Street Photography Tips, Interaction, Travel, Guides
*A series of guides on shooting Street Photography in cities around the world. Find the best spots to shoot, things to capture, street walks, street tips, safety concerns, and more for cities around the world. I have personally researched, explored and shot Street Photography in every city that I create a guide for. So you can be ready to capture the streets as soon as you step outside with your camera!
After Tunisia, came major city #63 Izmir, Turkey on the Major City project. I’ll be discontinuing this 33 photos series on the blog soon, but I’ll explain why along with exciting details on some new things I have planned in an upcoming post. For now, though, I’ll share a last few additions of this long-time series here on Shooter Files.
So here’s 33 photos from my time covering Izmir…
Izmir, Turkey came in as major city #63 on my Major City project and here I’ll share a few first impressions covering the city with my camera. Izmir hadn’t been on my list for the major city project, but due to travel arrangements and work, it was added last minute. I lived in Istanbul in 2015/2016, but hadn’t been back to Turkey since. Istanbul holds a special place for me, as not only my prior home, but also the first city on my project and still a top 3 city in the world for street photography, in my opinion. Istanbul has it all so I didn’t want to compare it to Izmir. While living in Istanbul, though, Izmir was the most common favorite Turkish city by the locals I met. They loved its reputation as the most open and liberal city in the country. When it comes to tourists, though, Izmir doesn’t get as much attention. So, visiting Turkey’s third largest city became an opportunity to find out about this city for myself, while also seeing how it is for street photography.
Here are my first impressions of Izmir, from my personal Street Photographer perspective…
MARCH 6TH – MARCH 8TH : SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
I’m excited to announce a 3-Day workshop I’ll be leading this March 6th – March 8th in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Read on for more details and how to sign up…
This intensive three-day workshop will focus on photographic vision and seeing more. You’ll learn how to see more photos when out shooting, how to put together what you see into the photo you want to make, improve your editing process and help find yourself in your photography. We will work together to accomplish these goals through a variety of lessons covering a variety of work, reviews of your own work, editing sessions, activities and plenty of shooting throughout the streets of Sao Paulo. Led by international photographer Forrest Walker, this workshop will be an immersive and educational experience.
Find Participant Testimonials and Photos from Forrest Walker’s Workshops HERE
Forrest Walker is an internationally acclaimed photographer from Portland, Oregon, USA. He is also the sole creator of the popular street photography blog, ShooterFiles.com. His work has been published, awarded and exhibited across multiple continents and showcases his interest in capturing the world candidly in vibrant color, along with a passion for exploration. He has been an invited speaker and judge at multiple major international street photography festivals, including the Miami Street Photography Festival, London Street Photography Festival and StreetFoto San Francisco, in addition to be featured and interviewed across media, including the immensely popular ‘The Candid Frame’ podcast.
Currently, Forrest just wrapped up photographing a five-year project covering over 100 Major Cities across all major regions of the world, where he focused on the diversity and connections found in daily life across all regions and cultures. His images distil the layers of life within major cities and reveal the commonalities of human experience. This project is documented on his popular blog ShooterFiles.com, where he provides street photography city guides, tips, photography, stories, local photographer interviews and more.
SEE MORE OF FORREST’S WORK ON INSTAGRAM & HIS WEBSITE
Places are strictly limited, sign up early to avoid disappointment
*We will break for lunch daily and all are invited to dinner and drinks afterwards for more interaction
On this three-day workshop, you’ll be able to capture the areas that Sao Paulo is known for, along with some of the local photographers’ favorite spots, while challenging yourself to improve your photography in a variety of ways. I have developed a set of lessons and activities focused on helping you: 1. Learn how to see more interest and photos, and #2. How to turn that interest and what you see into an interesting photo. These two skills together are the most important in reaching your goals in photogaphy, and we will do this with a focus on finding your own photographic vision, not someone else’s.
This will be an intensive and highly involved workshop led by someone who’s photographed over 100 major cities across the world inside and out. Sao Paulo stays at the top of my list for street photography and I’ve spent countless hours exploring its endless streets of interest and character. With a 5 participant max on the workshop, you’ll be able to get the most out of our time together in Sao Paulo.
This will be an intensive, but highly enjoyable workshop experience that includes a mixture of daily photo walks, photo critiques, interactive lessons, editing sessions, activities and discussions. A major focus will be on photographic vision and seeing more. You’ll learn to see more photos when out shooting, how to put together what you see into the photo you want to make, improve your editing process and help find yourself in your photography. There will be a lot of walking and photography, with myself fully involved each step of the way to make sure you get the most out of your week. You will be able to fully immerse yourself into the city through street photography, so you can learn more, see more, photograph more and have a great time doing it.
