I took about 400 photos over six sessions and the final session was the best (yesterday – Valentines Day!) I have about six more to upload to flickr, but this is one of my favourites.

I really wanted to catch a clashing colours red coat* right in the centre of the heart display, and I just caught her coming in from the left. I’d been mostly following people coming from the right because I wanted to include more of the shop. In fact, some of the shots I took yesterday (Valentine’s day… well who needs candlelit dinners when you can lurk outside underwear shops with a camera?!) I prefer because they have more context. The poster right in the background pulls you in a bit.

*It would have been rather good if one of the Chelsea Pensioners had passed by.

The threads holding up the heart work quite well, just catching the light.

There’s a socket in the wall which connects up her ear plugs and makes her look as though she’s plugged in.

Apart from last week when it felt like -10˚ in the shade, it was much easier on the Kings Road at 6pm than Oxford Street. One person every few seconds compared to hundreds every few seconds meant less clutter, less overlaps and less stress. In fact it was quite relaxing which was a relief.

I wonder if I shouldn’t have uploaded all my favourite shots onto flickr out of that 400 as it ruins the mystique a bit. But on the other hand, it shows more of what I’m trying to do with this which is more than just make eye candy.

So I’m currently concentrating on about four projects and one of them is looking at fluorescent displays. It actually started in February last year at the Harvey Nichols store in Knightsbridge. I’d just started using flash and I saw some examples of work with a slow shutter speed that I liked. Especially Charalampos Kydonakis AKA Dirty Harry and Charlie Kirk AKA Two Cute Dogs . So I thought I’d try it and mix it up with shop windows.

This is the first picture that got me really interested. I liked the environment appearing to slice into reality.

Loved the vivid colours and fine detail revealed by the flash.

There were some fluorescent sculptures on show at the Saatchi Gallery, so I decided to hang around there for a while and see if I could get anything decent. It was a bit more difficult to catch people in front of the work because they assume you’re taking a picture of the sculpture and hang back. Or they realise they’re likely to be in the picture and duck out. But I did manage a couple of interesting ones.

I like the pale colours in this. In post processing it seemed to work best with a slightly green tint left in it – perhaps because of her red hair. And I like the floating necklace and trailing wiring on the floor.

I was hoping that fluorescents would feature in some shop window display somewhere in London this Christmas and I struck lucky: Selfridges. I consider their displays to be the best in London and it was good to be back where I started with this whole photography fever, a year before.

I went out for about nine sessions each lasting between two and four hours. I have to say I found it hard because of the sheer volumes. It’s the most crowded place in London and the crowds were sweeping around me, running over my feet. And very noisy. Almost to the point of culture shock. Rickshaw bells ringing, sirens, shouting, megaphones, Hare Krishna songs. You name it.

There was also this second level of street life going on that I quickly started to notice. Beggars (one woman with a baby in wooden swaddling clothes) and the classic street gamblers with little silver cups and a ball hidden underneath – they really drew a crowd.

The results of these sessions were quite exciting but also frustrating. This is one of my favourites. If only the guy had an expression as interesting as the girl.

And the shop window clawing in a new victim. Or crowning him. It’s a bit unbalanced. I faded out the object on his nose, but it still intrudes too much…

Here is a link to the whole fluorescents set as it stand so far. Hopefully there will be more to come.

Last week on Tuesday night I shared a viewing of these at the Shoreditch satellite of the London Independent Photography group and people were quite excited by them. So that was encouraging. And also a big thanks to Gerard Nicolas who expressed his enthusiasm on flickr (especially appreciated as I really admire his work) and the Grit and Grain group for their thoughtful comments at the start.

Note: I’m going to try and write more frequent posts – perhaps shorter. I often have conversations in my head for the blog but they seem to be really long and complicated. So I will try to jot down thoughts in a more fluid way.

Here is a lovely film about Gilden:

The parts where he bosses the public around are very funny. He seems to have this uncanny knack of making people feel like he’s doing them the favour.

Zdenek Lesovsky (who works using a similar method to Gilden) was there last week and posted a set of photos afterwards that he made showing Gilden at work. My favourite is this one (sharing switched off so I can’t post it here) http://www.flickr.com/photos/zdenek_lesovsky/6527392851/in/set-72157628465312945 It’s not a portrait of Gilden, but I like the portrayal of his way of shooting. It seems to show the buzz of the moment and to a certain extent it’s a bit of a thrill for people to be photographed as though they were famous for a moment. They are just as important as celebrities to a street photographer. It also conveys (perhaps a bit more successfully than the film) how you can blend into the street when you’re taking pictures. Even when dodging around like Gilden with a flash. However, his style is undeniably confrontational.

