. This transformation of perspective is central to the monograph’s exploration of Mumbai.

A WORLD CALLED MUMBAI by Suresh Naganathan is an attempt to make sense of Mumbai. It is an ongoing exploration of the different. What at first appeared like chaos, slowly takes another shape.

“It is both a love letter to a place that has offered me so much and a small postcard for people to get a glimpse of what it feels to live here.”

Limited Edition
Publisher: Eyeshot
Publication Year: 2024
Format: Hardcover
Size: 22×24 cm
Page Numbers: 144
Pre-order ends on 31st March

Available at: www.eyeshotstreetphotography.com/shop/books/a-world-calle...

bek_the_sur:

Already ordered a copy. Looking forward to getting it!

yotung:

Thanks Tom! Hope you like it :-)

So I made one of those Youtube Street Photography Vids… www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaaA-CTUeqg

Hi,
Emma Hardy's photography exhibition 'PERMISSIONS' is at Galerie Belladone in Brussels until June !
Best
Sylvain

www.la-belladone.com/

I am organising a printsale for charity, named Fotografie voor Goed (Photography for Good).

We raise funds for charity organization Save the Children – the world's largest independent children's rights organization. They have one goal: to create irreversible change for and with children.

This fundraiser is live from February 1st to March 31st, 2024.

All photoprints cost €125,- incl. shipping within The Netherlands and are 30 cm on the longest side, without white border. All photoprints are giclée printed on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl paper, unsigned and without certificate. All photoprints are available in an open edition, as long as the fundraiser is running.

We ship to all of Europe.

There are 49 photos in the collection, including this one of mine.



Please view the collection here:
Fotografie voor Goed 2024

And help us help Save the Children

I have a new book out! Most of the photographs were taken with a street photographer’s approach although the result is not easily recognisable as street photography.

Shimmers is published by Photo Editions and designed by Tom Booth Woodger. Anyone interested can check out the details here:

photobookstore.co.uk/products/shimmers?_pos=1&_sid=4d...

🙏

One of my dreams came true last year, taking photographs in the streets of Tokyo and Osaka!
Here you can see a small selection of 40 pictures (that may expand in the coming weeks). Thank you

www.flickr.com/photos/104194307@N08/albums/72177720313103772

not a self-promotion, but to give folks a head's up that Chuck Patch has a book coming out:

www.eyeshotstreetphotography.com/shop/books/silver-keeps-...

Chuck's work has been a huge inspiration for me since I first encountered him and his images at the Streetphotographer's Forum in 2007. Along with Greg Alikas, Mike Peters, and Don Hudson, I think of Chuck as being one of the heroes of American SP, post GW. At one time Chuck was among the top five contributors to the pool here, and it's always worth it to keep up with his stuff.

Agreed, I've appreciated Chuck's work for a long time. Just ordered a copy of this.

Re: Greg, we at Observe really miss him. We've continued to share his work through our Instagram feed, post-humously. He was never one to rest on his laurels and continued to shoot until shortly before he passed away, but I think a lot of his older stuff is really classic, high quality work.

Greg's death took me entirely by surprise. I was very saddened by it and felt remiss in not having been more in touch with him. After I moved to Alabama and he moved to the Carolinas, we vaguely agreed to meet up in Athens GA, about halfway in between, to shoot on a Homecoming weekend there. Then Covid hit, and the Delta variant the year after, and with one thing or another I never followed up. Now that chance is gone and I deeply regret it. Greg was the real deal.

Well, since that's the purpose of the thread, I'm Steve, new to the group but not to street photography. 95% of my work is in Liverpool, UK, plus a little from Manchester, Dublin, London.

esskayphoto:

Not so much about introductions, we tend to save this thread for more momentous events like getting a show or being featured in a publication.

To make an introduction you'd be better off just jumping into the crit thread, either by posting an image or starting in with some criticism. Believe me, do that and folks will be more motivated to look at your stuff, wanting to see if you can back it up.

edit - to be clear, generally speaking posting one's own images outside of the crit thread is considered somewhat rude, de trope, needy.

I am having a fundraiser campaign for my first photobook, RODINA.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/rodina/rodina

Any support is deeply appreciated.