Good walking shoes, camera(s), lens – between 50mm and 21mm equivalents preferred, sunscreen, water bottle, cool and comfortable clothing, laptop with appropriate processing software installed (Lightroom, Capture One or Photoshop), spare batteries and memory cards, notepad, pen, and mobile/ smart phone.
Places are strictly limited, sign up early to avoid disappointment
Terms and Cancellation Policy:
I’m excited to announce this year’s photography workshop schedule. Every city I lead workshops in are ones I’ve covered and photographed extensively. After covering 105 major cities, I select only the best places for street photography. This year I’ll be including South American destinations for the first time, while continuing past workshop destination favorites like Tokyo, London and Istanbul. Thanks for looking and reserve your spot today (5 max participants each workshop).
Find Participant Testimonials and Photos from Forrest Walker’s Workshops HERE
Find More Details Behind the Workshops HERE
When it comes to my major city project and this blog, the number one question I’m asked is “What’s your favorite city for Street Photography?” From friends, family and strangers to messages and emails. The truth is I don’t deal in absolutes or favorites with most anything, especially when it comes to that. There are things I like about most cities that make them memorable in their own way, and there are too many dependents for me to pick just one above all for street photography. But I can pick some that personally stand out a little more and tell you why.
Now, after 5 years and finally passing my project goal of photographing over 100 major cities, it’s time for a 2020 installment of my Annually Updated Top 10 Cities for Street Photography. Only cities I’ve photographed during my Major city project are eligible, which finished off 2019 at 105 major cities across 75 countries. Check the list here to see all the major cities I’ve covered on the project.
2019 brought more work outside of the project, but I still managed to fit in 8 new major cities, while also growing my perspective and thoughts on all the cities I’ve covered. This brought one change to the Top 10 and I decided to include some thoughts on a couple of my favorite regions to photograph that didn’t make the list, and why. After covering 105 major cities, it’s extremely difficult to narrow them down to 10, especially while considering that I’m recommending them to you all too, but here it goes…
(You can see last year’s list here.)
(for 2020)
Honorable Mention:
Istanbul holds a special place in my heart so I might be a little biased here. It was the first of my 100 major cities project, and the jumping off point for this blog and mix of plans and goals I’d set for myself. I lived here much of 2015, so I got to know it better than most cities too, but personal bias aside, I can’t imagine Istanbul not being towards the top of any street photography city list. Istanbul truly has it all.
Being the capital of three empires helps cram the city with so much to offer a photographer that other cities can’t compare. Culture, history, religion, politics, people, diversity, character, conflict, architecture, sea, sunlight, color, old world, new world, and the list goes on. It’s many worlds of atmosphere packed into one city. It’s no surprise it needs two continents to contain it.
You could live here for years and only touch the surface. The energy and atmosphere of Istanbul is what I miss the most, though. It feels more alive than other cities, with a raw beauty that I haven’t found anywhere else.
If you imagined the perfect city for street photography in your head, Havana might be what you’d picture. It’s extremely walkable, full of character, color and life around every corner, as photo friendly as it gets, almost too easy to shoot in, and all with an atmosphere frozen in time. The opportunities for photography are endless here. You can just walk in any direction and explore away.
Havana is also a city that invites you in with the people like not many, so it’s a complete experience for photography. The amount of times I get invited for a drink or even into someone’s home in Havana is something that you don’t experience elsewhere, especially in a large city.
Still, while Havana is no secret among photographers, people question me about it as much as any. “It seems too hyped, over photographed, packed with clichés, every photographer’s destination,…” and so on. And while the old car type clichés of Cuba do deserve caution when here photographing, it’s mostly a bunch of nonsense. You won’t find many photographers that have been here that regret it. Most fall in love just like everyone else. And believe it or not, there’s still plenty to photograph here. So my advice is to just ignore the clichés and get over here as soon as you can.
New York City is arguably the most famous city in the street photography genre today, so it’s not really a surprise to include it this list. Still, hype can create disappointment, but that’s not really something that should happen in New York City, especially with your camera. The place is just too special, unique and full of life and a variety of neighborhoods to explore. There’s only a few cities in the world that can compare, in my opinion. A good photographer can find interest anywhere, but if we’re being honest, photographers living in New York City might have a bit of an easier time finding it. It surrounds you around every corner. It’s not a coincidence that this city has supplied so many great photographs and photographers.
There’s really no excuse to ever get bored with photography in New York City, as there are so many different places to explore, all with their own character and life. It’s a world’s supply of human interest packed into one city and five boroughs. There’s a grittiness to its streets and life too. You’ll see and feel things you won’t anywhere else in the world. A melting pot of people and interest.
Saint-Petersburg is probably the least hyped and talked about city on my list, so why is it up at #3? Because people just don’t know how good it is. Now, the time of year does makes a big difference, but if you go in the summer, it doesn’t get much better for street photography. The winter can be beautiful in its own way too, you just won’t have many hours of light.
