The October Gallery puts on talks about art and I went to two lectures by Bo Lutowoski on his style of portrait photography. He is not interested in street photography, as I am, but likes to capture the soul of the sitter. He would not like to embarrass his sitters. This led me to thinking about my Read more...

The October Gallery puts on talks about art and I went to two lectures by Bo Lutowoski on his style of portrait photography. He is not interested in street photography, as I am, but likes to capture the soul of the sitter. He would not like to embarrass his sitters. This led me to thinking about my philosophy and style. I can articulate what it isn\'t. It isn\'t: • News photography or video • Landscape or still life or scenes without people • Posed portraits • Technical excellence isn\'t a requirement. Some years ago I joined a photo club but this seemed to be about equipment and technique, soon to be swept away by progress in digital cameras, software and photo sharing • Generally not much post processing or Photoshopping. I only use simple software. My style is street photography, often in black and white and generally stills. I like to find contradictions and chance repetition. I am influenced by anti art, a term from the last century, Dada and Surrealism. I strive to find the scene that generates a feeling of being there in the viewer. Another was if saying it would be a sense of place or occasion. These are the hardest to achieve. I judge success by the comments and number of views I receive on websites. Given that millions of photos are uploaded each day, a few random views is a win. I have joined a few sharing sites that cater to like minded individuals. I use Picasa to edit photos as it has a neural program that suggests editing and cropping. Flickr includes Dopiaza that picks my cumulative best. Street photographers like Thomas Leuthard, who don\'t work as photographers and have other day jobs and take photos for the joy and fulfilment of doing it inspire me. I like to include words in the photo, especially if hey contradict the scene around them. Do words influence the viewer? As their attention is being directed, it is inevitable, but as the websites provide space for comments I use this to direct the viewers to what I saw when I took the photo, but sometimes the comments indicate the viewers who take the trouble to comment see different things. My thanks go to to those who took the time to comment and keep the websites going. My day job is very demanding and I don\'t have the time to reciprocate as much as I would like. Much of photo literature, books and in particular magazines, is devoted to equipment and does it make a difference? Henri Cartier\'s photos we\'re taken on what is now simple equipment and film that was slow. The best photos have asthmatic qualities. The latest cameras make it easier to achieve technic excellence, particularly the higher film speeds that enable hand held photography in light that would previously requires flash. John Harrison Grimshaw, the painter, said the secret of his success lies in the way he invests the commonplace with a veil of mystery.