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Mobile Photography – StreetWise Showcase – October 2016

For me, photography has become a way of attempting to make sense of the strange world that I see around me. I don’t ever expect to achieve that understanding, but the fact that I am trying comforts me.”  Mikhael Subotzky

Thank you all so much for participating and inspiring us with your incredible photos. As always, it was difficult for us to choose such few images for the showcase from all those that were submitted – such stunning images in both color and black and white.

Welcome, also, to those newer to our street photography community – it is great to have you join us!

As a reminder, we choose images for the showcase that are in keeping with our group’s intention and guidelines  “We believe that it is important to focus on the key aspects of street photography  composition, timing, juxtaposition, catching the decisive moment  rather than relying on too much aping. We therefore feel that aping should be kept to a minimum  cropping, tweaking exposure, colour, adding a grain or texture is ok but we would like to see you steer away from overly app’ed images that are more art-oriented or painterly.”

We hope you will enjoy this inspiring showcase as much as Ilana and I enjoyed putting it together!

A special thank you to Joanne.

If you are a mobile street photographer, please consider joining our growing community.

Flickr Group (for weekly showcase submissions) https://www.flickr.com/groups/2750883@N25/pool/

Facebook Group (for information sharing/discussions) StreetWise – Mobile Street Photography – an TheAppWhisperer.com Group

Many congratulations to the following artists for being featured in this showcase including: Tim Bingham, Andrew White, Gergley Hando, Julia Nathanson, Vondav, Paula Betlem, Luison, Donna Donato, Joshua Sariana, Cindy Buske, Liz Traynor, Mohiedeen Alpotti, Magda DJM, Susan Rennie, Nick Kenrick, Laurence Bouchard, Rene Valencia, rorofot, Louise Whiting, Ocean Morisset, JH McBandy, Albion Harrison-Nash, Melissa David, Christophe Gremaud

[Please visit our Artist Directory and find out how we can add you too!]

Andrew has captured an everyday street scene that pops with color, this and the strong radial composition of his photo immediately draws the viewer in. It feels as though we are walking alongside the photographer and behind the woman in her brightly coloured yellow dress and shoes, topped off so nicely with a vibrant orange hat. The bold yellow truck parked at the curb helps to balance the composition beautifully. The person walking towards us carrying some sort of cylinder, (directly in the middle of the radial composition and photograph), also adds to the overall balance of the composition. It acts like bridge leading our eye back and forth between the truck and the main subject.

There is such a charm to this image with the woman in her bright summer attire caught mid stride moving into the distance along with the red, white and blue line of flag-fans that lend it a classic Americana feel.

Well seen and captured, Andrew!

 

Untitled – Tim Bingham

There is something very captivating about a photo that depicts a character reading a newspaper, as it seems so many people on the streets these days are glued to some sort of mobile device. The newspaper also gives the photo a feeling of time and place as we can see that this is a ‘British Times’ publication. The man himself appears in classical form — dapper, if a little threadbare, in his gray jacket and hat.

The reflection of the man’s hands holding the paper and almost the end of a cigarette is simultaneously timeless and well seen. The other reflection of the grey-toned building in the window over the man’s right shoulder beautifully balances the grey shades of the man’s jacket and hat. The bright blue of his shirt pops with a splash of color and also draws the viewer into the photo.

Fabulous, Tim!

 

Untitled – Christophe Gremaud

Christophe’s photograph is a wonderful marriage between street and fine art photography with graphic attributes, too. Instantly, the viewer is placed within a city scene, but there’s a surreal quality created by dramatic light and shadows that allows one to feel it might be a dream.

At first, the viewer’s attention is captured by the lone figure upon the street because of the brilliant way the frame is cut into large shadowed shapes and light ones. She appears real enough walking on one of the three lit up spaces  an almost triangular swath of concrete that sweeps across the photograph. But, just above and below the woman are dark, dramatic shadows contributing to this image’s graphic feel.

The one on top is vertical and so dense its rectangular form propels the eye to the lighter section in the background. To a surreal structure that appears to be constructed merely of a grid of dark squares and rectangles outlined in light. From this illuminated fragment, one’s eye moves back the middle ground and to the subject once again.

Her surroundings, from the wall she is walking in front is patterned, (which Christophe cleverly places his subject in the center of), to the wonderful shadows of metal bars that seem to jump up in arcs upon the wall. This wave design moves along with the subject and adds yet more dimension to this masterfully composed photograph. Nicely done, Christophe!

 

‘Trust’ – Melissa David

Melissa’s photograph is an exquisite example of street photography, what makes this such a great image is the fabulous energy and excitement of the environment — the movement of the two figures and the sheer liveliness of the urban scene. Life is abounding in this spontaneous shot.

This photo quickly captures our attention because of the general activity and bustle of the scene. One immediately gets the feeling of action; there’s action on the wall with all the graffiti, (some of it spelling out trust, loyalty), that moves across the entire frame. The background itself, along with the graffiti, has so much going on; there appears an old structure with windows, and weathered plaster, and varying layers of paint.

A more modern fence sits in front, as well as, bike and motorcycle stands. There’s action on the pattern of the cobbled street which points directly to the viewer, (drawing us into the frame) so we get the feeling of ‘being there’. There’s action even in the parked motorcycle as it seems to be leaning toward the subjects, its shadow even more so. And, lastly there’s action in the subjects themselves as they make their way, their own shadows following behind.

 

Melissa has timed her photograph perfectly. She captures the two men walking almost at the center of the frame, but not quite. This accords them priority in terms of everything that’s going on, and positioning them this way emphasises their movement through the frame.

The wonderful mix of old, (in the building and street), and the new, (the fence and motorcycle), give us a sense of past and present, a timelessness and chance encounter transformed by Melissa’s keen eye into a beautiful image. Well done, Melissa!

 

StreetWise Showcase

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Ilana Buch-Akoundi is an Interior Designer with a background in fine arts, and a passion for mobile photography. Influenced by classical art and literature, she views mobile photography as not simply capturing moments as they happen, but as a marriage of dreams and visions from inner life and reality. Street photography, as a composite emerging from the speed of life, and what’s resonating within. Born in New York City where she still resides with her husband and two children, Buch-Akoundi recently founded hipstaNYC dedicated to Hipstamatic images of New York City, where people from all over the world can showcase their photographs of NYC. She has had photographs featured in mobile photography websites and web-magazines as well as international shows. Lee Atwell has been passionate about the art, science and magic of photography since the time she was a child – at which time her father had converted a small bathroom into a darkroom. For the past few years, she been captivated by the versatility, convenience, and creative potential of mobile photography. In street photography, she enjoys the challenge of capturing the unexpected and also the necessity of being present moment to moment with the surrounding environment – whether it is the continual shifting of light and shadows or the instantaneous and fleeting expressions and postures of people on the street. She has received several international photography awards and has had photographs featured in publication, mobile photography websites and web-magazines. She has also had photos exhibited in several cities – in the USA, Canada, Italy, France, Hungary, Belgium and Portugal. Atwell also teaches yoga and owns a yoga studio in Seattle with her husband.

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