The summer in Saint-Petersburg might be my favorite place to be for street photography, though. The sunlight is out 20+ hours a day and the beautiful city is full of life just as long. More than that, though, there’s just something magical about the city. The canals, pastel colors, architecture, bridges, islands, hundreds of parks, and more give it this surreal atmosphere that has to be experienced. The life and people are full of character too. Many people go about their life without any care of what others think, so it’s not uncommon to see older women and men sunbathing in their underwear. At the same time, you have many people who care a lot, so you see a variety of fashion and looks. It’s a big, magical city with a mix of so many things.
Tokyo is another hyped big city on the street photography scene that doesn’t disappoint. A great thing about Tokyo is how great it is for street photography, while bringing so many unique differences to the table. While feeling big with endless life and places to explore, it contains an atmosphere and character that feels completely different than other cities near its size. Tokyo has this very unique tranquility somehow mixed into the most populated city in the world (by metro area). You’ll, of course, find chaos and crowds, especially at places like the famous Shibuya crossing, but as a whole, it’s a relaxing experience shooting here in a city that is so big and full of life. I can’t think of another city that blends these usually contradicting feelings so well.
Another aspect I really enjoy about Tokyo, and Japan in general, is its uniqueness. The rich culture here supplies so much unique authenticity, that for anyone not from here, it’s a feast for the senses. It’s full of quirks and character. Tokyo is also an extremely easy city to shoot in due to safety and the friendliness of the people. The latter should be taken with the disclaimer that part of the photo friendliness comes from the culture and people being as polite as it gets. Even if they might not want to be photographed, they won’t be aggressive or vocal about it, which many might want to consider when out shooting, as to not take advantage of. Tokyo mixes so much uniqueness into such a big city, that for many, it won’t get any better than here for street photography.
London is as well-known as any city in the world, and as famous for street photography as it gets, but sometimes cities don’t live up to their fame. London isn’t one of them.
One of my favorite aspects of London are all the different neighborhoods, each with their own character. It’s like different villages grew until they combined into one large city over time. It isn’t like New York or Tokyo, where skyscrapers dominate over you. London doesn’t feel overwhelming for a city its size. You can spend your days exploring parts of London on foot and get completely different atmospheres when it comes to photography. Some areas are chaotic and crazy, while others are quiet and relaxing. There’s something around every crooked, winding street, and you never know what it will be.
The biggest knock on London is the weather, which I can’t say is undeserved, but if you get some sun, the light here is special and it’s really hard to beat this city. It’s as dynamic and fun to shoot in as it is famous.
Mumbai was here on last year’s list, but I honestly expected Kolkata to knock it off this year’s list. Having already been to both cities in the past, Kolkata had originally left the best memories for street photography. But after returning to Mumbai in 2016 and Kolkata in 2017, while photographing them more in-depth, Mumbai closed the gap in my mind. It’s difficult to choose between them, as they each bring different pluses and appeal. India is so packed with cities for street photography that I’m just going to include both cities under one, while explaining their different appeals.
Mumbai is the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India. If you go by population, Mumbai is the largest city in the world’s second largest country. If you go by money, it’s the wealthiest city in India, but with some of its most extreme poverty. Mumbai is also India’s most diverse, cosmopolitan and westernised city. Basically, Mumbai is everything and more.
Bazaars and temples, colonial architecture and skyscrapers, bay promenades and fishing villages, Asia’s biggest slums and Bollywood stars’ most expensive homes. Mumbai is filled with a variety of scenery and life that rivals any city in the world. It’s filled with an urban energy that consumes you and endless interest that keeps you wanting more. All of this adds up to one of the top cities in the world for street photography.
While not quite as big as Mumbai, Kolkata is still one of India’s biggest cities. Yet, it has a noticeably different, more easy-going and welcoming atmosphere compared to the others. It’s a city made for walking and street photography. While India’s other large cities are more spread out, Kolkata feels like you can walk everywhere. It has a special, old world feeling mixed into a big, urban city. It feels authentic, filled with culture and a chaotic, yet friendly vibe. The colonial-era architecture contrasting with urban slums, it’s also gained a reputation as the most friendly of India’s metropolises. While it might not be as known with the general traveler, it is known among the photography community. It’s made for bringing your camera and exploring away.
If I really had to choose between the two, I’d say Kolkata is easier and more enjoyable for a shorter visit, while Mumbai provides more variety and interest the more time you have. They’re both as good as gets for street photography, though.
I have to include a city from Ukraine, one of my favorite countries in the world for street photography. Kiev and Lviv both get high recommendations too, but if I had to choose one, it would be Odessa. I included it in last year’s list, but actually returned again since, which only cemented its place as a personal favorite.
