(English version at the bottom of the page)
Ces derniers temps, je commençais à m’enfermer dans une routine un peu gênante. Silhouette, ombre & lumière… Attention ne vous méprenez pas ! J’adore ce genre de photos. C’est très efficace et le résultat est toujours plaisant. Malheureusement, moi je tourne un peu en rond. En gros, je ne m’amuse plus. J’ai besoin d’évoluer sous peine de perdre le plaisir de mes sorties Street Photo. Peut être que j’ai fait une overdose de photos de ce genre et que j’ai envie d’autre chose, du moins pour quelques temps.
J’ai ainsi décidé d’arrêter de rechercher systématiquement les silhouettes ou encore de jouer avec les ombres et la lumière. L’évolution est assez difficile. Les photos réalisées sont assez frustrantes car elles sont mal dégrossies. Je tâtonne encore beaucoup, mais même si c’est laborieux pour le moment, un vent nouveau souffle et j’ai l’impression d’être à mes débuts quand j’ai commencé la Street Photography l’année dernière. C’est excitant, mais il y a beaucoup de déchets.
Alors qu’est ce que j’essaye de faire exactement ? J’essaye de capturer des moments, des gestes, des attitudes. Ça m’oblige à être encore plus attentif dans la rue à ce qui se passe autour de moi. Au final c’est ce que je faisais quand j’ai commencé la Street en Avril de l’année dernière. Depuis mon passage à Liverpool, je me suis concentré pratiquement que sur la lumière. Bien sûr la lumière est importante, mais faire que du Light/Shadow me lasse. Ces derniers temps, j’ai été assez paresseux dans ma façon de photographier, ne me reposant que sur des endroits avec une belle lumière pour prendre mes photos.C’est le moment de changer !
Le Light/Shadow est très esthétique, très graphique. Ça me demande moins d’engagements. Une chose est certaine, j’ai besoin de faire des photos plus crues, moins jolies esthétiquement, mais des photos plus vivantes. J’ai besoin de faire des photos qui racontent une histoire ou du moins qui interpellent celui qui les regarde. Ne me méprenez pas, je ne dis pas que Light/Shadow est facile et sans intérêt ! Mais personnellement, je me suis retrouvé pris au piège à faire la même chose encore et encore.
~o ~
In praise of changing.
In recent times, I began to shut myself up in a somewhat embarrassing routine. Silhouette, light & shadow … OK don’t get me wrong! I love this kind of pictures. It is very effective and the result is always pleasant. Unfortunately, I turn a little in circles. Basically, I do not have fun anymore. I need to evolve under penalty of losing the pleasure of my Street Photo sessions. Maybe I made an overdose of photos of this kind and I want something else, at least for a while.
So I decided to stop looking systematically for the silhouettes or to play with the light & shadow. The evolution is quite difficult. The photos taken are quite frustrating because they are just sketches. I’m still fumbling a lot, but even if it’s laborious for the moment, a new wind blows and I feel like I was just starting out when I started Street Photography last year. It’s exciting, but there’s a lot of waste.
So what am I trying to do exactly? I try to capture moments, gestures, attitudes. It forces me to be even more attentive in the street to what is going on around me. In the end this is what I was doing when I started the Street in April of last year. Since my visit to Liverpool, I have concentrated practically only on light. Of course the light is important, but doing that Light/Shadow stuff tired me. Lately I’ve been so lazy, just looking for a nice spots with good light to get some pictures. I relied way too much on light. Time for changes !
The Light/Shadow stuff is very aesthetic, very graphic. Speaking for me, it requires less commitment. One thing is certain, I need to make raw photos, less beautiful aesthetically, but more lively photos. I need to make pictures that tell a story or at least that appeal to the one who looks at them. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying that Light/Shadow sucks ! But personally I found myself trapped in doing the same thing again and again.
Toujours et encore plus près des gens du coup, et de face de préférence! Les expressions sont fameuses !
Ça fait du bien de délaisser un peu le light /shadow pour autre chose ! Une prochaine étape sera de faire de la street photo sans personne dedans 😄
Two different styles Jeff. The graphical, high contrast, silhouette, arty stuff or what I’d call “traditional” photography, whereby there’s a narrative, a story told, an expression or gesture captured. Both have their place, both use light and shadow, but for me the “traditional” holds much more interest. I want to see faces or gestures , they enable the viewer to decipher what’s happening at that precise moment. Infinitely harder to execute and a way of photographing that never gets boring.
In my way of doing light & shadow, I can easily demonstrate how easy it was to capture mundane scenery and transform them into something really special. I got some few shots that really stand out. But for most of the photos, the light & shadow was just an easy stuff that adds nothing and was rather boring. I speak for my way of doing it. That’s why I got bored. It’s more challenging to try to get gestures in the street. I try to focus more on details in the street and I like it. Well for sure I’ll be back with light & shadow but my eyes need to go look for something else at the time!
I am there too Jeff! I feel I have to invent myself, every time the sun is gone. I live in Denmark, and I always thought that it would be a gift to live in places like Southern France, Israel, Spain, Italy etc. The light is great there. Either hard and harsh or soft and warm. Where I live, we have this flat grey boring light, 80 percent of the time… So I always look for sun and shadow. But it is not there, and I have to do what you do. Try to make interesting street photos where there is no light and shadow. I struggle… And often think I should stop photographing…. In the end, its all about the light.
I hope you find what you seek. With your talent, I am pretty sure you will! 🙂
Kind regards
Jan Jespersen
Hey Jan ! I think I have the same problem. I’m a spoiled child. I live in a place blessed with a beautiful light and I got stuck in doing (again and again) the same light/shadow stuff. I got so lazy that I relied only on good light. But the thing is that a lot of things happen in the shade of the narrow streets of my town. That’s why I decided to stop (for a while) only looking for light & shadows. There’s a difference between capturing a nice scenery with nice shadow & light and just spoting a nice ray of light capturing people passing by here. I’m guilty of this. Of course photography is about light (the good one, the flat one and even the bad one), but not only light. We have the composition, the soul, the gestures… It’s just one element of the photography. I kind of think that its’ harder to make a good photograph with poor or flat light. But I like it. it forces me to look differently the street and to be more attentive to what’s happening . In a way, I’m more connected !
Btw, I didn’t know you had a website ! I just subscribed ! 😉
Cheers mate