Tag: street photography

Street Photography

Over Pride weekend I participated in an street photography workshop with the extraordinarily talented Emilio Bañuelos of Black Books Ink. We were challenged to choose one camera and one lens, hit the streets and break out of our comfort zone. Doing this workshop was a birthday present to myself to deliberately force away from my usual style and to work towards being a more versatile and confident photographer.

All artists are our own worst critics. Until you go into a critique and other people start giving you constructive feedback. That this point you realize that other people are seeing flaws in your work you missed. Ha! An essential skill all creative people need to learn is to take feedback on what we make – while staying positive and excited about what we’re doing. With that in mind, Emilio, if you read this, know that I am still hearing your voice in my head whenever I compose along the same horizon line!

Here’s a few of my more successful shots from the weekend. I had a great time meeting some very talented photographers and I highly recommend participating in one of Black Book’s workshops if you have the chance.

All photos shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Wide-Angle Autofocus Lens. Processing done in Lightroom.

Vivian Maier, Incredible Street Photography

Imagine you’re at a swap meet. Or a garage sale. Or an estate auction.

You see a box of negatives for sale. They are of the city, people, places, beaches. Do you purchase the box out of curiosity, or do you move onto something a little less dusty?

Faced with this situation, John Maloof chose to purchase these many boxes of negatives and when sorting through them, discovered a nearly unbelievable treasure. Once he realized the scope of the work, he began to research the photographer behind the images. Vivian Maier was a nanny in the suburbs of Chicago who for years she would leave her home to photograph in the streets of the city. She left behind over 100,000 negatives, most of them medium format, along with thousands of prints and boxes of undeveloped rolls of film. To print and process her work, she had converted her bathroom into a darkroom – participating in a long tradition of diy darkroom artistry. Her work is, simply put, stunning.

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Had her work not been found by someone who could appreciate it, it’s quite easy to imagine those boxes heading straight for the dump. And we would have been denied the work of a true master of the medium. Sadly, Ms. Maier died shortly before her work was found and began to get the international attention she very much deserves. I find her story deeply moving, her work inspiring, and hope you do as well.

John Maloof’s blog on her work is here.

Kickstarter, where you can support a documentary on Vivian Maier’s work and pre-order a copy of the DVD as well as a forthcoming book of her photography.

A flickr discussion on the topic, with his initial request for help in what to do with these materials.

Nytimes lensblog coverage of this story.

An exhibition of her work is currently up at the Chicago Cultural Center. I’m trying to think of ways to get there and see it in person!