I went to Ukraine for the first time in 2015 and fell in love. So much so that I’ve returned both years since. I like places that feel authentic, are full of character and mood, while being a little rough around the edges. Ukraine is all this more than any place I’ve been. There’s nothing fake about the atmosphere and it doesn’t feel over photographed. It’s more untouched, while still being a large country with plenty going on. And the markets are the best you’ll find anywhere. Odessa’s Privoz Market is no exception.
Odessa provides this atmosphere that I love, but adds the Black Sea and more. It’s become the country’s top vacation getaway with beaches that fill up during the summer. The city is filled with history and character, while being extremely walkable. You can enjoy the pedestrian streets, old courtyards, parks, and markets in the city, and then take a walk to the beaches to enjoy the very unique character, and characters, that fill it. They aren’t the typical tourist beaches you might be used to, either, which provides even more interest for street photography.
Sao Paulo is another city where there really shouldn’t be much of a surprise it made the list, but it might not be on everyone’s radar as much as a New York City or Tokyo. In South America, though, São Paulo is not only the largest city on the continent, but also its center on the street photography scene. Brazil as a whole, contains the most photographers, but no city on the continent contains a passion for street photography like Sao Paulo.
Sao Paulo is also another city that contains a wide variety of neighborhoods to explore for photography, each containing its own unique character. Walking Paulista or exploring Bixiga and Liberdade, the city’s Italian and Japanese neighborhoods, are just a few of my favorite spots for photography. And while Brazil, and South America in general, doesn’t have the best reputation for safety, Sao Paulo feels like it has more safe areas to explore for photography compared to Rio de Janeiro and Salvador de Bahia, when it comes to the major Brazilian cities I covered on the project. A lot of the main streets and neighborhoods for a photography walk are kept fairly safe, especially for a big city in Latin America. South America has a special feeling for street photography that you won’t find elsewhere, so it can be a shame that perceived dangers can deter many. For me, though, Sao Paulo is definitely a city I’d recommend and like to return to for photography.
I included Cairo in my honorable mention in last year’s list, but decided it should trade spots with Marrakech this time around, moving it up into the Top 10. I explain the reason for moving Marrakech down in the next segment, but Cairo definitely deserves it’s place here. At around 22 million people, it doesn’t get much bigger and chaotic than Cairo. It also doesn’t get much more historic and atmospheric. This urban sprawl by the famous pyramids is filled with buzzing streets and a variety of life that’s hard to beat. Yes, it’s not the cleanest, quietest city, and there are touts and hassle to endure, but it’s more than worth it in Cairo. The history, the crumbling character, the size, the chaos, the variety of unique neighborhoods, the amazing street life and that signature golden brown look all come together to make one of my favorite atmospheres for street photography in the world.
(See prior yearly list to read more about these cities that narrowly missed my final list this year)
As an early major city on the project (#12), Marrakech had made the cut in each of my previous year-end top 10 lists, but I finally decided to move it off. Not so much because my opinion of it has changed, but due to the fact it’s by far the city I receive the most complaints about from readers. It’s famous for hassle from the locals about taking photos, which seems to ruin many street photographers experience there, judging by all the messages I receive. While I find there are ways to receive less push back and still freely shoot candid photos through the viewfinder, I’m also not bothered by reaction, which is definitely something you’ll have to deal with if you get close enough and aren’t the sneaky type. So, for many, it might be enough to deter. Due to the fact it’s still an extremely photogenic city for street photography, I’m keeping it as honorable mention, but be prepared for more hassle compared to the other cities on the list. For the many reasons I had included it in my top, though, check out last year’s list at #9.
After covering 4 major cities in China (Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou & Chengdu), Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, and a major city in 3 Central Asian countries (Almaty, Tashkent & Bishkek), this large region has become one of my favorites for its unique, sometimes quirky, character. I can’t really select one city above the all the rest, they have different pluses and minuses, but all contain an atmosphere and life that you won’t find elsewhere. You’ll see character and characters here that you won’t elsewhere and much of it remains comparatively less photographed for street compared to other places, which I love.
Sub-Saharan Africa is a large area I’ve covered and find very interesting for street photography. I can’t exactly recommend it to everyone for street photography, though, as it’s also the most difficult overall in Major Cities due to danger, photo reactions, ease of travel and maybe more than anything, police and security hassle. There are exceptions, but in cities I’ve covered like Johannesburg, Nairobi and Accra, it might not be for most street photographers. But some, like me, will find it more than worth the trouble. Personally, I enjoy the challenge and unique photo opportunities, but it definitely calls for experience, confidence and some added risk. The life here, though, is something special, even in the big cities.
For 2020, a major focus will be publishing and start putting out work from all this work. I have a zine coming soon, another coming later, and a small book coming too. Then the major books will be coming. Stay tuned into the blog and my instagram @fdwalker for all announcements. (And to see what cities I have tentatively planned for this year, check here.)
