S t r e e t C o r e

2nd anniversary special edition

p h o t o g r a p h y

C o v e r

P h o t o

:

T h e

C A N D I D A T E S

"Tu n'es pas toujours la plus belle Et je te reste infidèle

Mais qui peut dire l'avenir de nos souvenirs"

Lettre à France

Pour la photographie ...

2014-2015

SCP 2nd Anniversary

In these 2 years of Street Core Photography (find us on Facebook at: facebook.com/streetcorephotography), I was overwhelmed by the quality of the work of my fellow photographers coming from all over the world. I have admired the Manila school of street photography, the Indian colours which came to confirm themselves and the American and European occidental society which continued to give fantastic pictures. But most of all I was fascinated by the Balkan Neorealism which came to tattoo my way of looking through the viewfinder. I felt emotively familiar with this genesis. That is why I have decided to create the BULB collective (www.bulbphotos.eu). I have also to admit that the pictures submitted are of an exceptional quality and I want to apologize if I didn't have the time to write an evaluation for all of them.

As for the ones selected, sometimes I was wrong, sometimes I was right. Sometimes I was also too of a verbose or as Rudolf Arnheim nicely put it: "Many people are tired of the dazzling obscurity of arty talk, the juggling with catchwords and dehydrated aesthetic concepts, the pseudoscientific window dressing, the impertinent hunt for clinical symptoms, the elaborate measurement of trifles, and the charming epigrams." Art and visual perception 1974 That is why recently I created the INSTANT CRITIQUE by SCP group at: facebook.com/groups/523219157834495 to be a place for any picture to voice itself. So, two years have passed by, in a great company and with 4 SCP Issues, one BULB book and 3 essays with some personal thoughts on photography (download all for free at: issuu.com/michailfotografia).

INTRO

What best way to pay tribute to these photographers than to present you here some of the candidates of the last 2 years which have not been included in the biannual issues but they deserve fully all my admiration. I have preferred to go for a small size in order to better uncover the volumes and the spaces, the photograph's architecture. I mainly quote some general comments on what photography means to me, and to you dear friends who are faithfully keep sharing all your extraordinary photographic insight. From the moment we are on a social network, "looking for validation" becomes an understatement to any action of ours. Same goes for the pictures submitted in the group, same goes for the curators and the critics generously giving their input (and I thank them for this).

Having said that, the activity of photography is a self denudation process, and publishing our own pictures is the ultimate altruistic act of staying vulnerable in front of the others. Just for the sake of being present in the group, I consider the whole endeavour a highly expressive effort and I congratulate each one of you for the guts, the courage and the insight you bring to us.

INTRO

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

None of the above would have been possible without the talent and the enthusiasm of all the administrators, curators and collective's photographers: Thank you, Diana, Emerty, Iris, Adrian, Andreas, Corneliu, Dragos, Gabi, Ioannis, Martin, Octavian, Rafael, Thanos, Vassilis, Vali

N i c o l a e

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G u y

L e

G u i f f

F a i s a l

B i n

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S h u v o

W o j c i e c h

P o k w i c k i

M o d e l

r e l e a s e

S t e l a P a t r u l e s c u

H a r r i s

P a n a g i o t a k o p o u l o s

M o n i c a

F i n k e l s t e i n

U d a i

S i n g h

F a i s a l

B i n

R a h m a n

S h u v o

S a l v a t o r e

M a t a r a z z o

C h i l u n

L e u n g

L a u r a

A n d r u n a c h i

A n t o n

M a r i n e s c u

D o n

P a g u n s a n

G a b i

B e n

A v r a h a m

S a l v a t o r e

M a t a r a z z o

G a l i a

N a z a r y a n t s

O l i v e r

M e r c e

M i t h u n

K ü m ä r

R a n d y

A r i s g a d o

H a r i s

P a n a g i o t a k o p o u l o s

I f t e k h a r

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E a t h e r

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O k a d a

C o r n e l i u

S a r i o n

Why do we like a picture? Let's make some room: • Eliminate reason nr 1: Because it's

mine • Eliminate reason nr 2: Because it is

not only me, it gets loads of "Likes" • Eliminate reason nr 3: Because it

has been accepted in the "YetAnotherContest"

• Eliminate reason nr 4: Because my superego is superior to any other egocentric's

