Street Photographers - Alexey Titarenko

Alexey Titarenko is a Russian photographer who has exhibited in Europe and the USA. The particular body of his work that I have focused on in my research is "City of Shadows". This body of work is to me completely enthralling, Titarenko has conveyed brilliantly the emotions he wanted to and this is a prime example of psychogeography - Titarenko was affected so much by his environment that he produced this series; "to articulate these sufferings and grieving, to visualize them through my photographs, to awaken empathy and love for my native city’s inhabitants"(Alexey Titarenko, From the interview for SHOTS magazine, 2005). The photographs have an ethereal feeling to them and they produce a dichotomy of sorts - the images to me are full, yet due to the movement in them, there feels to me to be an emptiness there at the same time. The idea behind the series came after the collapse of the Soviet Union; Titarenko was saddened that the people of his city appeared to be shadows of their once vibrant and dynamic selves. Titarenko wanted to convey this ghostly appearance in his images and he did so through the use of long shutter speeds. 

Below are some of the images from this series. 

Street Photographers - Garry Winogrand

The images below are from the late American street photographer Garry Winogrand. Winogrand is best known for his images of America in the mid 20th century. The images I have chosen below are ones that I find the most pertinent, interesting and inspirational from those that I have viewed during my research.

This image was taken in Central Park Zoo, New York in 1964 and is a perfect example of how street photography can document changes through time as this is a scenario that would no longer occur in modern society.

This is an untitled image from the 1950's and is one of those perfectly timed images that shows how observant Winogrand was to the things going on around him - this moment could have been so easily missed!

This is one of those images that for me is decieving - at first glance it looks like the fish is gigantic and jumping into he water, but on taking the image in for longer you realise that this is not the case and that it appears the fish is being thrown across the camera, altering the perception of it's size and position within the image.

Street Photographers - Matt Stuart

The images below are the work of Matt Stuart and an excerpt from the about me section of his website. After studying the images from Matt Stuart's website the ones I have chosen below are my favourites, you cannot fail to appreciate the amount of images that must have been discarded in the process of collecting these perfectly timed images.

This image makes me wonder how many people walked by without seeing what Matt Stuart saw.

This image takes some looking at before you are drawn to the fact that the handle of the umbrella looks like the mans nose, rminds me of Gonzo from the muppets!

It takes a moment but you eventually realise the hand is not coming from beind the map!

I find this image simple yet I could stare at it for hours!

Once you rationalise that it is not possible for a Great Dane to be driving a car, you notice the mans head!

I love the irony of a wheel clamp and the devil here, but it does leave me wondering in a far off recess of my mind if it is possibly staged, maybe slightly...

To me the woman on the front of the magazine looks apart from it, almost as if the man is putting a tiny woman into his bag!

Urban Walk - Salford

Whilst on our urban walk around Salford I felt uninspired initially; there where many of us all generally photographing the same things, so I decided to focus on the people of  our class and how they took photographs of the urban walk, below are some of the images from the day. 
My reasoning behind focusing on the people in my group when they were taking photographs was that I found it interesting how different people responded to taking pictures of their environment. Personally, I have never really payed that much attention generally to photographers on the street, so this was an interesting approach for me.

References for Psychogeography

• Davies,John. (2009). NS Namecheck. Available: http://www.johndavies.org/2009/04/ns-namecheck.html. Last accessed 10th November 2011.
• Unknown Author. (Unknown year of publication). Caff Masters: Iain Sinclair at The Copper Grill. Available: http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/isinclair.htm. Last accessed 10th November 2011.
• Crickenberger,Heather Marcelle . (2007). The Flâneur. Available: http://www.thelemming.com/lemming/dissertation-web/home/flaneur.html. Last accessed 10th November 2011.
• Smith,Emma. (2011). Introducing Psychogeography. Available: http://critical-regionalism.com/2011/03/27/introducing-psychogeography/. Last accessed 10th November 2011.
• Coverley,Merlin (2006). Psychogeography. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials. p25-26.

Psychogeography

Davies,John. (2009). NS Namecheck. Available: http://www.johndavies.org/2009/04/ns-namecheck.html. Last accessed 10th November 2011.

Who and what are the situationists international?

The Situationist International was a combination of  two existing groups, the Lettrist International and the International Union for a Pictorial Bauhaus. The result was a group that sought to redefine revolutionary praxis. 

Who is Guy Debord and what role did he play in psychogeography? 

Guy Debord was a writer and filmaker and also the co-founder/leading figure within the Situationist International. Debord defined psychogeography as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals."

Who is Will Self and what contribution does he make to psychogeography? 

William Woodward Self is an English novelist and journalist who turned to long distance walking after quiting drugs and became a student of psychogeography. Self has written a book called "Psychogeography" which is a collection of his essays about his walks around the world.

Who is Iain Sinclaire and what makes him a psychogeographer?

Iain Sinclair is a Welsh writer and filmaker who has produced a large body of work based on pedestrian exploration of the urban and suburban landscape.

What is a Flaneur?

Crickenberger,Heather Marcelle . (2007). The Flâneur. Available: http://www.thelemming.com/lemming/dissertation-web/home/flaneur.html. Last accessed 10th November 2011.

Who is J G Ballard and what role does he play in psychogeography

Ballard wrote a series of novels that depicted the behavioural response to changes in suburban environments. 

Who is Richard Wentworth and what's his engagement with Psychogeography?

Wentworth was commisioned tp produce a body of work by Artangel in 2002: "An Area of Outstanding Unnatural Beauty" an investigation in the psycho-geography of London starting from King's Cross, where Richard Wentworth has been living for 25 years. (Unknown Author. (2004). Press Release. Available: http://www.pinksummer.com/pink2/exb/wen/exb001en.htm. Last accessed 10th November 2011.)