Time for the New Year’s tradition here and share a few photos from the old year to bring in the new
While the past few years, especially 2017 and 2018, were non-stop on the road finishing up my Major City work, I had to focus on a variety of other work this year and didn’t move around as much. That was a good thing. Still, I managed to fit in a few last major cities, bringing that project’s 5 year total to 105 across 75 countries, while also completing some smaller projects. My 2019 brought me to 14 cities, including some extensive work in Odessa, Ukraine, which will hopefully be published by the end of 2020. I’ll be heavily focused on publishing a few pieces from all the work I’ve completed, including a couple of smaller zines, which I’m really excited about. After 5 years of obsessive non-stop work and over 30,000 km walked, I’m beyond ready to start putting this all together and published.
The new year will also bring more focus and changes to the blog, as I had to pull back time from it a bit this year due to work and some changes in vision for it. I’ll be starting a Patreon subscription too where I’ll be creating a variety of video content, lessons, mentorship and more.
I’m holding back most of my favorite photos from the year to prepare for editing on future publications, as I want them to be at least a third never seen work, but with another busy year of photography in the books, I have enough to share now too. So, here’s a couple photos from all 14 cities I worked in 2019. It’s not a favorite photo from each city, but some selections to share for now in bringing on 2020. And as always, all unstaged and unposed.
Happy New Year to all and Cheers to 2020!
– Forrest Walker
(in order of capture date) [Read more…]
I love photo books. There’s nothing like them, especially in the days of computer screens and phone feeds. It’s still the best way to share and view work. In honor of it being a new year once again, here’s a list of some of the best photo books published in 2019 that should appeal to any photographer, but especially street and documentary photographers. (Click here to check out the lists from 2016 , 2017 and 2018)
(Selection information quoted from links)
In this stunning collection, Magnum photographer Harry Gruyaert explores the visual power of shorelines.
The “edges” that Harry Gruyaert, a preeminent member of the Magnum photo agency, explores in this lush, full-color book are the oceans, seas, and rivers where humans meet the edge of the shoreline and the water begins. This unique volume, which opens from the bottom up, takes the reader to Israel’s Dead Sea, the Niger River in Mali, the North Sea of Iceland, South Korea, and Biarritz, as Gruyaert’s photos record the subtle chromatic vibrations of the edges of the far East and West. Gruyaert juxtaposes the hustle of the city with a pared-down, yet intense, nature. His landscapes are never empty; they are inhabited places where light, color, objects, people, and situations weave a serene, sublime scene.
This beautifully produced photographic manifesto reveals the profoundly poetic character of Gruyaert’s work, and the sensual elegance of his compositions.
Purchase/View
Brooklyn is one of the most dynamic and ethnically diverse places on the planet. In fact, it’s estimated that one in every eight US families had relatives come through Brooklyn when settling in the country. Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb have been photographing this New York City borough for the past five years, creating a profound and vibrant portrait. Alex Webb has traversed every corner of the borough, exploring its tremendous diversity. This parallels his work made in the past forty years, traveling to photograph different cultures around the world―all of which are represented in the place he now calls home. Contrasting with this approach, Rebecca Norris Webb photographed “the city within the city within the city,” the green heart of Brooklyn―the Botanic Garden, Greenwood Cemetery, and Prospect Park, where Brooklynites of all walks of life cross paths as they find solace. Together, their photographs of Brooklyn tell a larger American story, one that touches on immigration, identity, and home.
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Taking its name from a line in the Wallace Stevens’ poem “The Gray Room,” Alec Soth’s latest book is a lyrical exploration of the limitations of photographic representation. While these large-format color photographs are made all over the world, they aren’t about any particular place or population. By a process of intimate and often extended engagement, Soth’s portraits and images of his subject’s surroundings involve an enquiry into the extent to which a photographic likeness can depict more than the outer surface of an individual, and perhaps even plumb the depths of something unknowable about both the sitter and the photographer. “After the publication of my last book about social life in America, Songbook, and a retrospective of my four, large scale American projects, Gathered Leaves, I went through a long period of rethinking my creative process. For over a year I stopped traveling and photographing people. I barely took any pictures at all. When I returned to photography, I wanted to strip the medium down to its primary elements. Rather than trying to make some sort of epic narrative about America, I wanted to simply spend time looking at other people and, hopefully, briefly glimpse their interior life. In order to try and access these lives, I made all of the photographs in interior spaces. While these rooms often exist in far-flung places, it’s only to emphasize that these pictures aren’t about any place in particular. Whether a picture is made in Odessa or Minneapolis, my goal was the same: to simply spend time in the presence of another beating heart.” – Alec Soth.
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In the thick of New York: Bruce Gilden raw and unseen
After recently moving house, Bruce Gilden discovered hundreds of contact prints and negatives in his personal archives, from work undertaken in New York, his native city, between 1978 and 1984. From these thousands of images, most of which are new even to their author, Gilden has selected around a hundred. Extending from the desire to revisit the work of his youth, this historic archive constitutes an inestimable treasure.