After this "catharsis" we can start raising legitimate doubts about anybody and anything since we ourselves are already clean. Do you want the extremist approach? Go back to the museums and check again Masters' work. But this time with the criticism of someone that has self-confidence in her/his visual literacy. Or just guts. When we look at a picture for a couple of seconds and we give a Like it is a primary reading of an also primary

visual message from the author. Well, a couple of seconds are simply not enough. A good picture will make us come back to it and stay more, look for more. "Another crowd, we live in cities, people are going somewhere, why is this a picture?" Why photographs with people going in different directions or in herds is art? We are in cities, of course there are many things happening here, the ubiquity of the human tsunami is obvious. And obvious is not ambiguous. Cannot be memorable! Try subtraction, absence. Street portraits? Don't even bother. We people are boring photographic subjects. Abstract? Now we are talking. As long as they are not the "lobby" kind.

QUOTES

A good timing is not enough to create a photograph with mojo.

Who imposed the aesthetics of street photography? Who said that unexpected juxtapositions, surprising combinations and humorous situations are memorable? But people need rules. To comfort them that if they like a picture it is for some (good) reason. Rules are dumb. There is no such a thing as a professional viewer. As there is no professional street photographer. I know I have privileged sometimes "body parts" photographs, great fails, obviously missed shots but that was only the beginning … and trendy (you have to give me that, half the population does "unusual" photography nowadays). Art photography is not wide-angle lens, B&W, high grain, lots of junk objects in the background and a mutilated body in the foreground (the mirrorless' shutter lag "accident" truncates people entering or leaving the scene due to their slow reaction).

It is an attitude, a state of mind, an urge to react, your urge! _______________________________ Regarding billboards, graffitis and the like, the artwork on the wall is often more powerful than the real figure. I have much sympathy for a trap we all are falling in. ______________________________ Too much of an empty sky, is probably an impressive event up North but not a feature to praise in photography. _______________________________ You don't need sepia to create nostalgia and melancholy (photographs are by nature charged with them since they "have been"). Nor you need soft focus to lead the viewer to the whole and not to the detail. Don't underestimate the visual instinct of the public.

QUOTES

D r a g o s - R a d u

D u m i t r e s c u

D i a n a

M a r i a

I u l i a

W e i n g o l d

A l b e r t e

P e r e i r a

A r t h

F i g u e r o a

J u m a g d a o

A n t o n i o O j e d a

I don't like having mistaken. Who does? But in judging a photograph the risk to be wrong is even higher. The bigger the ego the higher the risk. Are we pumping up our egos here? No we don't! Because when it comes to feelings created by photography everything is absolutely personal and as such, highly respectful, yet doubtful. Having said that, I would like to apologize to many of you who made it to LensCulture, SonyAwards, Miami Street Contest finals (judged by Magnum photographers), but some of their pictures submitted at SCP have been deconstructed. That is why I am starting to be as careful as possible in my comments. I will state that: "The present photograph has summer mood, a vintage feeling, human interaction, intriguing parts, and multiple readings", instead of my usual "an

ordinary beach scene, with some dialogues and unidentified intruding and confusing elements". _______________________________ When looking at a picture it is up to each one of us to say what crosses our mind. I tend to agree that visual perceptions are difficult to explain. At a certain moment we decide to go with the psychological interpretations of "gestalts" and "inkblots", or not. _______________________________ Forget anything over 50 mm for contemporary street! We participate we do not steal.

QUOTES

Sometimes we choose to go for almost a failure when we give up any compositional order, in front of the urgency of capturing a fascinating scene. Senses prevail over reason and we explore the insidious and perilous forces of chaos. We should not care all the time about the wrong white-balance settings, the absence of lead-in lines or of punctum, or the presence of "ugly" intrusive objects. We should not confuse, art history where rules and scientific approach are sine-qua-non, and the latent metaphysical freedom of art. Everything in art and in photography has to do with the artist's attitude, point of view ("le regard") and ethos (pathos is understated). _______________________________ We can find the absolute horror or the greatest of joys in any ordinary moment of our megacities, our

metropoleis. But I sadly have to declare that the most horrific feeling is the fact that we do not even pay attention to these ordinary moments. Sometimes, we cannot ask for more complexity in an scene without landing on a staged image. _______________________________ Sometimes the absence is so loud ... it becomes the main subject of a photograph. I am referring to the dinner scenes of Kertesz and of Niepce where we still "smell" the sudden? ... the definitive? ... the temporary? departure of the human subject. It is a very difficult mood to obtain ...