All in all, it was a serendipitous week for me. I ‘met’ Bruce Gilden, won a tenner on the lottery and then I was looking through Nils Jorgensen’s photostream and I saw my own brother in one of his pictures! In a whole year of looking at thousands and thousands of street photos, it’s the first time I’ve recognised someone I know. Anyway it was extra good as Nils kindly offered to send my brother a complimentary print.

By the way, what should the collective noun for street photographers be?

Nick Turpin with one of the workshop participants

Is there any point in doing them? Are they worth the money?

Marja one of the curators of the HCSP pool, wrote:

Nick Turpin was hosting a street photography workshop at the School of Life, so I booked up. It was actually a lot cheaper (less than half the price per day) than the 6 day Guardian Masterclass that kicked off the discussion on HCSP.

Nick manages to be pretty focussed but easy going at the same time, which is a good mixture for getting along with a group of 20 different people. He’s also very articulate so he’s able to convey clearly his ideas and thoughts. I felt he was very generous with his time over the weekend workshop, as both evenings we finished late, what with the dinner on Saturday and heading for the pub on Sunday evening. The School of Life make a big effort to make their events sociable so they serve a tasty dinner at their headquarters (a shop on Marchmont Street near Russell Square).

In fact, they pepper the weekend with tasty treats like vodka cocktails and fresh coffee and muffins on Columbia Road market. Which you can’t complain about!

A picture I took at the British Museum location

The basic structure of the workshop was slides and talks plus six ‘shoot on the street’ assignments. We went to some photo friendly (I guess touristy) locations where it’s common for people to be carrying cameras and you don’t stand out. I think really, the workshop was aimed at people who want to give street photography a go for the first time. At least, it assumes newbies will be there. It may well have said that in the course description, but for some reason I jumped to the conclusion that everyone would be the same as me… In other words I assumed that it would be a workshop for street photographers rather than a ‘try street photography’ workshop.

I wonder if he got up in the morning and thought 'I'll dress like a fountain today'.

I can safely say it was well worth the money but I think perhaps a workshop that focussed on editing and on existing work might have been more useful for me. I’ve done 38 of the Street Photography Now Project assignments, so another six that were much the same thing, and effectively involved just going out there and tackling it on your own (sort of but Nick was on hand) weren’t just what I needed. However, I did shoot at a different focal length the whole weekend and I started using continuous shooting and those two things alone were a departure and have led to some pictures I was pleased with. But yes, editing and getting feedback on existing pictures would have been really useful for me.

On the second day, Nick invited a colleague, Sean McDonnell to show us his work. I loved it: very beautiful and dramatic. Even though I generally prefer colour. It was very colourful black and white!

So I would recommend that particular workshop if you want to try street photography. And I’d conclude that workshops are worth doing, as connecting with people face-to-face is somehow very important. It’s hard to explain but I suppose it’s the way you can pick up on the feeling of inspiration from people who really care about what they do.

On the way to the Covent Garden location I stopped at Neals Yard.

It’s in my nature to just do it by myself and find my own way most of the time. And I think with creative work that’s deeply important. But sometimes input from someone experienced just makes a difference.

Here’s one or two more pictures. They’re all from the first day. I think I was just too knackered on the second day.

Not sure if there are places left, but Nick’s next workshop in association with the World Photography Organisation is (glamourously) in New York

And, Nick continues in his mission to promote street photography with the release of in-sight, a new 38 minute short film this week via Distrify ‘a pioneering way to allow independent film makers to charge a small fee per viewing of their film’.

It’s good (especially the Gus Powell interview) and it only costs a couple of quid to watch.

[Edit Tuesday 27 September]
If you’re interested in photography workshops AND travel, check out the trips offered by Maciej Dakowicz. I expect most people reading this will know Maciej’s work, but if you don’t it’s fantastic. Very fresh, ‘spontaneous’ and above all, compassionate. It so often it appears that he’s greatest friends with the people he photographs.

Police advised shops and businesses to shut down after 2pm today. About 4pm I was on a conference call and loads of people from upstairs went whizzing past me on their way out. The business had decided to close down but they hadn’t told my team! There’d been rumours of a couple of gangs moving in our direction. Anyway, I’m not sure if  the rumoured gang materialised because I headed home. No reports of any trouble in London so far and I can’t hear any sirens. It seemed to work asking the shops to shut early and everyone going home.

