Martin Parr-esque

teh resa:

I don't know if this group is dead either. It's certainly kind of limping along. It's not the important space that it used to be, that's for sure.. Even when the discussions were more lively, any topic that wasn't pre-approved would quickly get stomped on. The rate of accepting new photos into the pool has slowed to a trickle of just a handful a year. The moderators will say that there are very few photos that meet their high standards, but glancing at the photos that are accepted... there's kind of a sameness to them in their tone and reliance on odd light for interest. Just check out the pool, it's become kind of dull. Which is a shame, because I used to get excited to see what was new here. I thought it was great that a place existed that took itself very seriously and had high standards. But now it feels like there's a "house style," and it's not just about street photography. So, you have to wonder whether there's good work being submitted here that just doesn't match their aesthetic preferences. I do see what I consider incredible street photography in other groups' pools. I assume they submit here as well.

Anyway, you're not very likely to get a good suggestion here.

But I figured there might be people around who know books or articles featuring the kind of photos I had in mind.

So, in other words YOU have nothing to offer but somehow that is HCSP's fault.

justinsdisgustin:

I was feeling whiny and I'm not aware of any wedding photos that match the poster's criteria. This used to be one of the best places in the world to see good street photography. I miss that, and someone asking whether this place was dead resonated with me. It's definitely not doing well if you can only manage to approve a handful of photos per year. You guys are a closed box though, so the only action I'm able to take is to complain about it once every two years. Get a defibrillator, save the patient.

teh resa:
I think the person you want to ask is Blake Andrews. You can contact him via blakeandrews.blogspot.com or swerdnaekalb@gmail.com Wish him a happy birthday and tell him I says hi. Report back with what you find.

The thing that keeps communities from dying is the givers not the whiners and the takers. I hope this helps!

justinsdisgustin:

I second that Justin. Blake and possibly Don Hudson are some people I go to for seeing some curation.

justinsdisgustin:
Ok thanks

Listening to this

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhCOqj4Pyb8

and contemplating my next AI creation.

“Creation”

(Beavis and Butthead reference)

'He said: "Creation" '

'He said: "My".' hehe.

Currently watching a slide show of Chris Steele-Perkins. Just love his casino photo at 0:20.

www.youtube.com/watch?si=AAND3CjAvb6mw1-c&v=6_5DJcyEQ70

Pissed off that my reduced mobility confines me to using mobile phone as only camera. Positive side is that I have rediscovered painting as can do this sitting down! My efforts with the brush can be seen on Instagram. Only constructive comments please…

Amanda sent me an email last night, telling me I could have my Flickr account back.

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with it (not much, I suppose).

ah you know, post photos, look at photos, and shit talk. What else is there?

justinsdisgustin:

CAN YOU DO THAT??

I'm impressed.

david ciarli wilson: I can do all of this things but none of them well.

I just got a great photography book in the mail called "WISH YOU WERE BACK HERE FOREVER" and it is documents part of the Nebraska music scene from the mid 90's to about 2005. Some of you probably are wondering what music scene LOL, but there was a short period of time when Omaha and Lincoln were kind of cool in the Indie Rock world. The book includes photos of Nebraska bands such as Bright Eyes, The Faint, and Cursive. There are also photos of bands that came through the area such as Fugazi, Cap'n Jazz, and Archers of Loaf. The best part for me were the photos of people I know and worked with and the basements and bars I haunted. If you are a fan of this type of music, I highly recommend the book. Going through this book was like stepping back in time for me and reliving things I had long ago forgotten and loved.

The photographer is Rob Walters who, ironically, I don't really know but he has put together a set of fun photos

If you are interested in picking up a copy of the book or just want a look at a few photos from the book, check it out here

Jeff Larson (Raw Power): The best part is when you find your younger self in the crowd of a random live band photo. The older you are the rarer it is.

justinsdisgustin:

That is a sad but inevitable truth of life. It is getting to the point where it is more likely that I will find my son and his friends in the live band photo.

