Mobile Photography – StreetWise Autumn Showcase 2017

“Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality is”  Ansel Adams

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for submitting your images to StreetWise Flickr group. Lee and I continue to be amazed at all the wonderful photographs submitted to StreetWise. We are proud to curate so many incredible artists from around the world, this is truly an international and diverse group, and it is our honor to share the showcases with you.

As we have often found, Lee and I were challenged to choose such few images for the Autumn showcase from all those that were submitted and we want you to know that we appreciate each and every post! Also, we were thrilled to have a number of new folks come aboard and post in StreetWise and we send them a very hearty welcome! Lee and I love to see our community growing and evolving and indeed it shows in this very strong Autumn showcase.

There are some other new things going on at Streetwise! We are excited to announce our showcases will coincide with the seasonal changes. This creates a fun and interesting evolution as life moves with mother earth and gives us a chance to choose from a wider array of photography. We hope you enjoy this new Autumn Showcase and look forward to curating a Winter one soon. So please keep posting! Going forward, Lee and I will announce one week before we begin choosing images for the showcases, this way our members who have not been posting all along can pop up some of their street shots to be considered.

As a reminder, we choose images for the showcase that are in keeping with our group’s intention and guidelines focusing on key aspects of street photography composition, timing, juxtaposition, catching the decisive moment rather than relying on too much apping or images that are more art oriented or painterly.

If you are a street photographer, please consider joining our growing community. To those new to our community, welcome! It’s great to have you join us!

Please continue to post your images to StreetWise Flickr group for showcase submissions:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/2750883@N25/pool/

Please note that StreetWise Facebook page is NOT for posting photographs but for sharing information/discussions, thank you!

A special thank you to Joanne.

We hope you feel inspired by this showcase and our wonderful group. Until next time, happy shooting everyone!

Many congratulations to the following artists for being featured in our showcase including: Donna Donato, Albion Harrison-Nash, Laurence Bouchard, Paula Betlem, Myna, Nick Kenrick, Isabelle Wolter, Marc Zetterblom, Dina Alfasi, Julia Nathanson, Valeria Cammereri, Rob Pearson-Wright, Gergely Hando, Luison, Melissa David, Karen Axelrad, Mark Fearnley, Paul Yan, Isabel Alfonso, Paul Yan, Kate Zari Roberts, Ale Di Gangi, Louise Whiting, Basak, Aytek, Ocean Morisset, Michael Beresin, JH McB-Smartphoneography, Joahanna Salenfalk, Ger van den Elzen, Himanshu Roy, Robin Sacknoff, Jormain Cady, Ricardas Jarmalavcius, Maurizio Zanetti, Raheel Sufi, Will Abela, Rosa Perry, Jorge Daniel Segura, Dixon Hamby.

Music this time is ‘Kyma Kai Vrahos’ by Stelios Petrakis

 

‘Break Time’ – ©Luison

Luison’s Break Time replete with muted tones, pops of color and pattern is a truly beautifully composed image. The varying grays lends this photo a dual classic and futuristic feel. One can almost imagine the mad dash of a Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard chasing after a Replicant, interrupting the quiet repose of the subject on break in the small alleyways behind shops. Or, of generations having gone by in successive toil there.

The main subject is off center, in a corner, while the lines of the corridor leads the eye both towards and away from him, which lets the viewer take everything in from the foreground to the background in a beautiful, seamless sweep. Despite the subject, who is dressed in work gear down to his boots, being situated to the side, multiple details within the frame lead to him, keeping him the focus of the shot — the blue and white stripes, the vertical lines of the “building,” even a subtle line on the concrete floor. He is situated at the forefront of the horizon line once again created by the house-like structure, framed perfectly within a square opening which provides a glimpse of the commerce going on inside giving the viewer a sense of time and place. There’s a wonderful play on shapes, vertical lines, the lines created by an architectural horizon. And textures, too. From old, corroded metal juxtaposed to metal glistening in light to leaflets plastered haphazardly about and the painted metal on the textured, concrete floor. Altogether, we are offered a wonderful glimpse into a life behind-the-scenes, a witness standing just beyond the frame of a quiet moment, well earned.

