Street Photography Now #6

Instruction #6 and still going. Infact I had a little confidence boost last week as my instruction #5 photograph was *whisper* shortlisted by Wolfgang Zurborn. Whoah...I'm saying it quietly just in case he changes his mind!! I'm hoping it's not just beginners luck and that that'll be it now for the next 47 weeks! 

The difficulty I have and I don't want to hide behind it, is the lack of people about on Wednesday.  Mornings are virtually a right off which leaves Wednesday afternoon.  Weekends would be a whole lot better but family commitments come thick and fast both Saturday and Sunday.  I guess by taking it on this way, on the occasion I do go out at the weekend it will feel a lot easier.  

This week's instruction is provided by Artem Zhitenev (his blog is here)

never overlook a cliche

Right. Quite broad, but may be harder because of it. This link, this one and this one too alight to what can be considered cliche in photography and street photography terms. Ironically the night before I was reading this article on the Freeman View about cliches.  Don't think there is a part two yet.

And on reading these, you would have a tougher job 'overlooking a cliche'.  You could infact consider almost everything to be cliche by the very fact you are photographing it. And as a relative beginner to all this I came to the conclusion that more than likely my images would probably fall in to the 'cliche' category without trying too hard. I know many of the more experienced guys have interpreted the brief to include as many cliches as possible. However, the brief in my opinion and given my ability does not suggest squeezing every last cliche in to it.  My intepretation was to tackle a cliche head on and make it my own. 

Looking at Zhitenev's work, (there is a video here on how he approaches his work). His way of working appears more aggressive than the photographs suggest.  He, like Gilden, uses a flash for his portraits and he too 'tails' people somewhat.  However, his results are more playful and he himself says he engages with his subjects, talks to people so there are some images where there is direct eye contact with him.  I'm not sure which lens he uses but it must be fairly wide as on some I have seen a little bit of lens distortion on the edges. He also seems to enjoy lighting and shadows with quite a few examples of this. 

So I came up with an image in Keswick that fit the brief, lots of cliches. I waited for people for a while, got a few with people on, but somehow it just lacked something.

So I sacked this one.  The one below is what I submitted. Graphically it felt stronger, I liked the colours and lighting and it also fits the brief. There are a few cliches in there too...