I don't think it is sad so much as the ubiquity of cameras and the popularity of SM in the last 20 or so years.

A few weeks ago everyone was trying out the Foto App, or was it Glass or something? Then I stopped hearing anything, so I assume it's so wonderful everyone just disappeared over there, like back in the day when everyone flocked to Instagram?

I still suspect there's a disconnect between what problem people are trying to solve and the one they say they want to solve, but that's probably just me.

they want all the views and none of the ads, a better ratio of contacts vs algorithm in their stream, and free pizza on Mondays. If I understand the zeitgeist.

TC so which was it? Foto app or Glass (asking for a friend). Maybe it was Be-Real?

teh resa: I thought you were making that last one up but now I see it's actually another app centered around selfies.

Pretty sure the recent one was Foto (which still doesn't have a desktop version IIRC but I could be wrong). I did have a run-in with the Glass folk that wasn't great, but that was years ago.

Poagao:
You re in a glass by yourself

justinsdisgustin: Aglass no, they'd never let riffraff like me in their glassy joint.

I can't believe this. I step away for just 15 years and the whole place goes to hell? Please tell me there is someone, anyone, still active here.

Hey Mark, happy you are back. I’m in Everett now, maybe we’ll bump into each other in Seattle.

I've got a half dozen locations at the Snohomish river delta in Everett pinned on Google maps to go make some photos.

Mark_H: We thought you were just going out for some milk.

TC son, you’re all grown up!

It’s been a long hiatus, because ya know, life, adulting and other uninteresting happenings about everything, but we’re still active, at least again… We’re doing our best to get this group going. We’ll do some updates again sooner or later. And yeah, okay, off to the queue! It’s good to be back.

Oh, hey look Arthur got a brand new shiny badge!

😂

and here I was thinking it was recycled. No offense, Arthur.

justinsdisgustin:

Lol


Sixft Whiterabbit:

None taken.

Good stuff, Flickr and this group in particular is and always has been so much better than ig. I’m starting to enjoy Flickr again after years of not taking photos. Great to see HCSP being.. may I say active?

Adam Dzieciolkiewicz:

Thanks! It’s been slow lately, but we’re definitely catching up!

Going forward, I'd like to keep the discussions more or less on track. This place has been a useful resource for many over the decades, and now that we're seeing some more activity, I hope it can be that for others.

Yes, OK, but your message is popping (if that is a real word in your language) up on my screen while I have not finished breakfast yet. That does not mean I'll stop documenting events.
I forgive you for using one of my pictures as an example of imperfectness... without my prior written and signed consent... although still waiting for you showing shame and begging for forgiveness.

I wan my propers for saying back in May ppl were coming back to Flickr. Everyone thought I was cra cra. I got the receipts.

You herby have won mine, but insist being a bit ka ka, as is my historical privilege from being not just everyone.

Omfg. There was another one asking about why their photos are rejected. I mean come on, man, kindly read the group rule before asking dumb questions.

-The REJECTOR (cute title)

Just answer the (dumb) question!!

Not the way this works. We add photos that appeal to us, reject the rest. None of this is paid work, and nobody got time to send thousands of rejection explanations out. If you want feedback on a particular shot, the crit thread's available.

Kindly only evaluate photos that were sent to you for that particular reason, regardless of appealing to whoever, or not.

No.

Too late: you were already forgiven.

lol

davidbowden45:

Since you’re too lazy to read the group rules, I copied and will paste it for you. Please read it (slowly) so we aren’t going in circles again.

Group Rules:
BE AWARE: The group pool is heavily curated. We look through all the submitted photos and only allow the very best into the pool. Once those photos are in the pool, it may not be permanent, as we may periodically go through and fine tune our decisions.

If your submitted photo wasn't accepted into the pool, please don't start a new thread asking why because this group rejects hundreds of photos daily, and explaining each decision isn't how we want to spend our time.

If you want an opinion about your photo, please see the image critique thread and read the instructions there.

Don't take it personally.

That’s the group rule. Written in the front page.

