Matt Stuart Photography

Matt Stuart is one of those annoyingly gifted photographers who achieves remarkable results with nothing more than a Leica Rangefinder camera, patience and a keen eye for an excellent shot. His work, viewable at http://www.mattstuart.com/, is "street photography" at its finest.

According to his own preamble, Matt Stuart does not use contrived or posed shots, but uses a mixture of spontaneity and patience. Most of his shots are taken around my home city of London, especially focussed on its many varied people. I especially enjoyed the division of his work into colour and black & white.

David Pattinson

Posting under the Flickr username "travelight", I have recently discovered the photography of David Pattinson. I can't tell if Pattinson is a pro or not - he doesn't seem to have his own website, and all his images seem to be posted straight to Flickr. What is not in doubt is that Pattinson is a hugely talented photographer.

Pattinson uses a Leica M8 - a stunning camera that is far out of my price range, especially with a wedding to pay for - but camera does not maketh photo. It does, however, allow him to "travel light" and no doubt keep his camera on him in situations where I'd have to leave mine at home.

Have a look at his range of noir photography, portraits and amazing control of light.

J F Rauzier - Hyper Photo

Jean-Francois Rauzier is a multi-award winning French photographer whose invention of "hyperphotography" is truly amazing.

http://www.rauzier-hyperphoto.com/?lang=en/

Rauzier achieves his particularly unique style by shooting hundreds or thousands of photographs of a particular scene, then painstakingly cutting out and rearranging elements into pictures full of almost infinite detail and complexity in a fantasy surreal setting. His images have to be seen to be fully appreciated - be sure to check out the full screen option in order to get the best out of his images. It is amazing just how far it is possible to zoom in and explore in such amazingly sharp detail. I particularly recommend "Voyages Extraordinaires".

It is curious to consider if Rauzier is more of a "digital artist" than a pure "photographer", as Rauzier's technique does not extend to the printed page very well - unless it were onto a truly huge photographic canvas. That being said, every single element in his pictures is taken from a genuine photograph; is Rauzier a "missing link"? I think so. It is an amazing body of work, and Rauzier deserves a place at the forefront of modern French photography.

James Stone Photography

James Stone, a contact from Talk Photography, has just been awarded his Associateship of the British Institute of Professional Photography - a distinguished achievement indeed. I had never visited his website before - at http://www.jamesstonephotography.co.uk/ - but having done so, I can honestly say that he is one of the most refreshing documentary photographers I have seen in a long time.

I particularly admire the clarity and boldness of his images, and his use of colour - even in gritty "urban" shots. One to watch, I feel.

Lewis Hine

The Mill - Lewis Hine

Lewis Hine is another of my favourite American photographers. Hine's early work, around 1905, was concerned with working conditions in the steel industry. As he travelled, he became more interested in child labour, from around 1908 - 1912 - so much so that he left his job as a teacher in order to become an investigative journalist for the National Child Labor Committee.

Hine is now regarded as a master photographer, and rightly so. His images of children, often in terrible working environments, are still powerful today. Occasionally, we see images of sweatshop factories in Asia - but I still haven't seen anything as powerful as those shot by Hine. Some of his images are, admittedly, posed - probably including the example above - but it makes a powerful statement. The girl in this image is only 11 years old, and claimed that she had already been working in the mill for a year. This was unusual - most children told Hine that they were 14 (the legal working age of the time), or that they were just "helping out" casually. It seems remarkable that Hine was able to gain access to all the factories and mills as he did.

Hine died in poverty in 1940, with only one book published in his lifetime, documenting the construction of the Empire State Building. Nevertheless, it is his early images that he is best remembered for. Hine was never regarded much as a photographer within his lifetime - just as a sociologist and campaigner. Today, his images are powerful statements - masterful documentary images in every sense. His legacy was the abandonment of child labour in America. For this reason, Hine deserves his place among the great photographers.

For more of Hine's images, see the online collection held by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where around 5000 of his images of child poverty can be seen.

Joel Sternfeld - McLean, Virginia

McLean, Virginia - Joel Sternfeld

I found this image in a book of modern American photography. Taken in 1975, it shows firefighters attending a blazing house in the background, while another fireman selects a couple of pumpkins from a nearby farm shop. The blaze in the background looks pretty serious, yet the relaxed fireman looks anything but - it is an amusing contrast. I find that the colour guides my eye throughout the image - almost everything is orange, from the pumpkins to the ground, the fireman, the signs and the fire itself.

It reminds me of my own experience of standing on the scene of a major fire in Camden, London, a few years ago. Granted, there isn't a great deal for the police to do while a fire is raging, but the overwhelming impression I got from the fire brigade was one of relaxed professionalism. A blazing building isn't special to them. I've driven with all sirens blaring to the scene of a massive gang-fight involving knives, bottles, metal bars, etc, while debating with the driver whether roast beef is preferable to chicken. It's just what we do. For me, this image sums that up perfectly.

The original is currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The End of Section 44

As a serving police officer, I am duty bound to abstain from politics in public. This blog is about photography - and occasionally my job - but some things I can't help but offer a little comment on.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act drew a great deal of criticism - much of it perfectly justified - because it was disproportionately used to target photographers in public. There have been numerous horror stories of security guards, PCSOs and Police Officers all getting things horribly wrong - deleting photos, confiscating cameras, moving people on - all over the country.

I argued a while back that we needed to refine our use of s44 - now its use has been suspended altogether. Partly, this is due to an ECHR ruling stating that it is against a person's human rights to be stopped & searched when no real grounds exist for doing so. Personally, I think it is a great deal more to do with the active campaign of http://photographernotaterrorist.org/

s44 was never intended to become a tool for harassing photographers, but that's ultimately what it became associated with, and now we've paid the price. I don't mourn its passing. However, the next - and much harder - battle will be in convincing average Joe Public that not every photographer is a paedophile.

Can we expect to see "Photographer Not A Paedophile" T-Shirts cropping up in the near future?

Annie Leibowitz Crunched

I read this in last night's Evening Standard. Annie Leibowitz, the world's highest-paid photographer, is in an immense amount of financial trouble.

I'm no student of Leibowitz, but I do think some of her work is fantastic. She has taken some of the most iconic celebrity photographs of the last 30 years, and will always be remembered among the photography community for that. Now, though, with her debts being completely unmanageable (which seems to be the result of over-indulging and overspending on luxury properties), she stands to lose the rights to her entire photography collection.

That would surely be devastating news for any photographer - to watch creative control of their entire life's work pass into the hands of lawyers.