Exercise: Part Three Introduction.

Exercise: Part Three Introduction.

Brighton Photo Biennial.

Jose.

• …the futility of trying to pigeon hole documentary photography.
• Sitting on a fence is hardly a comfortable place to be so i will take a stance here, for better or worse.
• …if a photograph doesn’t make the viewer feel anything, well, what is the point of taking it in the first place?
• Showing photography to the wider public is a form of communication, and you can’t expect everyone to agree with you.

Hereford Photography Festival.

Jose.

• They denote photographers taking firm control of their visual and conceptual output, with clear intentions and goals, avoiding the reactive method of classic documentary - hence the exhibition’s subtitle ‘beyond the decisive moment’.

Format Photography Festival.

Jose.

• The idea of authorship was challenges by Michael Wolf in his ‘A series of unfortunate events’. A collection of images regurgitated by Google Street View made up his exhibition.  His photographs - they’re not his, are they? - highlight nothing if not the fact that we are all looking at things.  It’s called scopophilia and it is hard wired in us.
• We don’t know any more who is observing and who is being observed.  Photographers in the shadows capturing the image of passers-by who are totally oblivious to the fact they are being watched.

Rob.

• Quoting Meyerowitz. ‘…there is no genius in photography, some have talent, some don’t’.

CliveW.

• …street photography is pure in the sense that it is the most democratic; you don’t need expensive equipment, glamorous locations or beautiful people to practice it in a sophisticated way.

In selecting these quotes I tried to choose those that stand alone from the exhibitions to which they refer; those that have a more general meaning in regard to photography.  

I have only seen the work of the named photographers in books or on-line so am not in a position to comment on how well, or badly, the images stood up to the test of exhibition.