Eric Kim: 10 Lessons William Klein has taught me about Street Photography

William Klein

William Klein (born April 19, 1928) is a photographer and filmmaker noted for his ironic approach^[1][2] to both media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in the context of photojournalism and fashion photography.^[1] He was ranked 25th on Professional Photographer‘s Top 100 Most influential photographers.^[3]

Trained as a painter, Klein studied under Fernand Léger and found early success with exhibitions of his work. However, he soon moved on to photography and achieved widespread fame as a fashion photographer for Vogue and for his photo essays on various cities. Despite having no training as a photographer, Klein won the Prix Nadar in 1957 for New York, a book of photographs taken during a brief return to his hometown in 1954. Klein’s work was considered revolutionary for its “ambivalent and ironic approach to the world of fashion”,^[1] its “uncompromising rejection of the then prevailing rules of photography”^[1] and for his extensive use of wide-angle and telephoto lenses, natural lighting and motion blur.^[1] Klein tends to be cited in photography books along with Robert Frank as among the fathers of street photography, one of those mixed compliments that classifies a man who is hard to classify …..Wiki

Eric Kim on his blog has listed 10 things that William Klein can teach us about street photography

1. Get close and personal

2. Keep a ‘photographic diary’

3. Go against the grain

To see the rest and the reasons why getting close and personal matters go here

©William Klein

 

10 Inspirational Photo Books

I am a great believer that looking at the work of important photographers is one of the best way to expand your horizons, to understand what it is to be a photographer and to improve.

This article By Phil Hill over on Lighstalking makes the same point. We all have our favourites but I have a number of the books Phil recommends. It is easy to be amazed by beautiful decorative images of landscapes and flowers but these don’t often make us think beyond, “that is beautiful” and photography as a creative art has to offer more than just beauty. No Ansel Adams here

I really wanted to inspire some photographers out there with some truly great work – photography that made me pick up my first camera.

To do this I have turned to one of traditional forums for displaying photographs; the photo book. Nothing quite beats sitting quietly with a hot drink and flicking the pages of a book packed full of incredible images. There are a huge amount of fantastic books out there, an inexhaustible list in fact. I have compiled 10 of my personal favourites, books that have aided my own photographic journey.

The Americans – Robert Frank

They should hand this out with every new camera sale! A lesson in editing, Frank shot 28,000 images for the book with only 83 ending up in the published book, and every one of those is a brilliant look at 1950’s American life warts and all.

Last Resort – Martin Parr

Challenging the traditional view of documentary photography, Parr takes you through a surreal and very funny tour of English resort town New Brighton. Street photography at its absolute best.

Guide – William Eggleston

William Eggleston’s Guide was one of the first publication’s to feature colour photography. The book may almost be dismissed as a collection of snap shots, however the more you look and look, the more it makes sense. Fantastic book.

See the rest of Phil’s recommendations here

Off the top of my head I would add these and when I have more time I will add more

Workers by Sabastio Salgado

Europeans by Henri Cartier Bresson

Beauty’s Nothing by Nadav Kander

In Our Time: The World as Seen by Magnum Photographers

Tate doubles its photography collection after donation

In the BJP Olivier Laurent writes

“Tate has received a donation of 1400 photographs of London, including images shot by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank and Elliot Erwitt among many others, doubling the number of works that form its photography collection……

The collection spans the period from the 1880s to the 2000s and include images from more than 120 photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Elliot Erwitt, Robert Frank, Irving Penn, Ellen Auerbach, Eve Arnold, Ian Berry, Dorothy Bohm, Bill Brandt, Horacio Coppola, Martine Franck, Stephen Gill, Karen Knorr, Marketa Luskacova, Roger Mayne, Chris Steele Perkins, Marc Riboud, George Rodger and Chris Shaw.

Some of their images will form part of Tate’s upcoming Another London exhibition, which opens on 27 July 2012″.….MORE

It is the last point about an exhibition opening on 27th July that caught my eye. The home page of the Tate website doesn’t mention this exhibition and I had to search their site to find this info for you

Tate Britain will hold an exhibition of 180 classic twentieth-century photographs which take London as their key subject. In the years between 1930 and 1980, some of the best-known photographers from around the world came to London to make work about the city and its communities. This exhibition will bring together some of the biggest names in international photography, to explore the ways photographers, for whom London was a foreign city which they either visited briefly or settled in permanently, saw and represented the subject in their own unique and distinctive ways. Artists represented in the show include: Bill Brandt, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Elliot Erwitt, Robert Frank,  Marketa Luskacova, Dora Maar, Irving Penn and Willy Ronis.

Another London

Tate Britain: Exhibition

27 July – 16 September 2012

£10

Girl with kitten 1960 © Bruce Davidson / Magnum Photos.

So thanks again to the BJP for having it’s very sharp eye on all matters photographic

Read more: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2172088/tate-doubles-photography-collection-donation#ixzz1vaXXWEm3
Subscribe to BJP and save money. Click here to save 29% today.

Paul Graham wins 2012 Hasselblad award

Self-taught photographer becomes first British winner of international prize for recognition of major achievements, writes Sean O’Hagan in The Guardian.

“Paul Graham has been named as the winner of the 2012 Hasselblad award, which is presented annually to “a photographer recognised for major achievements”. It is the first time a British photographer has won the prestigious international prize. Previous recipients include Robert Adams (2009), Nan Goldin (2007) and William Eggleston (1998).

Graham, who had a major retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery in London last year, is a self-taught photographer. He was born in Buckinghamshire and discovered photography through the books of great American pioneers like Robert Frank, Walker Evans and Paul Strand. He has lived in New York since the early 1990s. Graham first garnered critical acclaim with his early documentary work, including A1 – The Great North Road (1983) , a series shot in colour along the British motorway, and Beyond Caring (1985), which was shot in unemployment offices. Back then, Graham was a pioneer of colour in Britain, his work influencing subsequent generations of young photographers.”………MORE

Pittsburgh, 2004 (Lawnmower Man)From the series ‘A Shimmer of Possibilities’. Copyright of the artist, courtesy of Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London.The Foundation’s citation regarding the decision to award the 2012 prize to Paul Graham is as follows:

“Paul Graham is one of the most brilliant photographers of his generation. During the course of his nearly 40-year career, he has presented an extremely focused body of work, at once perfectly coherent and never monotonous. In images both sensitive and subtly political, he makes tangible the insignificant traces of ″the spirit of the times″ we do not normally see. With his keen awareness of the photographic medium, he has constantly developed innovative forms of working with all aspects of photography. This makes him a profound force for renewal of the deep photographic tradition of engagement with the world.”

More of Graham’s pictures can be seen here

Photobooks – affordable collectibles that are soaring in value

Rare editions now sell for tens of thousands, but collectors on a limited budget can invest in emerging photographers byAdam Dewar at The Guardian

This is a very interesting article about owning and collecting photobooks. I do think books should be looked at rather than kept in plastic sleeves and never handled simply because they will increase to greater values if un-blemished but it is nice to know that treasured books will have some value in the future even if I never realise the profit.

“At first glance they may look like overpriced coffee-table books, but photobooks are highly collectible works of art. In recent years, a boom in the market has seen prices skyrocket. At a dedicated auction at Christie’s in London last year, signed early editions of influential photobooks such as Robert Frank‘s The Americans and Henri Cartier-Bresson‘s The Decisive Moment sold for £43,250 and £13,750 respectively.”.………..more