An extraordinary New York is portayed here, revealing an unknown facet of Gilden’s oeuvre. With all the energy of a young man in his thirties, and with no flash (before Gilden became famous for its almost systematic use), Gilden launched an assault on New York in a visibly tense atmosphere. In this extraordinary gallery of portraits, the compositions―mostly horizontal―simmer with energy, bursting with the most diverse characters, as though Gilden intended to include within the frame everything that caught his eye.
In this book, we see the guiding tropes of the work that was to make Gilden famous: sustained movement and tension, unrivalled spirit, and an instinctive and irreverent affection for his subjects, perfectly in cahoots with his city.
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The Coast opens with an absurd short story that leads into a sequence of images taken along the Indian coastline. While the photographs are made in real situations, the continuous removal and addition of context manipulates the line between what is fact and what is not, in a way not unlike how new realities are increasingly being engineered today. Some might imagine the book to be a fable-like tale while others might recognize in it reality. Either way, the book in its stories alludes to undercurrents in a country that is seeing higher frequencies of violence: religious, caste, sexual or otherwise and the increasing normalization of it, which is far more absurd than the story itself. There is respite toward the end as the book moves to the sea. The margin between land and water becomes a point of release beyond which characters experience fear, surprise, anger, sadness, trust, anticipation, excitement, contempt but also rapture. The short story at the beginning of the book also exists in 11 other iterations, each one changing only a few words at a time like a game of Chinese Whispers. Just like with the images, each story forms a slightly different meaning in every subsequent reading and it becomes one of a dozen different truths. The Coast is the fourth book by Sohrab Hura.
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For eight years and across several continents, Alex Majoli has been photographing events and non-events. Political demonstrations, humanitarian emergencies, and quiet moments of everyday life. What holds all these images together is a sense of theatre. A sense that we are all actors, all playing the parts that history and circumstance demand of us. Majoli’s photographs result from his own performance. Entering a situation, he and his assistants slowly go about setting up a camera and lights. This activity is a kind of spectacle in itself, observed by those who will eventually be photographed. Majoli begins to shoot, offering no direction to the people before his camera. This might happen over twenty minutes. It might be an hour or so. Perhaps the people adjust their actions in anticipation of the image to come. Perhaps they refine their gestures in self-consciousness. Perhaps they do not. The representation of drama and the drama of representation become one. The camera flash is instantaneous and much stronger than daylight. But all this light plunges the world into night, or moonlight. The world appears as an illuminated stage. Everything seems to be happening at the end of the day. Just when the world should be sleeping, it offers a heightened performance of itself. We never really see people or places: we see the light they reflect. And the quality of that light affects how we understand them.
Purchase/View
For eight years and across several continents, Alex Majoli has been photographing events and non-events. Political demonstrations, humanitarian emergencies, and quiet moments of everyday life. What holds all these images together is a sense of theatre. A sense that we are all actors, all playing the parts that history and circumstance demand of us. Majoli’s photographs result from his own performance. Entering a situation, he and his assistants slowly go about setting up a camera and lights. This activity is a kind of spectacle in itself, observed by those who will eventually be photographed. Majoli begins to shoot, offering no direction to the people before his camera. This might happen over twenty minutes. It might be an hour or so. Perhaps the people adjust their actions in anticipation of the image to come. Perhaps they refine their gestures in self-consciousness. Perhaps they do not. The representation of drama and the drama of representation become one. The camera flash is instantaneous and much stronger than daylight. But all this light plunges the world into night, or moonlight. The world appears as an illuminated stage. Everything seems to be happening at the end of the day. Just when the world should be sleeping, it offers a heightened performance of itself. We never really see people or places: we see the light they reflect. And the quality of that light affects how we understand them.
Purchase/View
Over the past six years, photographer Mark Power has travelled across the US to create a complex visual narrative of a country in the midst of change. This new book, Good Morning, America (Volume One),represents a personal and timely exploration of both the American cultural and physical landscape, and the divergence of reality and myth.
Good Morning, America (Volume One) is the first in a series of five books by Power, created as the result of this ongoing 10-year project, as he meanders back and forth across the vast country, taking long walks through towns and cities along the way.
