A new street photography book by venustreet titled black & white candids has just been released via Blurb. The theme of the book is simply black & white candid photos of females. Don't be mistaken though, this isn't the creepy photographic styling that you'd expect from the girl watchers. This is a well edited collection of photographs by contemporary street photographers who know what they're doing.

The 204 page book contains images from 72 different photographers. Some high profile street photographers such as David Solomons, Nils Jorgensen and David Gibson have photographs included, along with many other up and coming artists, such as that K. Praslow...wizzowsky (sp?) character.

$54.95 at blurb.com. The Blurb page also has a complete preview of the book.

Links

• venustreet group on Flickr
• John Goldsmith's bit about the book.

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In Small World, Martin Parr shows us the industry of world tourism for what it has become—an endless parade of the strange and hilarious. From a woman getting attacked by the pigeon in Italy, to an awkward moment on Santa's lap in Lapland. From local villagers swarming tourists to buy their trinkets, to family photos being taken in the Las Vegas strip, Parr has covered most of the inhabited globe in Small World. The affects of globalization are very present throughout Parr's photographs as the presence of the tourists give each image a strong sense of semblance with the rest no matter what corner of the globe it was photographed in.

A few things I learned from Small World

It is never the wrong time to use flash.

Many of the images in Small World are shot on bright sunny days, yet most of them still have a a strong frontal lighting from flash use that gives those scenes a feel that is very different from typical sunny day photograph. What would normally be a dark area from a harsh shadow is now illuminated and full of color.

I used this revelation of flash photography his past winter when I shot the 2010 John Beargrease sled dog race. Shooting in Sunny-16 illumination with a full flash really did a lot to change the way those images look. I like the technique!

I don't need exotic subjects to make great photography.

What is more boring and commonplace than tourists? Not much. Yet, Martin Parr has managed to show us just how awesome of a photography subject they can be.

I often read comments on photography forums that state that only beginning street photographers should shoot tourists because they are easy, and can be used to build up some skills before moving onto more serious subjects. What are more serious subjects? Typically depictions of lifestyles which are lower in the social order than that of the photographer's.

Does great documentary photography need to be about serious subjects like poverty and suffering? Not at all. Life in the boring* social circles is just as full of opportunities as any other, you may just have to stare at it a bit differently to notice. Flipping through Small World would be a good first step to help open those eyes up.

Related Links

• Martin Parr Photographer [Official Website]
• Martin Parr Small World [Amazon Page]

*I use boring to represent whatever has become commonplace since someone has seen it day in and day out. I think it takes a great deal of work to depict these moments of boredom to the same people who live with them in such a manner that they can see the strangeness of their everyday life. Much more difficult than showing them a photo of a down on their luck individual and saying "Look how sad he looks. I'm glad we aren't that way!"

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One day during the winter months of 2007 I was in the local Barnes & Noble and was browsing over the photography books when I happened across the book Nocturnes, by Chris Faust. I thought to myself "Hey! I like night photography!" and opened up Nocturnes to take a peek. What I saw stunned me.

As expected it was a night photograph which I found myself looking at. What made this one unique was that I knew exactly where Chris was standing when he took the photo. I've walked though the scene he was depicting hundreds of times while on recreational walks as it was less then a mile from several locations I have lived at over the years.

I took a moment to verify that I hadn't accidentally stumbled into the Regional Artists section of Barnes & Noble. Nope. I wasn't in the Regional Artists section. Nocturnes was in the same sections where Barnes & Noble puts the big shot names like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston into. Seeing photographs that were so close to home in this section was a brand new experience for me. I purchased my copy right then.

Nocturnes consists of seventy four black and white night time photos taken at various locations throughout the United States and Canada. Almost all of the images are panoramic photos taken with a medium format Fuji G617 camera. A lot of the photos in Nocturnes are taken during the dark, cold winter nights of Minnesota.

It was Chris Faust's winter photos of rural Minnesota in Nocturnes which really drew me into this book. From the back alleys of St. Paul, to photographs taken nearly on my doorstep, these particular photos made me realize something big. I was a fan of doing night photography, and I love snow and cold winter scenes. Why the hell haven't I ever combined the two? I blame Nocturnes for getting me back into night photography, and for getting me hooked on doing it heavily during the winter months.

As far as night photography goes, Nocturnes is a winner. Unless you are like a former roommate of mine who looked though my copy and responded with "I'm not impressed. It looks like every day of my life." I like to take his comment as proof that Christ Faust has captured the region perfectly.

Additional Resources

• Chris Faust's Web Site
• Nocturnes, by Chris Faust [amazon.com link]
• The Essence of the Night: A painter and a photographer explore the Midwestern night
• The Cultural Landscapes Of Chris Faust

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Winogrand: Figments From The Real World

Why I purchased Figments From The Real World.

Any time that I'd try to find work by Garry Winogrand online, it seem that I could only able to find the same handful of only his most famous photos. For from who has literally shot millions of pictures in his life, I figured that he had to have shot more keepers then what is prevalent on the Internet.

What I learned from Figments From The Real World

Less that perfect technique is acceptable.

Blown highlights, horizons that aren't level, the subject not being in absolute perfect focus. Those are just a few of the technical no-nos that would see these images get tore apart by the technique-happy reviewers who critique images at web galleries I've visited.

The images of Winogrand don't need these perfections. Attempting to yank moments of surrealism from everyday day requires a certain degree of fudging on the technical side of photography. What some of photographs may lack in unimportant technical details, they make up for by actually being interesting.

Figments From The Real World provides a great overview of the work of Garry Winogrand from 1950 until his death in 1984. Highly recommended for fans of street photography.

Related

• Winogrand: Figments From The Real World at Amazon.
• Joe Van Cleave's blog post about the enigmatic image on the cover of this book.
• Garry Winogrand with Bill Moyers

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If you've enjoyed this, or any other post from my website, why not help me out? The next time you shop at Amazon or B&H Photo Video, come back here and click on this link to Amazon, or this link to B&H first. You'll receive whatever fun new toy you buy for yourself, and I'll receive a fraction of the sale price to help keep this site running. We both win!