QUOTES

T h a n o s

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S p a g o u r o s

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P e t e r

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O l a h

L a s z l o - T i b o r

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J a y

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C o s t e a

O l a h

L a s z l o - T i b o r

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B a u t r a i t

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R a f a e l

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B j ö r n

L a r s s o n

M a r t i n

W a l t z

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M i h a i

F o d o r

C r i s t i n a - M i n a

D a l e a

R o d r i g o

M e l l e i r o

F a i s a l

B i n

R a h m a n

S h u v o

D r a g o s - R a d u

D u m i t r e s c u

C o r n e l i u

S a r i o n

A n t o n i o

O j e d a

B e r n d

Z u b e

A n t o n

M a r i n e s c u

O l a h

L a s z l o - T i b o r

A d r i a n

C a p u s a n

D a c i a n

D o r c a

G a l i a

N a z a r y a n t s

D a n a

C o r i n a

P o p e s c u

A n d r e s

C e s a r

C o r n e l i u

S a r i o n

A j i t

K o r e

R a v i

S h a r m a

I am adverse in shooting people in distress unless it is for a cause (charitable). I wonder if the protagonists (models) of loads of photos by "masters" have ever seen a dime from the direct or indirect gains made from these photographs. In addition and paraphrasing the "we live in a city, there is a lot of us, looking somewhere and doing something, so shoot something beyond those glances and actions". Get in a prison and it goes without saying that the inmates are vulnerable, tense, angry, dark …. ______________________________ I think that dodging large parts of the frame to make visible the main subject is just another "cheap cheat". My good friend Martin calls it capitulation and I very much agree with him. Guiding the viewer through

the meanders of a complex composition is a perilous but rewarding and highly intellectual exercise. Do not opt for shortcuts. _______________________________ The world is going to pieces and people like Adams and Weston are photographing rocks! Henri-Cartier Bresson (1963) - You don't need to be stoned to talk about stones. Me (2015). _______________________________ Even the "poor" Arnheim's first words are: "Art may seem to be in danger of being drowned by talk."

QUOTES

There are 2 extreme situations in life, art, work. The first one when everything is done correctly but the result is something we cannot really use because it is dull, ordinary, pale. The second one when everything is wrong but the result is full of mystery, attraction and fascination. In photography this is due to the fact that vision is not a mechanical process of perception but a creative mental capacity. It imagines and it invents. The registration and the recording of the partial elements of a whole it is not by any means decisive as to the underlying beauty and the provided pleasure of the ensemble. _______________________________ When we look at a picture and everything is clear, all is answered,

then something is wrong. Our frames should resist to analysis without unveiling their secrets. Keep the secrets in a vault and let only a stripe of light coming out of the safe room. OR (contradiction of the undersigned) Everything in an image has to be at its full revelation. The sadness, the pain, the emptiness … as it could be that of hope, of life overwhelming our tiny existence. This is what we have to strive to capture as photographers and we have to be mentally ready to achieve it. Photography is the result of an intense introspection and the quest for alleviation, liberation. If some think that there is place for technical or compositional gibberish, they are far away from the essence of art.

QUOTES

There are what I call "firework" images. They burn out quickly ... but there are some master fireworks at the end of the feast. And they erase all previous impressions. _______________________________ I have also seen square crops. How natural is a square (medium-like) format for street photography where the speed of shooting justifies truncated faces and bodies? Medium-format cameras suppose a careful framing and lots of time. I guess I will never convince these croppers that the square frame is a very powerful understatement of form and automatically the content needs to have an even greater impact. _______________________________ If we talk about frontal pose, family portraits, Brassai, Arbus ... Brassaï didn't want subjects off-guard because

their stiff posture made them seem like images of themselves. In Arbus' pictures the subjects are looking straight into the camera and they look even odder, almost deranged. Faces should illustrate ambiguous feelings like nostalgia. Which is not joy, it is not melancholy, it is not fear, it is not bitterness ... and it is all of them at the same time! _______________________________ When HCB went to Romania (Bucovina), came back with images that if we compare them with these of local photographers we can see his hesitation. A hesitation coupled with the impact of the unexpected, with the surprising, not only visual stimuli, but also the new smells (perfumes) and noises (melodies). We absolutely need to take a dive in a new society and culture if we want to make surface with memorable photographs.

QUOTES

B a c k C o v e r

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C A N D I D A T E S

S t r e e t C o r e p h o t o g r a p h y

2014-2015