I was invited to the Jubilee Celerbrations at St Marys Community Centre in Leyland.
All images shot with the Fuji Film X100F using Classic Chrome
colour photography
Barcelona Airport - Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport
A few shots with the Fujifilm X100F in Barcelona Airport whilst waiting for the flight back home to Manchester.
It has been a while.
Over these past few months, I have put my photography on the back burner.
This was not really through choice but more of a need as I navigated my way through a very stressful house move.
I did manage to get out with the camera but my mind and enthusiasm were not there and this was having an even more negative effect on my photography. So I decided to step back and wait till I was fully settled in my house.
Over time I could sense that I was losing interest in photography and I must admit I thought of packing it in. Thankfully that never happened.
What have I learnt from this hiatus from photography?
I do feel more invigorated and in some ways, this little break has given me time to press the restart button. But It has also shown me that I can spend too much time chasing the perfect shot and not enough time enjoying the process of photography.
I can sense a shift in my photography and I feel I’m on the cusp of a change.
My latest work “Wanderings” is something that I’m excited about as it is different from my street work and at this moment in time this is what I want to do. And who knows there may be a book to follow.
At the end of the day, it is about doing things that make you happy because we only have today as tomorrow is not here.
Keep the Faith
KV
Perfect Strangers.
It's a strange time for the creative, especially the street photographer who thrives off the busy streets. The lunchtime rush is no longer there, and the race to get home has all but disappeared.
We have a city in slow motion, and it can be difficult to find that creative thread.
For me, photo books are a great source of inspiration, and my latest addition is.
Melissa O'Shaughnessy – Perfect Strangers.
This book has been like a breath of fresh air, especially in these uncertain times.
Melissa is our modern-day Helen Levitt, as both are beautiful humanists. I know that is high praise, but I would like to think if Levitt were alive today, she would be taking these kinds of images.
The framing of the subjects on a moving street is a testament to the hard work and dedication needed to produce good quality work on the street. And I, for one, admire that dedication.
Look closely enough, and you start to feel the sensation of the hustle and bustle of the city street.
We are there in the crowds, being pushed along and seeing what she is seeing. We witness kindness and, at times, tenderness, but there is also this movement that only adds to the narrative.
With each turn of the page, you can feel the rhythm of New York.
I have never had the privilege of watching Melissa work the street. I imagine she is so stealth-like that the subject only sees her for a fleeting second, and then she is gone looking for the next stranger.
Joel Meyerowitz wrote that this book would become a historical document in 20 -30 years. These images show us what the world looked like before Covid.
If you are looking for inspiration, I suggest adding this to your collection.
Thank you, Melissa, for giving us your Perfect Strangers.
Keep the Faith.
KV
Goodbye 2020
Goodbye, 2020.
Here are my photographic highlights from the past 12 months.
Keep the Faith people as nothing lasts forever.
Like for Progress
Like for Progress.
We can get bogged down with the constant barrage of images that we see online.
Instagram is a prime candidate for this. The more we look, the more we can become caught in the snowstorm of images.
We can look at the number of likes and see this as a success factor that has a knock-on effect on our progress. Our progress should not be graded on the number of likes we receive because that will always negatively affect us.
It was a conversation with a fellow photographer and a good friend who got me thinking about how we look at progress.
He was telling me about an image that he had taken and the thinking behind it. He explained the process and the way the composition came together. And to be fair, it is a decent enough image. The colour is spot on, the depth of the image is good, the technical aspects are all correct.
All in all, this is a successful image and one that he should and was proud of, but he based the success of that image on the number of likes he received. Reread it. He based the image's success not on the technical aspects of the fact that he had taken a decent photograph but also on the wider audience's engagement.
Social media is a game, and we are all being played off each other. Thankfully, I stepped out from that arena a long time ago.
Keep the Faith
KV
Northen Quarter , Manchester FujiFilm X100F
Woodland Walks.
A few images from my recent walks around the local country parks.
All images were taken with my FujiFilm X100F using the Classic Chrome film simulation.
Print your Work.
It amazes me how many photographers do not print their work.
We spend hours perfecting our images for it to be uploaded on social media to be viewed for 5 seconds on a little screen!! The connection between us and the image is still not complete as we only see the digital copy. It is like downloading music. Yes, you have it, but you do not own it unless you are holding the CD or Vinyl in your hand.
Once we print our work, it then becomes a physical thing which in turn becomes more personal. We are then connected to our own work.
Now, I am not talking about printing huge gallery prints in gold frames, but small A4 prints or 6x4 ones; it does not really matter; at least we have that image in our hands.
This is a documentation of YOUR work which will be around a lot longer than storing them on a phone or a laptop. Basically, we are hiding them away in our little flies or uploading them into this imaginary cloud, and who knows what will happen to all that in the future.
We take the image, then edit the image we then present it to our audience, and the final stage of that image should be the printing of your work.
An online portfolio is good, but a portfolio than you can actually hold and see is priceless.
Keep the Faith
KV
Some of my recent prints.