Pissed off though. I felt why should I be under curfew?! Missed going to my first London Independent Photography meeting on Hoxton Street. Back home I went out for a drink with my neighbours. By a twist of fate about 20 years ago, I live in the middle of one of the most affluent areas of London. Saw about eight shops with smashed windows outside my place.

Anyway, all is quiet tonight. But I think if this carries on every person fit enough should go out in the street and just stand together in long rows down the streets. It’s like it has to be everyone out or everyone in to keep things calm.

If needed I’ll go on Friday to help with the #riotcleanup movement.

p.s I can’t actually believe it’s been two months since my last post. In the meantime I’ve been to the Spanish Pyrenees, organised (with others) and exhibited in a group show in a tattoo parlour in Brixton, taken lots of pictures and dropped my camera. I have a strange perverse or maybe inverse relationship with time…

Best approach is to re-edit at a later date and relegate certain pictures to my Rejects set. It seems to be filling up rather fast.

I had a brief discussion with David Solomons about possible ways to approach an event like this. I took particular notice of what he had to say as he is very experienced and respected. He was talking about the ‘typological’ approach. Which (I just discovered) means taking multiple pictures with the same ‘settings’. Both in camera and in composition and so on.

“Frankie: The typology approach is by far the simplest and often the most effective approach to shooting any project. I for one wouldn’t want to spend another 10 years trying to figure out how to shoot another ‘Up West’ series. ”

Here’s an example he gave ‘A Royal Picnic’ by Tiffany Jones. I did find these a bit boring but I think that’s just because the people’s faces aren’t included and I was skipping through to get the overall idea. I like this Vegetable Sellers in Paharganj better. The extreme opposite of just randomly shooting. So I think David went to the event with the aim of catching the expressions and attitudes of bored people amongst the crowd and including the crowd (my guess from checking out his pics). But he said he was frustrated when he got kettled outside Clarence House.

The Mall by David Solomons

I’ve started a Flickr Gallery of other people’s Royal Wedding photos that I’ve selected from Flickr.

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Since I’ve enjoyed being included in some of the galleries that a few people have created each week relating to the Street Photography Now Project, I thought I’d create one myself from the submissions in the 32nd week.

All the photographs in this selection were created within one week, in response to the following quote by respected street photographer David Gibson “Follow lines of movement for a graphic journey”

by Marian Grozos

This reminds me of fashion and style in iD magazine when it first came out in the 80s and a designer called Fiorucci. The subject is very stylish and the kind of person who’d be stolen for a Benetton ad. It makes me think of globalisation and that phrase ‘cultural melting pot’. It makes you wonder how much people have a cultural identity anymore in major cities. I feel they do, and I feel she does. But this graphic journey takes you around the world and back.

by Justin Vogel

It’s great the way her arm and shoulders create a perfect horizontal. A lot of people try to do spots and stripes on zebra crossings but a zebra on a zebra really cracks it. Her open bag is curious as you can’t see what’s inside but you like to imagine briefly what’s in there. Her drink held aloft, it’s one of those cultural things that’s so contemporary – you just think of how dated the word ‘frappacino’ is going to be a few years down the line. New York is very exotic for me and this stripey Statue of Liberty street perpetuates that in my mind.

by Tom Percy

Had to include this one, as I feel it breaks through the spiral staircase cliche. Mainly because the cliche rarely includes people and is neater and more shell like. This one is a fusion with a spaghetti junction and perfectly it says ‘shopping journey’ on the side. I’m curious to see this in colour.

by Daniel G. Marchand

How to take cold grey water and make it warm and show the intrinsic aliveness of inanimate concrete. And at the same time, an elegant graphic design. The water took me by surprise when my brain first registered it, perhaps because of the flattened graphic effect where you see stripes of grey. I think I would have corrected the tilt on this one though!

by Clarence Loi

This takes me back to childhood in an instant journey of nostalgia. I guess it’s not as strong on the graphic element, but the most graphic part – the chairs – is essential for the story and it IS a train! I love the way the Dad figure looks a bit bored but indulges the children who are delighted. Really touching and joyful.

by Duncan Scoble

I rather like the way this is a little over exposed. If it hadn’t been, it might have seemed too photo library, too perfect. And it matches the hot lemon colours – you could be in Southern Spain or I imagine Italy. And absolutely perfect use of these Selfridges bags which are like a fluorescent rash in Oxford and Regent Street shots in London.

