Clive, I looked at the photos again and still enjoy them. I like the consistent feeling they evoke, like he is wandering through a very average, ordinary world filled with people who seem unaware. Anyway, point taken, but maybe you could say more about why these fell flat for you and whether there is a direction you would suggest?

BTW, I enjoyed what I saw on your blog just now.

I have to say, shooting from the hip is gutless & cheap photograpghy imo.And its obvious that most of this junk is exactly that.

>I always figured anonymous comments like this the same way.

>Bill Pierce is a highly respected photographer with a very >long list of credits and kudos to his name (whether you >like him or not). He has an article at Digital Journalist >in which he recommends shooting from the hip and other >concealed techniques when they are the best way to get the >shot. The link is:

Yea well, we might as well be able to include captures from street surveillance cameras too ! Why not ? I got the shot right ?

>http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/nutsandbolts.htm>l

>He mentions others who either shot from the hip or shot in >a concealed manner including Cartier-Bresson and Walker >Evans.

And, its cheap

>Personally, my favorite photographs tend to be those that >engage with their subjects directly. I like photos that >connect, and Cartier-Bresson (great though he was) doesn’t >do nearly as much for me as Koudelka or Salgado.

Bingo, that’s photography, not voyeur surveillance techniques

>But to each his or her own. It’s certainly possible to >frame a shot expertly without looking through the >viewfinder and capture moments that would be otherwise >impossible to get. If we want to see life revealed through >photography, then we need to look at it in many different >perspectives.

Yea, hang a camera around your neck with a wide angle for cropping room with wireless or cable remote in your hand and all of a sudden you’re a great street photographer, what a laugh .. opps excuse me…Oh look at the expression I captured ! very lame

This is the hard truth; I could duplicate that quote “fabulous work” in a single day doing the same nonsense. However someone who can’t or doesn’t have the personality/or balls to make a personal connection with the subject. or is simply just afraid of possible confrontation after taking someone’s photo on the street (and I know plenty of those guys that want nothing to do with street work because of that) However this type of hit & run photographer will never get an acknowledged smile in his lens or any kind of personal contact/connection.. Joes work is cheap imo; mostly anybody can do it and probably will now because people know this type of thing is easily done and accepted as “good stuff”.
I bet the sales of remotes triple soon but I also predict people will get sick of this type of thing quickly and yearn for the return of the photographer and exit of the street peeper. I’m done on this topic, take care