Streets Ahead – Thirty Seventh Edition – Mobile Street Photography
Welcome to the thirty seventh edition of “Streets Ahead,” a weekly column dedicated to women mobile street photographers. Each week we review and curate work that was submitted to our Flickr Group. In addition to creating a showcase video which features a sampling of submitted work, we also highlight a few images that caught our attention… offering some thoughtful commentary about technique, composition, and subject matter. If you are not a member of our Facebook group… we highly recommend that you join us! This is our space for sharing newsworthy information and conducting discussions (what, when, where, why and how) about Women Photographers/Artists and Street Photography, in general.
So, if you are a woman street photographer, please join our growing community… I’m sure that you will agree that we are a very enthusiastic and supportive group of women!!
Gina has done a superb job commenting on this weeks hand-picked images, it’s a real pleasure to read her thoughts and Cara has also once again put together an outstanding video showcase, that will leave you once again quite breathless – thank you both so much.
• Flickr Group (for weekly showcase submissions)
• Facebook Group (for information sharing/discussions)
Hope you enjoy this week’s showcase…
Untitled by Jennifer Bracewell
It is a quick, keen eye that can capture, so masterfully, the various things going on in this image and make it all adhere into a perfect composition. Cartier-Bresson was a master at it, as were many of the best street photographers of the 50s, 60s, and through today. The foreground woman, as she walks through the scene to the left, pulls the pyramidal compositional structure (which begins at her hat and follows down diagonally through to the cap of the background far right hand figure) driving the momentum and energy of the scene forward with her. This structural device unifies the otherwise unrelated figures – allowing for a mysterious and open-ended narrative. This image will stay with me for a long time. Brava Jennifer.
Untitled by Christine Mignon
Christine has created a quiet and mysterious scene where we feel we are secretly peeking into an intimate moment, as this woman pauses to check her mobile phone – its light illuminating her face. The full glass of wine to her right on the table suggests she has just settled down. Darkly lit, with only the lamp giving definition to the figure and objects that surround her, what kind of room is this? Bicycles hanging from the wall, furniture and fan oddly arranged? These elements further emphasize the mysterious quality of this scene we secretly have spied onto. Great capture Christine.
Triangulated by Donna Donato
Once again the formal elements drive the open-ended narrative in this classic type of capture. The firm diagonal of the composition bisects the view out the window onto the street beyond, only the shadow of the man transgressing into the bottom half. In-so-doing, the shadow assumes its own importance – seemingly independent of the moving figure from which it was born. Great eye Donna.
Under a sheltering Sky by Tess Gomm
This selection of showcase images somehow excelled in images that had haunting, mysterious, open-ended narratives. This photo was one of the most haunting and most intriguing of the showcase for me. It almost seems like a still from a film – but what is going on? Who is the protagonist? In what unfamiliar land are we? The point of view of the shot and the uncertain relationship of the figures only complicates and ads to the questions – I am left hanging on, wanting to know where we are and how the narrative resolves itself. Masterful Tess.
Mercadillo by Monte Abad
This is an excellent and successful portrait of a woman who you really do not want to owe money to. The tight, clear framing, and the focus on this tattooed beauty’s face offers a delightful image of strength, self-assured calm, and no-nonsense attitude this writer, for one, wishes she possessed. Great portrait Monte.
Streets Ahead Showcase
Cara Gallardo Weil and Gina Costa
Cara is a Graphic Designer and amateur photographer with a passion for mobile photography. Born in Hong Kong to Filipino parents who moved there in the early 60s to work in publishing, her early life was spent in Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines. She studied graphic design in London and spent more than 20 years here before returning to Hong Kong, where she currently resides. Cara brings to her street photography a wonderful international and cultural perspective. Currently living in Chicago, Gina Costa is a museum curator and lecturer on 20th century art and photography. She has worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; The Art Institute of Chicago and has taught art history at a variety of universities. Gina is currently working on a publication and exhibition that explores the current discourse on the use of mobile technology and how it has changed the way one defines what a photograph can be.