by Canonac

What a lucky encounter! I love the contrast between the wet super saturated yellow and the grainy concrete and dirty clothes of the painter. Nice touches with the tape measure and the stripes framed by the rail in the corner. Corners can often be boring! Perhaps it would have been even better with tape forming a perfect curve on the right. Appropriate shop title as a quest is often integral to a journey.

by chocolate girl

I like the way the force of nature is driving right to left like the diagonal lines in the foreground. This is a picture I could really live with, perhaps because the horizon is so calming. The chimney on the horizon reminds me of a power station so for me the picture is about energy, power and forces and the graphic elements and movement help illustrate that.

by Yanick

What a beautiful picture. The layering is literal with the mesh and stripes on the glass and the two main slices of inside and outside. The interior is appealing for the way the kids are so absorbed in their reading and it gives the feeling of the way their minds are moving through the information. Then when you look out you have the bold graphics of the plane and you think of the airport, the centre body of those spidery plane route maps. It’s one of those pictures that works well aesthetically but leaves you plenty of room for your own imagination.

by Magnus Fröderberg

It’s like a giant Gulliver looked at an ordinary scene and leaned forward and just bent things a little out of shape. As others have pointed out, the double green man is unusual. The sphinx parked next to the street cleaner is a lovely surprise. The elegant background. The flagpole and broom echoes. The man’s costume with the big black patches. So much in there and a great use of vertical, especially with the pavement lining up perfectly on the left edge.

by Kevlin Henney

A lego landscape. Everything is ordered and neat. Then the guy in his splayed and ridiculous pose. And I like the way he’s literally hooked into a connection with his surroundings. Balance of detail, action and space (water) is good and the colours are a harmonious range of steely blues, terracotta and mossy greens.

by Susan Barwood

OK, technically a bit off with the blur and I would have cropped out the bike wheel lower left. But very nice lines. The guy’s hand is perfectly horizontal and you can feel his balance, you’re really with him looking at this. The sheer slope behind contrasts with his stillness. As with Daniel’s above, I feel this brings life to the hard inanimate elements, especially how the metal matches the human skin tone.

by Adam

The graphic lines tell this great story of the keystone cops moment that occurred just before the shot. The composition is simple but not boring and the path and flower bed look just like a race track. It would have been lovely if the figure was a little clearer to see – white trousers or something.

by Mathieu Jaïs

This was Mathieu’s B-side rather than the actual shot selected for the assignment. However I really love it for the extraordinary saturated emerald colour, turned up to the max with the bright grass and yellow dandelions. The gesture of the man makes me feel like he can hear the volume of that green. Joyful zest.

by Rense Haveman

Some problems here with the composition – very tight top and bottom, and ‘telecom’ on his head, but a very clear (graphic?) portrayal of the nightmare and dream that being a parent seems to be. All the closeness, affection, responsibility and stress in one picture. She’s a cute little monkey clinging on with a very indulged sulky look. I like that her toy looks like a banana and the father figure has this bag full of bananas that looks about to burst.

by Maxine Moss

The deep velvety blue of her jacket with the synthetic velvet on the seats attracted me. And the total exposure of the woman in sleep. The whole train is organised graphically so it makes great sense for the instruction.

To view all 351 submissions for that week, check out the Instruction #32 Group

He seemed so alive, even though you could see his age. I love the way he laughed about things and didn’t seem to care for fame or money. You can see a recent interview at the end of the video (about half way down the page) here www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13582880 It seems weird when the interviewer asks him if the time in prison affected his ‘career’. I don’t think it was only a career, it was his life. BBC interviewers are such pompous pricks sometimes.

Video for his recent album. It reminds me of the first time I ever saw New York. I landed on Halloween night.

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The scene outside Buckingham Palace on Wednesday evening was fascinating. A huge and very tasteful green condominium of TV studios had been erected for the best views of Buckingham Palace. Each studio had a large window through which you could glimpse the presenters facing camera and lights. I rather like the BBC’s panoramic image of this which is such high resolution you can probably spot a fly on the wall. Reminds a bit of an eBoy poster.

I had a go at photographing one of the Euro presenters who was interviewing passersby in front of the condo. It got a bit complicated, since she was trying to get (or set up) shots of people photographing the condo and each other in front of the condo and I got roped in. In other words, everyone was shooting each other shooting. It was also quite fun throughout the whole event, trying to work out who people were. Under cover cops, over cover cops, presenters, off duty presenters or innocent bystanders?

