Street Photography Now exhibition in Berlin

Forty images from the Thames & Hudson Street Photography Now book are being exhibited now in Berlin until 15 January 2011. The exhibition takes place at CONTRIBUTED - Studio for the Arts at Strausberger Platz 16, 10243 Berlin. More details HERE.

This is the same show that premiered at Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff, and again I am very pleased to be one of the 40 photographers included.


The complete line-up is Christophe Agou, Arif Asci, Narelle Autio, Polly Braden, Bang Byoung-Sang, Maciej Dakowicz, Carolyn Drake, Melanie Einzig, George Georgiou, David Gibson, Bruce Gilden, Thierry Girard, Andrew Z. Glickman, Siegfried Hansen, Markus Hartel, Nils Jorgensen, Richard Kalvar, Martin Kollar, Jens Olof Lasthein, Frederic Lezmi, Jesse Marlow, Jeff Mermelstein, Joel Meyerowitz, Mimi Mollica, Trent Parke, Martin Parr, Gus Powell, Mark Alor Powell, Bruno Quinquet, Paul Russell, Otto Snoek, Matt Stuart, Ying Tang, Nick Turpin, Munem Wasif, Alex Webb, Amani Willett, Michael Wolf, Artem Zhitenev, Wolfgang Zurborn.

I believe that the Street Photography Now book is available to buy at the gallery, but please contact them to check before setting out...

The FinePix X100 - the street photographer's digital camera? Part 35.

As a street photographer, I've almost given up waiting for a small, discreet, digital camera with decent controls, and a optical viewfinder that I would be happy using for this sort of photography.

Having used digital compacts extensively I've come to the conclusion that I'm one of those weird people who will never be happy composing photos using an LCD at arm's length. A "proper" viewfinder is important to me.

Over the years, so many digital models have been launched that sounded promising - the Sigma D-something, the Olympus Pen-thing, the Ricoh G-doomidag and so on - but on closer inspection they all appeared lacking in one or more crucial departments.

All I want is a smallish digital camera with a short lens that focuses very quickly using autofocus, or allows me to set a manual focus instantly, and does not go "clack" when I press the shutter. And has an optical viewfinder, not an electronic one, and is not a stupid price like those Leicas. Are those outrageous demands? Certainly the technology is available, so presumably these must be niche demands!

It seems odd that although digital cameras have been readily available for about a decade now, people interested in street photography without the Leica budget are still resorting to using archaic old film cameras like the Olympus XA and the Hexar.

Maybe this Fujifilm FinePix X100 with the small, 35 mm fixed lens and built-in optical viewfinder will be the digital one. Maybe.

More details at the Wirefresh blog

It looks nice, doesn't it? Release date and price are still unconfirmed. The price is meant to be around £1000, I believe.

Nacho Santigosa - el viaje

All photographs copyright Nacho Santigosa 2010

Spanish street photographer Nacho Santigosa is currently spending a couple of weeks in England. It's maybe not the best time to be visiting the country (cold and now snow), but it was my great pleasure to meet up with him last weekend, and we had a fun day wandering around Bournemouth. At about 3.30 pm I lost all feeling in my hands, so that seemed liked a good time to stop...

Nacho has been interested in photography for over 20 years, ever since discovering a book of black and white street photography that belonged to his grandfather.

While in England, Nacho is trying out his new toy, the little Panasonic Lumix LX5 with an electronic viewfinder, and I learnt a great deal by watching him at work.

I think his enthusiasm is neatly summed up by this quote from a Flickr interview with "nativ flavaz":

"One day, in Sevilla, in 1997, I was waiting for my girlfriend, hanging around the streets, with my Canon T-90 and a 50 mm f/1.8 FD. Then I saw a boy sitting on the doorstep of his house ... and I shot ... three, four times, I don’t remember; the next two days were hard days waiting to see the results. Finally, the miracle ... that day was the day I was waiting for, the shot I was waiting for..."

See more of his photography here.

Aquarious – some recent photos

All photos copyright Paul Russell 2010