inspirations: vivian maier

How does one adequately encompass the story of Vivan Maier's photography and discovery thereof? A prodigious street photographer, Maier took something close to 100,000 images over the course of her life, documenting the streets of Chicago. In many ways Maier was the consummate street photographer, fearless, direct and broad in her subject matter. She documented life on the fringes of society, yet turned her attention equally to rich and glamorous as well, capturing humanity in all its aspects.

Her observational eye was keen, capturing expression and moment with an acuity many professionals struggle to attain even now. Her straightforwardness, her ability to maintain eye contact with her subjects lend an honesty and directness to her images that is both expressive and startling.

For me Maier captures all the key virtues of a street photographer, her approach and obsessive documenting of the world around her allowing no room for anything but the image.

Her images can be found here.

inspirations: steve mccurry

Steve McCurry has long been a subject of debate amongst photographic friends. His style, so distinctive and powerful, the breadth and weight of his colour photography, the sheer quantity of moments he has captured - all to be pondered and wondered upon.

McCurry has sense of place, his photographs defining and emoting an empathic response, whatever the scene. The huddled figures of Indian women in a sand storm, festival revellers daubed in colour, the serene moment of dawn arising over the desert; each photograph imbued with the human touch, capturing and detailing commonplace events so rare to the western eye.

McCurry inhabits the everyday moment, the simple and mundane made extraordinary through his art, through the juxtaposition between the recognisable and the exotic. Colour and texture are thick and heavy within his photographs, a richness that invites an inflection of story beyond the borders of the image.

To flick through a McCurry book is to be captured by a very real other-worldiness. The extent of his library of work is stunning in its content, breadth and influence. I have long loved his photography, his books adorn my bookshelves and his website is a place to dwell when a moment allows.

Steve McCurry's website can be found here and his books here.

whimsy

Tonight I watched La La Land, and I loved it. I loved the cinematography. I loved the choreography, the design, the sheer timelessness of it. Most of all I loved the sheer, unabashed whimsy of it.

It is a film about hope, love and dreams. And is beautifully filmed, beautifully made and Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling make it so much more than the sum of its parts.

Is there a point to this post, other than the my love of this film? Yes, I think so. No matter the theme, the style and subject, I believe there always needs to be a certain whimsy to our art, a breathless, brave and carefree honesty that should shine a light onto the story being told, whether in words, paint or photograph. A photograph is not just about the technique, the exquisite perfect representation of defined rules and distilled wisdom. A photograph should be a poem of light, resonating, evoking emotion and connection, implying a depth beyond the borders of the image, beyond the light and shadow, beyond the subject matter into the very stories that lie unearthed within us.

The very best photographs do that. They arrest us, hold us captive whilst they unfold all the complicated recognitions, stories and emotions. Being caught in the moment is not about the photograph, but about the viewer of the photograph.

Stories lie in whimsy, in the fanciful and the playful. And photographers should always try to tell a story, even if it isn't the one the viewer eventually sees.