Research:

I knew instantly that street photography was what I wanted to explore. I follow many street photography Instagram pages and its always been a style of photography I find the most interesting to look at. Because of this I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try and do some myself, since I have never attempted it before and wanted the challenge. 

London is an incredibly diverse and interesting city, I find the vibrancy and range of people so interesting and therefore so photogenic in my opinion. I love the idea of capturing normal people doing normal things. Something about street scenes captured in a still image means you are forced to really look, and therefore appreciate, something you would ordinarily walk right on past. 

Inspiration:

1.books

2.photographers

3.youtube vids

4.instagram 

1. books

THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHER'S MANUAL by David Gibson 

THINK LIKE A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER by Matt Stuart

Both these book had really useful tips, load of photographers and loads of very specific techniques. Found them really useful. 

In class we looked at loads of photography books from Ravensbourne library. It made me realize how many different forms of books there are, there is no limit to how you can present your work. every one I saw was so unique and created such different feel to work. really cool to see such variation and creativity. Heres a few I liked:  

Loved this Tom Hunter one. I really like how the images are really large but had some white space beneath each one. frames them nicely, giving them pace to express as much as possible without overwhelming. against the white makes the colors pop. 

I lived in London for 82 1/2 years published by Hoxton Mini Press was another one I liked. it followed a very funny and endearing man, photographing him paired with funny anecdotes, a very personal book. Hardback and traditional, with matte paper, but a contemporary photo style, juxtaposing with and old old man! I learned a lot about how even the paper quality and finish changes how your photos look and the impression they therefore create.  

2. photographers:

ALAN BURLES 

I love this style of photography, the comical style is so good. It elevates the ordinary street photography by having an extra element of interest to each image. The photos show how ordinary scenes can look really funny or juxtapose in a interesting ironic way, if only captured from the right angle or at the right exact moment. 

I would really love to achieve this kind of work. I think it shows how dedicated you can be as a photographer, e.g. staying in a set location until the moment strikes, or on the other hand how quick you can be to capture a candid moment of humor or irony. Its such light hearted perspective on the world. 

Alan Burles has a photo book of his work and he won the street photography of the year award 2018-19. I really love his style and I have taken lots of inspiration from him.  

3. youtube 

DAVID WALLACE SHOOTS

He has really cool 'follow me around' style blogs where he shows us how he takes street photographs. I really admire his courage, he's very brave and does anything to get the perfect shot. He takes a lot of photos around London so I watched so many of his videos, I found them really inspirational. 

4. instagram 

@STREETPHOTOGRAPHERSFDS

I think this is a really good page because it posts images from all different photographers. all different styles but all street photography. I find its really good for finding new photographer I haven't seen before, with old and new photos being uploaded. plenty of inspiration here I found. 

Plan:

The equipment I will use will be my new cannon 6D that I have just got, along with a 50mm lense. No lighting in necessary as I am capturing candid moments outside with no planning. 

Because of covid I can't get too close and I also have to be respectful of people as I am shooting strangers without their consent. 

Areas to shoot will include places with lots of people, along with places with interesting wall art maybe or markets or colors.  I also ideally would like to shoot on at least one day with sunlight, so capture the sunny version of London. 

-Hampstead - may 7th 

-portobello market- 9th may and 15th may

-covent garden - 31st may 

My pre-visualisation consists of landscapes with a mix of scenes of multiple people, singular 'interesting' looking inderviduals, special moments captured and hopefully if I can id love to get some humorous shots. Humor in street photography is something I like the best. 

Process;

I First went out to Hampstead and couldn't believe how much I loved it! there is defiantly something  so thrilling about capturing people when they are unaware and then looking at your camera and the shot had turned out really well! I also loved walking around being in that kind of mindset, looking at eventing around me in terms of what I thought would look great captured in a. still. I realizes you have to act quick and maybe even walk back to get something you missed, some of my best shot I thought were when I just took a quick one of someone walking past me. 