I more or less retired from street photography, but I've always been a fan of the kind of moving masses shots popular here - and have never found a source for street photography that rivals HCSP.

I saw this video, A Day with Francesca Chiacchio, Street Photographer in Naples, Italy, enjoyed it and thought I'd share it:

youtu.be/H-TAt_cXL7w?si=xx3KRRZQPmkw5MZK

NotebookLM summary:

Francesca Chiacchio is a street photographer from Naples, Italy, who began her journey in 2017. She enjoys shooting in Naples, but also travels to other cities across Italy and Europe.
Here's a profile summarizing her work and philosophy:

• Love for Street Photography and Self-Expression: For Francesca, photography is more than a hobby; it's a lifestyle and a way of expressing herself. She states that taking pictures makes her happy and that she feels more complete when she photographs. Although she appreciates other art forms, photography is her primary artistic outlet. She doesn't have a single explanation for why she shoots, beyond the profound love she has for it.

• Evolving Approach and Style:
◦ From Single Shots to Stories: Initially, Francesca focused on single images, but after many years, she became "bored" with them. She now prefers building up stories and working on long-term projects and subjects, documenting events and traditions in Italy and Europe. This shift allows her to work on something she truly cares about.
◦ Focus on Complex Frames and Relationships: Francesca is drawn to complex, filled, and packed frames, a style she learned over time and now actively seeks. She aims to capture relationships between people, connecting them within the frame in a way that shows their interactions.
◦ Portraits and Beauty: She enjoys street portraits, especially group portraits, and likes photographing young people. Her focus is on showing the beauty she perceives in individuals, which she describes as a personal, not canonical, beauty.
◦ Humor: Francesca incorporates humor into her work, though not to the same extent as some of her influences, approaching it with her own unique eye.
◦ Contextualization: She likes to contextualize her shots, for example, by including Mount Vesuvius in the background when shooting in Naples, to make it clear where the photo was taken.

• Dealing with Confidence Challenges:
◦ Learning by Doing: Francesca emphasizes that building confidence is something you get used to by doing more photography. She herself was very shy initially, finding it hard to approach people.
◦ Psychological Aspect: She believes that to be a street photographer, you also need to be a psychologist or psychotherapist. She notes that if photographers look scared or afraid, people are more likely to notice them. Conversely, her increased confidence has led to fewer negative reactions from subjects.
◦ Handling Reactions: When people get upset, she has learned to give compliments or explain why she is shooting them, and she smiles a lot. If someone is very upset, she might pretend not to be shooting them, looking around or at buildings.
◦ Recognizing Cues: Through experience, she has learned to recognize when people do not want to be photographed, especially in Naples, by observing their movements, actions, and gazes. This knowledge came from having many "bad reactions" early in her career.
◦ Avoiding Candid Breakage: She generally avoids interacting with subjects before shooting them to ensure the picture remains candid and people don't start posing.
◦ Self-Doubt: On days she feels a lack of confidence or is unable to get good pictures, she sometimes wants to go home. However, she finds it easier to shoot when the sun is out, and struggles with bad weather.