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Taken From Memory is the result of a 25-year long-time project by American photographer Sheron Rupp (b. 1943 in Mansfield, Ohio). Searching for connections to her own biographical past, Rupp took these photographs in rural America looking to find a piece of someone else’s life to give her a sense of »belonging.« Personal in nature, these photographs offer a stirring glimpse into the life in the commonly disregarded rural areas and small towns between the bustling metropolises of the East and West Coast. Without pretense or irony, without assertation or judgment, Rupp’s impressions from the past also work as a commentary on today’s US society. The book includes an introduction by Peter Galassi, former Chief Curator of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
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Throughout his career, Gregory Halpern has explored the elusive, inchoate notion of Americanness. It is both a difficult subject and a lofty prospect for any photographer and it remains an absolutely essential line of investigation, particularly in the context of the current political maelstrom. Traveling to the nation’s heartland-a vague construct increasingly synonymous with the Bible belt-Halpern continues to mine this idea of Americanness in a place bounded by prairie and steeped in pioneer history. His work in the midwestern city of Omaha reveals America as pluralized, fragmented, and teeming with its own ‘brand of hypermasculinity’, as he terms it: adolescents on the cusp of promise or obscurity, land that seemingly leads to nowhere, a sense of unending time and a dark side to domesticity. Halpern’s efforts to visualize America yield an opportunity to learn about the country by staring back at images of it that breed their own complexity.” – Amanda Maddox, J. Paul Getty Museum For the last fifteen years, Gregory Halpern has been photographing in Omaha, Nebraska, steadily compiling a lyrical, if equivocal, response to the American Heartland. In loosely-collaged spreads that reproduce his construction-paper sketchbooks, Halpern takes pleasure in cognitive dissonance and unexpected harmonies, playing on a sense of simultaneous repulsion and attraction to the place. Omaha Sketchbook is ultimately a meditation on America, on the men and boys who inhabit it, and on the mechanics of aggression, inadequacy, and power.
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In 1968, Magnum photographer Dennis Stock took a 5-week road trip along the California highways, documenting the height of the counterculture hippie scene. These black and white photos were compiled to create California Trip, originally published in 1970, and became an emblem of the free love movement that continued to inspire throughout the decades. In print for the first time since its 1970 publication, California Trip is a faithful reproduction of Stock’s timeless work.
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Each Christmas between 1988 and 1998, photographer Barry Lewis traveled to South Beach, Miami, to trade the harsh London winter for a tropical paradise. There he photographed the diverse (and eccentric) people who made up the community: fashionistas, newly-arrived Cubans (following the Meriel exodus in 1980), Jewish retirees from New York, drag queens and the gay population who flocked to ultra-cool Ocean Drive for the party scene. Lewis’ images capture the vibrancy of an area coming back to life after years of crime, drugs, and violence.
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The first visual chronicle of a little-known chapter in the career of Henri Cartier-Bresson―one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.
In December 1948, Henri Cartier-Bresson traveled to China at the request of Life magazine. He wound up staying for ten months and captured some of the most spectacular moments in China’s history: he photographed Beijing in “the last days of the Kuomintang,” and then headed back to Shanghai, where he bore witness to the new regime’s takeover. Moreover, in 1958, Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the first Western photographers to go back to China to explore the changes that had occurred over the preceding decade. The “picture stories” he sent to Magnum and Life on a regular basis played a key role in Westerners’ understanding of Chinese political events. Many of these images are among the best-known and most significant photographs in Cartier-Bresson’s oeuvre; his empathy with the populace and sense of responsibility as a witness making them an important part of his legacy.
Henri Cartier-Bresson: China 1948-1949, 1958 allows these photographs to be reexamined along with all of the documents that were preserved: the photographer’s captions and comments, contact sheets, and abundant correspondence, as well as the published versions that appeared in both American and European magazines. A welcome addition to any photography lover’s bookshelf, this is an exciting new volume on one of the twentieth century’s most important photographers.
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Jeff Mermelstein is an icon in the world of New York Street photographers.
Having recently left behind the holy grail of street photographers — the Leica — Jeff switched to his camera phone and took to the streets of New York. A master of finding the extraordinary in the banal, Mermelstein fuses his photographs with humour and the playfully odd.
Edited by David Campany this series brings together over 300 images from Mermelstein’s latest oeuvre.
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With Family Car Trouble, Gus Powell plays with the form of the novel, both as material object and as narrative vehicle for expressing interior life. The work records and reckons with the arrival of children, the departure of a father, and the maintenance of a difficult 1992 Volvo 940 station wagon
A new classic of the Automotive Bereavement Parenting genre.
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From 2011 to 2017 Joshua Dudley Greer traveled over 100,000 miles by car, focusing his camera on the massive network of superhighways that has become ubiquitous throughout the United States. Rather than moving quickly through these spaces he made the decision to slowly and deliberately dwell within them, looking at the road as a stage where narratives play out and opposing forces often intersect. The boundaries that line these roadways, whether real or imagined, are examined by looking at the separations between public and private space, privilege and need, the individual and the collective, and the countervailing ideas of home and escape. The resulting compilation of photographs depicts the state of America’s infrastructure as a physical manifestation of its economic, social and environmental circumstances in unforeseen moments of humor, pathos and humanity.
