Posts tagged zoom
New York Street Photography by Phil Penman
New York Street Photography by Phil Penman

Tuesday 17 January 2023

 This was a shared evening with Old Coulsdon with over 70 people present.

Phil led us through his life as a photographer and he began his presentation by talking about his birth in England, in Dorset and his education at Berkshire College of Art and Design before he moved on to his first photographic job with the Wokingham Times.

 He wanted to work and live in New York and on a stakeout in England he got an introduction to a celebrity news agency Splash News was offered a job and moved to Los Angeles. As a celebrity photographer he was lucky enough to shoot people like Bill Gates, Jennifer Lopez and Christopher Reeve while he was also covering news stories. His news pictures were published in English papers like the Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph and in Paris Match.

 Then suddenly on September 11 he was asked to go immediately to the Trade Centre. The aeroplane terrorist attack. His first thought was to find a vantage point, not close to the towers because he was to take photos of the height of the towers. Phil's description of his photography of this outrage was quietly dramatic. The rumble as the towers came down, being grabbed by a policeman and told to sprint, the black sky and utter weirdness of the scene. Should he take pictures of distressed people without asking? Yes, that's why he was there. He ran for shelter into a music shop while outside was a parallel universe with paper 'raining' from the sky with people walking towards him out of a cloud of dust.

 In 2015 he donated all his work from the event to the 9/11 museum.

 Phil went on to give us a view of his work that followed, more celebrity photography plus full length street pictures making sure that you are not looking down onto the subject. Then a show of his work during the Covid pandemic showing what life was really like on the streets of NY and telling some of the stories of the people who are homeless.

In fact, he said, that Covid lockdown period was his busiest ever!

 He summed up by running through his life from Dorset through celebrity photography, selling prints and publishing his first book, doing what he wanted to do!

 An entertaining and instructive evening. Lots of excellent information from the question time.

Read More
Special PresentationMaurice Youngshared event, zoom, street photography, mononchrome, new york
Seeing in Black and White by Eileen Rafferty
Seeing in Black and White by Eileen Rafferty

This evening from the far north of the United States, not so far from the border with Canada Eileen delivered her lecture on seeing in black and white. Her background was in film, and she was a full time darkroom technician in her early work life, and she mused how black and white was still an alluring form after 200 years or so.

Eileen was keen to point out at the very start that black and white conversion was definitely not a way to 'save' a picture! She said that a photograph was in two parts - form and content, the form is visible, and the content tells the story or concept or meaning. Inspiration can be drawn from early photos.

Using these old pictures we can ask 'Why black and white?', what is contrast and where is the eye of the person looking at the picture being drawn and why. Black and white images eliminate the dominance of colour and bring attention to content. The image is more homogenous in black and white, more dramatic! Obviously black and white is a departure from reality because colour is 'everyday'.

Read More
Special Presentation, Special EventMaurice Youngphoto-talk, zoom, black & white