Some Hampstead shots:

Next I went to portobello market, I was looking for some more colour still.

Some portobello market shots: 

I definitely found more colorful scenes.

I went back again on a sunnier day:

Then I used what I had so far to make a rough order and sequence. Geraint helped me with this on campus. 

Here you can see them all printed out A5. I found having physical copies of the images so much easier to order and sequence than looking at them on the screen only. I also came to the decision that I like the size of them like this, and also the consistency of all landscape. I began making rough color connections and it made it clear what I needed more of. There was clear dog theme too which I hadn't intended on. 

I then went to covent garden and took some more photos. It was a beautiful sunny day. A challenge I came across was managing my settings. Because of the sunlight and then shade, I found it a bit tricky to keep the setting appropriate for the lighting. But after some practice I think I got some decent ones:

Then with all these photos I made my indesign book template which was landscape and A5 with breaks of blank spaces to break up the sequences. I had 30 photos in this draft. It was printed out and I looked at them in class. We all looked around each others and gave feedback. 

I put them up on the wall to help with he elimination process and visualize it as an actual little book. 

Here is some feedback from my classmates:

Taking everything on board this is my final edit:

Its called 'London Streets - a photo album'

I like how its similar to pocket sized photo album. There is definitely something retro about the size and layout, like a classic old school photo album. 

Here is the indesign layout I made: 

follow left to right:

The final PDF selection and layout:

-17 pages

-each images transitions to the next with either a colour link or a similar composition. 

This is one of my favorite sequences: 

I like it because of the similarity in bright highlights and white tones. contrast too. also I think there is an element of humor to these three. the expressions in the people and the skittish dog, leading to the messy hair and casual cigarette shot. I like they flow together, giving a well rounded perspective of London streets. 

This is another favorite pairing of mine:

I like the dark green link, green jackets and green framing of the bus shelter an the shop panes. Art is present in both, contemporary graffiti in the left and classical landscapes in the right, quite the juxtaposition despite the clear link. 

I chose to start on this with this one :

Because of the back to the viewer I think it leads us in. In a different kind of way that eye contact down. its intriguing and makes us feel like an observer rather than an involvement; the perfect position of temptation to continue flicking through, where you may get captured in further.

I chose to end with this one:

This is because I feel it has a natural stop to it. The circular framing acts almost like a full stop, creating a neat 'full circle' feeling to round off the book. 

The subject looks back in to the left, the opposite way to the the man in the first image, he's positioned looking outwards to the right the way you'd turn the pages. This further creates that neat compact story with a start and end. 

In evaluation I am really pleased with what I have achieved. It was out of my comfort zone at first but I found it so fun I quickly lost any self conciseness. If I had more time I would have liked to go out again and try and utilize some graffiti. Id like to take some 'perfect timing' shots, ones which are clever or humorous because of the timing and placement of people in relation to their surroundings, e.g. a advert, art or road sign text. That would be a real goal. Furthermore I would liked to have added some text to my book perhaps. I like it with nothing but it would be interesting to experiment with captions, perhaps hypothetical quotes of the subjects or the location or simply a feeling or emotion to sum up the image. Text definitely would change the way the images are perceived. However I like how they speak for themselves, open to interpretations, just how people are on the street of London; you never know their story, you can only guess. 

Moreover, I stupidly didn't shoot in RAW, this was a confusion I had with my new camera, but its something I need to take extra care over in future. I can't let it happen again. 

I loved this project overall, I found it fun and like a hobby rather than work. But I still learnt so much. One of my favorite aspects of this whole project was analyzing each others work. I find it difficult to make decisions regarding my own work, but I feel like I have so much to offer when it comes to analyzing and offering suggestions and ideas for other peoples. I really really enjoyed when we were on campus and we got to help each other out with sequencing or ideas, I love doing that. Often outsider perspectives are the most helpful too, they offer fresh insights which is always good! I for sure benefitted from the opinions of my peers.