• Use of Flash:
◦ Integration into her Style: Francesca uses a flash Q20 and likes to focus the light only on her subjects, differing from Martin Parr's method of lighting up faces uniformly. She doesn't believe flash makes a big difference in how people react compared to simply approaching them, as people will notice you anyway.
◦ Advice for Beginners: For those apprehensive about using flash, she suggests starting in crowded places with many tourists or during events, where people are often happy to be photographed.
• Equipment and Settings: She primarily uses a Fuji XT30 with an 18mm lens (~27mm full frame equiv.) and shoots in full manual mode, adjusting ISO and shutter speed, and sometimes the focal length. A drawback of her Fuji camera is that it's not "tropicalized," meaning she avoids shooting in the rain.
• Influences and Mentors: Her mentor is Vinit Mora, from whom she learned composition and how to achieve clean frames. Other significant influences include Julia Codington, founder of Unexposed (a female street photography collective) and a team member of Women in Street, whose photography she has followed since the beginning. She also deeply admires Martin Parr (her favorite photographer, influencing her use of flash), Alex Webb, and William Klein.
• Teaching and Workshops: Francesca teaches street photography workshops, having started about three years ago after being asked to lead two workshops in Rome. She believes strongly in the value of workshops for learning, stating that one "never finish[es] to learn" and that they are crucial for understanding rules, especially in composition. She doesn't believe much in self-teaching for street photography due to the importance of compositional rules. She collaborates with Patio Tangram, a photography school in Naples, to offer workshops.
• Shooting Locations and Travel:
◦ Naples: She prefers shooting in Naples' Spanish Quarters and Maradora Square due to the crowds. The historical center and the waterfront, especially during summer, are also good spots. She notes that Naples has only recently gained media attention and tourism in the last decade, overcoming a previous bad reputation. Well-known photographers like Bruno Barbey, Martin Parr, and Bruce Gilden have recently visited Naples for projects.
◦ Travel Philosophy: Francesca loves traveling and usually seeks out events as a basis for planning her trips. She aims to travel at least every two to three months.
◦ Notable Cities: She particularly loves Istanbul due to its easy-going people, good light, and reflections. She found New York to be "kind of hard" for street photography during a visit in 2023, observing that people were more suspicious and didn't want to be photographed, which she speculated might be a change post-pandemic. She used to shoot in London but hasn't returned since Brexit.
◦ Preference for Stationary Shooting: While she doesn't have strict rules, she prefers to camp out in one spot and observe rather than constantly walking while shooting.
• Community Engagement: Francesca connects with other photographers, especially through Instagram, which she credits for introducing her to the street photography movement and connecting her with communities like "Women in Street" and "Women See Photographers". She enjoys shooting with other photographers, finding it fun, but acknowledges the risk of similar pictures. She observes that the street photography community in Naples is small, unlike Rome, but that many young people are beginning to enter the field. She misses having a strong local community for shared activities.

Mark_H: That's pretty cool, Mark, thanks. Paulie definitely has some good SP videos, they stand out from the usual Youtube SP stuff.

I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t like, or wouldn’t show 95 - 99 % of what I’ve shot over the last 30years. A year ago I would have shown a lot more. I keep thinking I’ve learned how to see over years and years, and then suddenly there’s a deepening, where I’m like “you didn’t fucking see at all.” But I also know it’s a layering and a journey to unlearn all you’ve been taught and capture the real thing. It’s really a game of time, and how long you have to keep going and learning. But suddenly so much is crap to me, crap that needed to be shot. But binned but for posterity. I think that might be progress.

Heads up! Flickr may OR MAY NOT be turning juicy jpegs into 5.5 meg flop files! Is it a downgrade or a fever dream? NOBODY SEEMS TO KNOW FOR SURE!!! In fact experts disagree, Phil Jenkins, widely respected Street Photographer of unquestionable talent (I say that with the utmost sincerity), detected no evidence of undue compression of recent upload files! WHO KNOWS? The public NEEDS to know.

Really, Phil's photos are exceptional: www.flickr.com/photos/49795267@N06/

LeeSt.: I'm not even sure what constitutes "showing" work these days anyway. I don't think posting online really makes the cut. Yeah, three people glanced at a one-inch image of one of my photos on they phones during the subway ride to work for an average of 1.3 seconds, so...yay?

The definition of "showing" has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. Does IG constitute "showing"? Or are we talking in a more formal environment? Is putting it on your website "showing"? Does ANYBODY still have a website? What if nobody ever visits your website since ffs, it is 2025. Does that count as "showing"? If a bear shits in the woods and there is nobody there to hear it..The oportunities to "show" your "work" (LOLOLOL) used to be limited to camera clubs, family and friends (if you dared) or on the walls of some place, or your portfolio if you had some kind of professional (or otherwise) aspirations.

These days I don't even really need to break stride to post to "show" my latest work on IG with pithy (I think so anyways) caption and 5 seconds of ironically accompanying music. Effortless! (thoughtless?). Also, did you know it is impossible to buy an incandescent lightbulb in NYC now!