Sixft Whiterabbit: Hey, I've added you on Facebook. Could you accept so we can chat on Messenger? Or alternatively just let me know via Flickmail what the best way would be to reach you? Have some questions for you re: our Greg discussion above and would appreciate your guidance.

DM'ing you here

Made the title shot of a Guardian article, which was kinda cool:

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/feb/18/runa...

niiiice!

Poagao:

Good going, Poagao. The picture fits the article nicely, and the crop really nicely fits the layout too. The impact is distinct.

Thanks guys. It was somewhat of a surprise, and I only learned about it when another Taiwanese photographer mentioned it on his feed. But am more partial to The Guardian as it is one of the few media that actually dares call my country a country instead of that "self-ruled island" BS.

Hi guys, just wanted to blatantly self-promote on this thread.

My brother and I have an Eyeshot book coming out:

www.eyeshotstreetphotography.com/shop/books/phantasmagori...

Awesome! A must have!

As a follow-up to the Bragdon Brothers post (I've ordered their book)
I also have a book coming out from the folks at Eyeshot.

It's in pre-order now until March 31st. After that you're outa luck, so limited production.

Link to order...
www.eyeshotstreetphotography.com/shop/books/can-i-get-a-w...
thanks for looking!

Another must have book! The "folks from EYESHOT" are totally crushing it lately! Between them and BUMP books, there is a virtual renaissance in photo books happening. If ya didn't know, NOW ya know!

Congratulations, Don. Good to see that you have another book out.

Hey y'all,
I too have jumped on the Eyeshot train. My first photobook ASA NISI MASA will be published by them this summer. Info and pre-order link here: www.eyeshotstreetphotography.com/shop/books/asa-nisi-masa...
Thanks for looking,
-Blake

That is excellent, Blake. Your documented imagination so eminently deserves book form. And the titular Fellini reference (a great scene in a monumentally great movie) is intriguing.

Who the fuck is Fellini?

JK

Blake Congrats! As a obsessive lover of photo books and an astute critic of the form yours will be endlessly scrutinized. No pressure there. Im sure it will be low key epic.

Um, thanks for the encouragement. I feel sort of responsible for the book, but a lot of the key decisions (size, materials, design, edit, sequencing) are out of my hands. So I'm crossing fingers and hoping for the best. But please order anyway, lol.

having published a book with Eyeshot, I can tell you that you have room to bring about your vision: 95% of the sequencing, for example, was mine and same with the edit (no control on the design or size though)

Congratulation to all of you. It’s great to see there are actual publishers that aren’t Steidl Palms or the other one monopolizing things with the same photographers over and over again. My favorite photo book ever is The Lines of My Hand. It changed the way I understood how images and words could exist together, and its naturalness and emotional honestly is something I’m still reckoning with for what a book or work of art or a naked confessional can be. No photo book has ever hit me like that. Good luck Blake, it looks to be totally at one with your vision of the world.

I don’t now why, but I’m feeling like flickr may be having a bit of renaissance as photogaphers and artists look to move away from the algo matrix a bit more. I know I appreciate it a lot more now than I did. I’m hoping more people will come back.

I have also jumped on the Eyeshot Publishing train with my new limited edition book MISREADINGS. It is available to order for only a few more days (until July 1.) Information , some images, and ordering can be seen here: www.eyeshotstreetphotography.com/shop/books/misreadings-b...
I have also reposted a few images today that will be in the book.
If you haven't already also consider Blake Andrew's new book at Eyeshot. I think it will be one you will love for your library. As with mine there are only a few days left to order.

DO IT!!!!!!

Really happy with my new book. Go check it out if you are interested.
.
Book format, 108 pages, 66 photographs, softcover.
.
Published by "Chemistry Publishing" (chemistrypublishing.com/)
.
You can see part of the series on my website: www.bouwebrouwer.org/play
.
"Hardcore Vibes" is the second book we are publishing in collaboration with street photographer Bouwe Brouwer. Through 66 photographs, Bouwe takes you along three editions of a Hardcore festival held in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. The book offers a unique and personal perspective through the eyes of the photographer on a subculture that emerged in the Netherlands during the 1990s and still maintains a strong presence today."

Congrats for your Eyeshot publications mates. You deserve to be "materialized", not only visible on websites/online social medias.
I'm proud that one of my photos got published in their zine ANIMAL ANARCHY: BEYOND FENCES AND FIELDS #14