Albert Memorial from Kensington Gardens
InstantLondon – Albert Memorial
Tag: personal
Le Café Marly – Paris Review
Been looking through my archives this morning searching out my past Parisian images, after seeing a brilliant image of the Eiffel Tower in the snow, with a military-geared young couple racing towards the photographer in the foreground, taken by Lee Miller in 1944.
I have photographed a lot of Paris, since 1999 to 2003 and several other shorter periods later on, in fact, my second exhibition was held at the Light Gallery in London in December 2004, jointly with my friend Andy Craggs, with our Parisian images in tribute to Cartier Bresson who passed away earlier that same year. I think any ardent ‘street’ fan would safely put hand on heart that he or she was once inspired by HCB’s amazing work, in no uncertain terms. In any case, HCB would stand high up on the list of the greatest photographers in the world, in terms of inspiring new artists to taking up street photography.
This image was taken at the famous Le Café Marly on the Rivoli, by the Louvre in 2001. It is a ‘must see’ spot for any Paris visitor as it affords a grand view of the glass Pyramid, set amongst the amazing historic site.
I hope to post more of these Parisian images, as I find them.
InstantLondon – Watch the birdie.
InstantLondon – Dusk on the South Bank
Hello 2016 !
Thank you to all followers at explorenation.net and Facebook friends. Let’s hope we all continue to make new and exciting photographs in 2016, wherever we are, ’til we meet face to face once again, surely we will.
Have a good one!
Steven
Sign Posts
What does photography mean to you?
I am starting a response thread on Facebook here with the above question, to which I am posing to all my photographer friends, contacts and acquaintances and those that are involved in the imaging, curatorial and journalism disciplines. We now begin a new year soon, and the flood of images that are being shared on social media and the rest of the internet, no less, in printed publications, television and commercials continue to saturate our collective minds on a daily basis.
This wild statistic is mind-boggling!
If you printed off the 21.9 billion photos uploaded to Instagram
in a year, it would reach 6,351 kilometres.
That’s a whole lot of selfies!
[Check it out here https://photoworld.com/photos-on-the-web/]
So, in search for more clarity, I would love to learn about your thoughts on photography, to you personally, either a consumer of images, or perhaps as a creator.
What is it about photography that makes you tick, go weak in the knees, perhaps break out in a cold sweat, or just feel chilled. Perhaps it isn’t a tangible thing, like cradling a vintage camera and hearing the moving gears within as you cock its shutter. Could it be the amazing deep blacks from a fine silver gelatin print that moves you to tears, or the heady smell of developer and fixers fumes wafting through your makeshift darkroom?
Maybe you like to collect photo books and smell the new pages as you sample its contents. You may be into gear fetish, always acquiring new equipment as soon as they hit the stores, or a pixel peeper, demanding to view everything on your giant 25 inch screen at 100%. You could be in love with Photoshop and like to tweak every possible parameter to create your masterpieces in your darkened room, perhaps?
I would also like to know what is the most significant photograph you have ever taken and why. This does not have to be a masterpiece, a good image, or even a memorable image. Just an image that has played an important role in your photographic journey, or made an impression to others along the way? Please do share.
I will run this thread for a few months and hope by the end of it, we could have a collection of interesting writing, photographs and viewpoints to share but I will need your honest involvement and response.
Cheers!
Best wishes for 2016…
Steven
Good bye 2015…
Piccadilly Circus, West End, London
The Reaper is never late. So much death and destruction have turned 2015 into a dire year, especially in the Middle East, and Europe. Let’s hope and pray for a better more peaceful 2016.
Absence of silence
Day 6 -Haste Ye Back! The slogan greets us on a road sign as we drive out of Brora on the A9, heading South and back into England. First, the long drive towards Inverness, Perth and then Stirling, by-passing Glasgow over into Carlisle on the M74. The scenery is spectacular, as you can imagine. Hills, valleys, meandering rivers and streams, snow-capped mountains, sheep and cattle. We had brilliant sunshine, rain, sleet and snow all within a few minutes of leaving. That is the weather in the Highlands in winter time, according to the locals we met, ah, nothing to worry about.
I leave Scotland with a heavy heart, with the Paris attacks fresh in my mind as we watched it unfold on live tv on Friday evening last. Had I not planned this Scottish road trip, I would have gone to Paris Photo this very same weekend, as did several of my photography friends. Thank God they are all safe.
Photographically, I didn’t shoot much on this 1,500-mile road trip, save to say the weather foiled many attempts at trying, what with Storm Abigail blowing 90mph winds on the Days 2 and 3 whilst we sat out the Amber warning. Cameras and horizontal rain do not get along well.
Man and dog in fog
Once in awhile, we get a foggy day in London. This used to be far worse in the 1950s apparently, days and weeks of fog and smog, also known as ‘peasoup’ caused by the dirty coal fires and uncontrolled industrial emissions. London air is now a lot cleaner with European guidelines enforced strictly. With vehicle CO2 emissions falling year on year, and Congestion Charging to limit daytime vehicular access in the city.
ONE-SHOT PORTRAITS
Imogen Meckel, 10
I finally took my trusty Rolleiflex off the shelf, dusted it, gave it a quick ‘once over’, clicked through all the shutter speeds, and twiddled the aperture ring to check for stiffness, and loaded a roll of Portra 160 to embark on this so-called ONE SHOT PORTRAIT project. Now that I am in Malaysia again for a good couple of weeks and then a few days in Japan, I intend to photograph with the Rollei with the hope of capturing spontaneous and ‘truthful’ portraits of my friends, family and strangers with just the one click. So, 12 shots per roll, 12 portraits. And so on…
The idea is for the subject to feel most comfortable when I press the shutter release, with a pose that is natural & calm. I hope to catch capture a decent portrait with just one shot. If I fail, so be it, no second chance.
(Be part of this project! If you are in KL/PJ and want to be photographed give me a holler! 012 284 5838)
Leviathan 2 – Death in the Med
Nice Pontoon, France
Over 800 migrants, men, women and children, from North Africa – Libya, Syria and Eritrea, drowned yesterday in the southern Mediterranean Sea, whilst attempting an illegal night crossing, near Libya’s coast and also, another boat sunk in southern Greece. According to reports, there are an estimated 1,000,000 migrants amassed in Libyan ports waiting to take these perilous journeys to cross over to Europe. These people pay thousands of dollars each to human traffickers to get onboard unseaworthy boats, with little or no food, medicine and technical skills, hoping they will be be picked up by Italian coastguards. They are desperate to escape persecution, civil war, famine and disease, but exploited by ruthless gangs to come to Europe, where, supposedly, life is better.
‘More than 1,750 migrants have perished in the Mediterranean since the start of the year – more than 30 times higher than during the same period of 2014, the International Organisation for Migration said on Tuesday.’ – The Times.
The figures are staggering.
‘It is thought that the Italian Navy saved some 170,000 boat people in 2014 and brought them to Italy. It is also thought Italy’s centre-Left government then lost all trace of 100,000 of them once inside Italy.’
I can’t even attempt to guess what the solution to this will be. Stop the boats? How? Accept the migrants? Where to house them? When people are desperate to survive they will leave everything, risk everything to seek ‘Eldorado’. Then, there’s always the threat from ISIS using this guise to enter Europe.
explorenation.net ~ photography posts, workshops, writings and thoughts by Steven V-L Lee 
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