A beautiful capture, Luison! Bravo!

 

‘Red Umbrella’ ©Laurence Bouchard

Laurence’s Red Umbrella offers the viewer an almost surreal scene, one like Luison’s image once again caught between a timeless world of past or future. It is a great example of Street and Fine Art Photography combined to create a delightfully arresting image.

At first, we are captivated by the red umbrella, its bright color in the center and the woman in black carrying it is, no question, the main subject. Then we start to take in the details. The dark spines of the umbrella leading down to the mystery woman herself, her dress and the design of her shoes, the swing of her arm leading our eye back up to the umbrella. A perfect sweep.

That’s when the other details emerge. And there are many; the point of the umbrella lit to a simple golden dot, the similarly coloured design that seems to dance around the edging. That this stylish enigma is walking into the “sun” and away from the debris, (on the floor), creates a lovely tension in the scene that strikes up the imagination. The symbolic idea of moving away from something dark toward the light is palpable as the woman steps into a break in the clutter that is immersed in a bright burst. And now everything is behind her, the only tie being that of her shadow, two lines traversing the floor into the distance. Perhaps, like the ties that bind but are not strong enough to keep from moving forward. The possibilities are endless.

Such a lovely, whimsical shot, Laurence! Well done!

 

Untitled – ©Louise Whiting

At first viewing, Louise’s beautiful photo full of movement has a timeless quality about it that invites the question – ‘What is it about this captivating photo that gives it that appearance of timelessness?’ Initially, we could say it is the classic horizontal format in black and white – the pillar so elegantly juxtaposed with the woman’s dark form. On closer viewing, one notices the woman’s attire – her low heels, her off angled mid length skirt and her slouchy cardigan – all give the photo a feeling of another era. The old and worn building in the background as well as the glass cobbled street also contribute to the feeling of another time. Contributing to the timeless quality is the beautifully captured and composed moment – the woman’s stride, the pigeon that almost seems to be following her. The sign ‘warning / guard dogs’ adds to the intrigue of the photo – we may ask, who is this woman and why is she walking in this particular area, where it does not appear to be safe as evident by the warning on the sign.

Beautiful storytelling – wonderful, Louise!

 

Untitled – ©Basak Aytek

Basak’s photo is another great example of storytelling in street photography. It is wonderfully framed by the window and we may assume it is the window of a public transit vehicle. There is a lovely depth to the photo – the boy in the foreground, the mid-ground window and its reflection and then the more distant figure behind that.

The boy’s figure fits into the corner of the image perfectly and the direction of his gaze takes our gaze downward to the adult figure to the right of the frame.

It is here we see the beautiful juxtaposition – a boy full of hope, life ahead of him clearly seen through the glass and the man’s faraway and somewhat sad looking expression that is obscured behind glass. The reflected stripes and no smoking sign with the diagonal line across it also give the man a look of being distant, or almost imprisoned in his internal world and the viewer at once has this gripping, poignant sense of the cycles of life.

Well seen, Basak – superb!

 

StreetWise Showcase

 

While you’re here…

….we have a small favour to ask. More people than ever are reading TheAppWhisperer.com and we could not be more excited about that. We bring you ad-free journalism every day, so you don’t have to close windows and be distracted with advertisements. We specialise in mobile photography and mobile art and we value all of our readers, writers, contributors and viewers but we do have costs and we do need to ask for your help. We at TheAppWhisperer spend many hours each day, each week and each month to bring you this high quality level of journalism. We do it because we are passionate about it and because we want others to be as passionate too.

If everyone who reads our website, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be so much more secure. Please help us by offering a contribution or supporting us with a monthly donation of your choosing.

[seamless-donations]