This man, for example, may have been a hippy on his way back from a meditation class and the guy behind him may have been a window cleaner…

Really, I couldn’t get enough of TV presenters, it was so interesting being able to get close to them. They arrived en masse like some kind of rare bird flock on their way to Summer breeding.

I tagged this photograph ‘welly’ and it attracted a funny man. I’m not going to link to his flickr photostream right now but perhaps you can find it if you search for ‘rubber’.

An executive presenter type:

However, the main spectacle was the spectators themselves, camping out at Westminster Abbey. When I saw them, I really thought ‘fish in a barrel’ and then I thought ‘PG Tips monkeys’.

They were fenced into a special enclosure and they all seemed to be drinking nice cups of tea and wearing fancy dress. The police had organised a one way system so that spectators of the spectators could walk around it all anti-clockwise. At the back of the camp was a tiered series of platforms bristling with TV cameras, presenters and film crew. It was quite hard to photograph, mainly because there was so much choice – I kept turning from one thing to another. And the police were hustling everyone along, but it was easier at the back. Here’s a nice one that has a bit of everything in it:

It’s funny how you get serendipity in life, because as I write this I can hear monkey screeches coming from the downstairs flat!

Here’s one I quite like post wedding. Trampled daffodils:

Here is a Royal Bedding shop window display designed for a Chicago sex shop, by Lee Kay who I met on flickr (commented on one of my shop window pics).

I’d be interested to see any cool sets of Royal Wedding photos that other people have taken – post comments with links if you like.

So it reminded me of a post I’d thought of writing. I’m not sure it’s really of interest to anyone else, but I feel I need to print the photographs in my head. Since I picked up a camera and became absorbed in that, I realised I’ve saved some pictures mentally in the past and they’re still vivid. At first I thought there were only one or two, but others have come to mind. They’re different from other memories because they’re framed and very much of a moment and not a story. And visual. Just now I can only remember two. I’ll have to update this as the others surface. Probably while I’m doing the washing up or something.

I’m not exactly sure how to write about them without being boring or writerly since I’m not trying to be a writer. It’s just a list I have to get out of my head:

1) Upper Thames Path (I think) early nineties or late eighties. I was working as a cycle courier. I saw a man dressed as a ball of fur, like one of those guys collecting money for charity. As I got closer, I realised he was transporting mink furs complete with heads and tails. They were strung together to make a giant pom pom.

2) At a pedestrian crossing, Waterloo Bridge (a long time ago). An old lady, so crippled by a hunch back that she had to use a tiny mirror to see where she was going. She must have viewed the world upside down, except for feet. I wonder if she achieved perceptual adaptation?

edit 28/05/11
3) Riding in a trip boat past the Design Museum. It’s raining and sunshine. A rainbow bigger than Wembley Stadium transpires in perfect symmetry with a foot in North London and a foot in South London. Stern centre.

edit 28/05/11
4) Interior tube train, night. It’s almost empty. A tiny woman sits, lips pursed. She’s holding a foot on her lap which belongs to a huge man. His body is lying across three seats and his head and top with arms is slumped on the floor. His eyes are closed.

edit 28/05/11
5) 1998. Transatlantic flight. Return. I can see fireworks from above. The tiniest daisy splinters sprinkled across the Home Counties.

edit 29/05/11
6) Searing hot day. Eton Square. The rejected shiny heart of a shocking pink chocolate box tops a pool of melted luxury chocolate.

Note: I do like Eckhart Tolle. Having searched for his name just now, I signed up to watch his video talks for a month. He’s great. He dresses in this really nerdy way which perfectly suits him, because the last thing he would probably care about is fashion and making an impression. Reminds me of a librarian’s dress sense: a shirt buttoned right up to the collar with a knitted grey vest. You switch on the video, and you feel like you’ve wandered down to the bottom of the garden and the friendliest garden gnome with the naughtiest smile has come alive and started talking about inner space and the present. Not that I mean any of this in the least bit of a sneering way – he really does come across as endearing and trustworthy with an agenda of people being happier. I liked it when he said something like “you don’t think your thoughts, in the same way you don’t beat your heart.”

22:27 further note

Just been listening to Tolle’s video guide to meditation: what is the point of it, how to do it, pitfalls etc. It’s good, but long. He never says ‘um’. He burps a lot. Has a great sense of irony. It’s funny. It’s the main video on the taster ‘try before you buy’ offer https://www.eckharttolletv.com

This is incongruous. Interesting to see him interviewed on a pop chat show. I wonder if he specifically asked to be able to explain things without being interrupted, or if the interviewer was just rapt?

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