TC I’ll probably write more later, because I’m sitting in the public library waiting for my little one, but this intrigued me to think about it. I guess my intuitive response is that I don’t have a hierarchy, I’m always looking for something where the insides and outsides are in tune, no matter camera, how long ago, etc. and then evolving my eye, my relationship to color, light and shadow. Sometimes I hit it by accident and can only see it now, “now I can see what it is I was trying to say.” Not in a logical way, but in a way only an image can do. And, I guess, then using that dreaded word “curate,” which is the other 50%. of photography, music, art, editing, life. I have some photos up now and had a show up in December, I dont work to clarify my vision less or more there than what I’m doing here, though that is obviously“shooting” for something more thematic and flowing and even confrontational. But here it’s more about each picture. Why is this here? Does it need to be here? Did I used to need it to be here and now it doesn’t have to be, or is it foreign to me, is something from the past I threw away, but now near the center..,etc etc. I like to see what they look like for me, so maybe the show is for me, and that can be amazing too. A playground. See that, I’m long winded everywhere.

I edited this a bit, hopefully for clarity. Very much a stream of conscious of how I feel about these things and how I teach them. Hierarchies are prisons until you have clarity, and as soon as you have clarity it shifts again in an ever ongoing circle of life force, whether we are aware of it or not. The laws of nature, we seem to be leaving them behind, but no matter, they are more powerful than we are. You either get with them or you don’t. I try to bring them in and respect their process as I understand it in my own small way.

@justin I come for the pictures, I stay for the pith.

Weird and disturbing I find myself not hating Justin as much anymore, he kind of makes sense here.

Like Phil Jenkins, yeah.

TC's right about the little screen problem too. I've given up on IG, it's not only the format but the herd sameness of the photos. Most of the photographers I liked are taking the same fucking picture over and over again. I'm fighting with myself every time I go out to not take the same photo, mostly fail. Blaming IG.

Worst IG crime is the reel, second worst is allowing people unlimited space to explain their photo. I don't fucking care about your process, or your fraught relationship with this that or the other.

Andrew Kochanowski SP Account:

I gave up on it. I think it's evil.

I love those videos. Always fun and illuminating to see really good people work.

LeeLee I wanted to elaborate on this "instagram is evil" because it’s such a weird extreme statement, seems jaded or cynical or even stupid, easily dismissed. But I have specific ideas about this, and I do think they’re worth sharing here, because SP people tend to be observers, outsiders and even contrarians by nature as we engage with humanity in all its ways and try to capture that. So I believe, here, maybe more than anywhere else, can actually engage with contrary not obvious ideas, but that might ring true. So here it is, take it or leave it, it’s just what I see, and it’s very dark, and I’ve been immersed in this topic through my past work, with some results, for 20 + years, even creating a warning shot hidden in a populist cult film, that has gone unheeded as we hurtle deeper into this age that nobody has a grip on.

This technology especially iPhones and social media like instagram, It turns human beings into nothing but “stories” or or posts or episodes or podcasts or a sports/video game you turn off when you’re finished with it/them, waiting for the next episode to entertain, bore you, please you etc. and then you swipe through them again to the next. It’s made us stop relating to each other as humans, especially those in your life or closest to you, but as “content”. So people, friends, loved ones either “like” your content or they turn it off or ignore it when it’s boring to them , doesn’t have a message they like, shows them themselves or the world in a way they don’t want to see, or is just inconvenient, and we do the same, without knowing it. And most of us, what i see, is we engage with that performance, not each other, and all of that is going, that depth of shared experience. This tech and social media takes into account nothing of human joy or pain, only how it is carefully presented to you to make it "like worthy," where it is judged on a digital stage in one of the few ways us, as audience, are now allowed to do that, or have been behaviorally conditioned to do that.

