Street Portraiture is NOT Street Photography

Whilst I was in Cape Town, I attended a conversation as part of the 2026 Cape Town Photography Festival on street photography. Broadly speaking, the topic was: ‘The street as a stage’. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to sit through this hour-long discussion between Quaniet Richard and Patrick de Mervelec. I’d already had a look at some of Quaniet’s work and I must say that what he was doing was light years away from my own work. I’m not talking about quality, but about philosophy… I’ll come back to that. As for Patrick, I didn’t know what to expect. He doesn’t really do street photography. Which explains why I hesitated before going along…

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Worth a thousand likes

Like every year, it takes me a while to get into the swing of the new year. Last Saturday was perhaps the day when I really got back into it. I only spent the late afternoon walking the streets of Saint-Denis, but it was enough to make me realise how much I missed pounding the pavement in my city. I had tried to get back into the swing of things in the previous weeks, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I tried to force myself to go out, but as is often the case in these situations, if your head isn’t in it, there’s no point.

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Used Fujifilm X100F to sell …

Do you think it’s a joke that I’m doing a Blog because I’m so uninspired? Not really. This week I put up for sale my X100F that I bought just 3 months ago. Quite an investment for me back in the day – €890 for a second-hand camera! I’m putting it back up for sale at €750, negotiable if you know anyone who might be interested. I’ve been trying for weeks, but I still can’t get used to the size and weight of the camera. As far as image quality is concerned, I have nothing to complain about  this Fujifilm. It’s a very good camera, but it’s heavy!

 

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Macron, you’re a disgrace to Ricoeur !

For those who don’t know, Paul Ricoeur is a French philosopher. Macron, the French president, says that it was Ricoeur who made him want to enter politics. Myth or reality? What is certain is that Macron was close to him when he wrote his last book “Memory, History and Oblivion”. I’m not going to say more than that because I don’t know him very well and when you know that I got 06/20 in philosophy at the baccalaureate, you won’t want to see me debating on the subject… This photo was taken during the last strike against the pension reform. That’s what’s interesting about such events. People use a lot of imagination for the occasion. I stopped and googled Macron and Ricoeur to get the message…

 

 

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Cover up that bosom …

Cover up that bosom, which I can’t endure to look on : – Par de pareils objets les âmes sont blessées, -Et cela fait venir de coupables pensées.

Molière

A quick rant against YouTube. Yesterday evening I posted a slideshow of my photos taken in January. This morning, I had the unpleasant surprise to receive an email from YouTube telling me that the thumbnail of my video was censored because it violated YouTube’s policy on nudity and sex … I’ll give you the text of the mail below.
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Go against the flow …

This Blog will soon be 5 years old. It also corresponds to my practice of Street Photography. It seems to me that Michael Ernest Sweet had written that it was after seven years that one mastered his subject. I’m not sure this is true … don’t think I have nothing more to learn by now, but I think a lifetime would not be enough for me to say that I have mastered what I do . When I think about it anyway, I’ve come a long way since I posted my first photos on the 500px platform. I remember like it was yesterday and I can tell it was crap. Hyper contrasted Black & White photos without any real interest. I’m not going to show you examples but you can take my word for it. (more…)

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John Harper revisited

When I first started this Blog in March 2016, I wanted to interview some photographers I really like. I wanted to know more about them, may be just to see that besides the fact that I loved their work, they were just ordinary people like me. I interviewed very interesting people and I kind of gave up on this exercice because I felt like that I was asking everytime the same questions. Lately I wanted to do something different by turning it into some kind of conversation with a friend. I needed my guinea pig and unfornunately for John Harper, he would be the first one. I called this Blog “John Harper revisited” because he already participated to this Blog a few years ago. Like revisiting one’s work, I found it interesting to interview people again a few years after.  (more…)

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Shooting with a Street Mindset

This photo at the opening of this Blog illustrates well what I will try to develop here. John Harper, a very good photographer and also friend spoke about it in his last Blog. I am adding again the photo after this introduction because it was taken in portrait format and WordPress does not like and systematically truncates the photo that is highlighted. Note there may be a way to get it all, but I’m not very familiar with WordPress …

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Paris : Far away, so close …

(English version at the bottom of the page)

Ça y est, je m’atèle enfin à la rédaction de mon Blog sur mon court séjour parisien. Les souvenirs sont encore là mais j’ai l’impression que ça fait une éternité ! Paris c’était il y a 1 mois, mais entre temps beaucoup de choses se sont passées. Bristol a beaucoup occupé mon esprit et j’ai d’ailleurs rédigé un bon paquet de Blogs sur mon séjour en UK. Il faut dire que j’avais passé une semaine à ne faire que de la Street Photography. La dernière fois que j’avais fait ça, c’était à Liverpool il y a 3 ans … (more…)

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