It’s destroyed actual human empathy for even the most basic needs or pain or joys. It mostly about the worst of us- greed, power, ego, showing off, yes there's some family and some creativity, but as someone else said, its making things the same, making us the same, and boosting 'normie" culture like never before… and maybe worst of all, it propagandizes for idol worship endlessly in the form of godlike celebrities you can’t get away from but are forced to eat no matter how immune and rebellious you think you are. It makes you eat them because they are corporate creations, docile as could be, giving us the illusion they are free when the opposite is mostly true.

All of this has completely changed the way humanity relates to each other in this very specific dehumanizing way making us other each other and disposable to each other and it’s truly and maybe most of all why we are where we are in history. More than any politics or differences or opinions about leaders, which is the Tower of Babel they distract us with endlessly, and that's ALL big business media doing that. And all of this combined, which is premeditated and for profit, is the specific evil of it, and why I categorically say that it is evil incarante, and the greatest threat to us. It's purposeful, because it’s for profit and power over you and I, and if people no longer relate to each other as human beings, but only as boring or interesting or a swip or a like, they can never really stand together or pay attention to anything or come to collective agreement, only surrender. And it’s all normalized, conditioned, we are mice in a lab, introduced a carpet bomb of a stimulus since 20010, and then trained to react to it in acceptable ways, or forced into it, or punished materially if we don’t participate. That’s not free will, that’s truly an open air prison. It's evil.

I’ve put down my phone for the last 3 months, part by choice, part by not choice so I can only use it on a wifi and sometimes as a convenient camera. Which has been incredible at times inconvenient at other, but as I’ve gone back to old ways of moving about and engaging with people. It’s also allowed me to see the truth of things from my own view, and what this has done to us, what it’s doing to us, and I can only imagine where we will be in 5 years. I presume right where they want us, like the Vonnegut story Harrison Bergeron, a prophecy everyone should read, but few will.

All tech can be used for good, but most things turn into habit then addiction to fill a void or emptiness civilization, bread and circus, unfulfilling work for most (especially for some company that obviously doesn't care if you live or die, only produce) can’t fill without nature, art and a connection to something higher than ourselves and each other. Which they seek every day to destroy, or make us distrust, even hate in real ways, though they feed us climate change in theory, but again nature only in context of a threat. Look around, see what’s happened, has any of this tech and social made you or the people you love happier, let alone happy? More connected, more understanding, more caring. This is the lie they promised at the beginning, and then they get us addicted. Free will, there was no free will.

They know. It’s evil. No hyperbole. It’s evil in your pocket.

That’s my piece. If you’ve made it this far thank you for taking the time. I feel like I’m screaming# in the dark, and I can no more afford to do it than anyone else, maybe less so. But I also can’t look away from what’s happening. SP is about humans, even empathy, and staring dead in the face of humanity, I think, without blinking, no matter how each of us transforms that into an image. Empathy is going right in front of us. It feels like few notice because we are all staring at a screen, liking and swiping, or doing the mundane tasks we must do, heads down, in surrender.

LeeLee If someone were to ask me, well what can we do? I would say, just notice how you use your phone/social media, when you use it, when you go to it, what are you triggers, and maybe ask yourself if you’re in control or they are, the machine is. It really comes down to this simple observation and the choice that can come with it, which is a hard one to make given the world we must live in.

LeeSt.:
Very well stated Lee. I felt every word. You also described SP better than most with this phrase "SP is about humans, even empathy, and staring dead in the face of humanity, I think, without blinking"

Denzel Washington and Spike Lee addressed something like this recently in an interview, saying basically that, back in the day, in order to be noticed, you had to be good at what you do. Now, being good has been rendered completely irrelevant, buried by the need to simply grab as much attention as possible, and the easiest way to do that is to stir shit up, most often in the stupidest way possible.

I don't know what the answer is, other than simply resisting the urge to waste one's valuable time and focus on stupid shit that is algorithm-tailored to keep one sucking at the social media teat for as long as possible, and just enjoy real, actual things to the extent possible in this fucked up world. Yeah, you'll be forgotten/ignored by the algorithm and most of humanity, but it seems to me that brings more misery than it's worth.