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RED HOOK EDITIONS announces two new books by Jason Eskenazi: Black Garden & Departure Lounge, completing a trilogy together with his first book Wonderland: A Fairy Tale of the Soviet Monolith. The cycle closes, coming full circle back to the beginning: 314 photos numbered sequentially through all 3 books with 9 chapters.
The Black Garden moves into the mythological world of opposites and duality, and concentrates on three main themes: subjugation of women, domination over the animal kingdom, and self-destruction through war. 154 photographs including 9 panoramics were made from 2001–2017 in Turkey, Greece, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Egypt, Libya, and New York. The Departure Lounge‘s 83 photographs were culled from Eskenazi’s archive, dating from 1991 to the present. The images investigate how we depart from reality, from friends, and from ourselves, using the Departure Lounge as the metaphorical room from which we leave.
Matt Weber has been shooting the streets of New York for the past 40 years, many of his images taken while running fares in his New York City taxi cab. His camera captures New York without pretense and with the love and attention that only a native could afford. Each image documenting the small yet extremely significant moments in the life of a city that never sleeps. Street Trip: Life in NYC is a compellingly curated collection of his finest street photography, an authentic look at daily life from someone who has consistently been ‘in the right place, at the right time’. His images are both timely and timeless and tell the stories of real life in the Big Apple in unfiltered and honest detail.
Days & Years, is the second book by photographer Ashly Stohl.
Hardcover, 9.5″x 9.5″, 108 pages
Foreword by Lynn Melnick.This first printing is limited to 750 copies. Of those, 100 are presented as a limited edition including a signed book with one of two prints signed and numbered by the photographer.
From 1982-2001 the American photographer Mark Steinmetz travelled to country fairs, urban street carnivals, and small circuses across the United States, to make photographs of the families, teens and carnies that contain all the warmth and frenetic energy of a day at the Carnival.
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Dubbed a “poet of the ordinary” by the Los Angeles Times, photographer Keith Carter came of age during the turbulent ‘60s and ‘70s, developing a singular, haunting style that captures both the grit and the glory of the human spirit. Showcasing a broad array of his work—which has been shown in more than one hundred solo exhibitions in thirteen countries—Keith Carter: Fifty Years spans delicate, century-old processes as well as digital-age techniques to yield an enduring vision of the world around us.
The interlaced images in Keith Carter: Fifty Years feature contrasts of natural light and darkness as we explore the mythos of time and terrain, the familiar and the magical, and the varied creatures that inhabit our earth. The human form—depleted or energized, solitary or with a beloved partner—becomes a meditation on aging and loss, which have affected Carter profoundly in recent years. Yet these losses have spurred in him a sense of discovery, not despair. Rather than arranging the works chronologically, Carter chose to group them into correlations, echoing the kaleidoscopic effect of memory. The result is mesmerizing; each artifact draws us into an experience of intensity and wonder, enduring long after the page is turned.
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A Minotaur inspired Cretan story
‘Back to Nowhere’ is a twin book of ‘Warn’d in Vain‘, a parallel Argonautica tale from NYC. ‘B.T.N’ was made between 2009-2017 on my island; the only place I ‘ll never have the chance to see how it looks in the eyes of a stranger. ‘W.I.V’ is a stranger’s questionmark inside the world’s most photographed city; made between the years 2014-2017 that I spent 7 months on the other side of the ocean.
Edas WONG is an amateur street photographer from Hong Kong. The public may find his name a bit unfamiliar. However, he has been working hard in photography. Besides keeps publishing his photographs on the web, he has also won many international awards and participated in exhibitions overseas.=
The collection of photographs in “RE-FORM” for pre-sale this time is a series of photographs that Edas started taking in 2012. These photographs are different from street photographs taken casually or those that pay much attention to the composition of images. Edas intended to discard all known understandings and restrictive assumptions and use the way of child’s thinking to re-comprehend the world in front of him. Then he reformed all the elements with unlimited imagination and formed all the interesting photos.
This series of photographic portraits and interviews with Cook County Jail inmates as well as jail social workers and psychologists provides a glimpse of life with mental illness behind bars.
In late 2015, Lili Kobielski began taking portraits of inmates at the Cook County Jail in Chicago. Working in collaboration with Narratively and the Vera Institute of Justice with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, she began documenting the prevalence of mental illness among inmates at Cook County Jail in an effort to humanize the reality of mass incarceration in this country, often of its most vulnerable citizens.
The Cook County Department of Corrections is one of the largest single-site pre-detention facilities in the world, with an average daily population hovering around eight thousand inmates. It is estimated that 35 percent of this population is mentally ill.
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This visually arresting book takes the reader on a journey across the globe by presenting the most candid, immediate, and provocative images captured by the biggest names in street photography from its inception to today.
Capturing daily life in every corner of the world, this sumptuous collection of great street photography shows the very best of the genre. From pre-war gelatin silver prints to 21st-century digital images, from documentary to abstract, from New York’s Central Park to a mountain city in Mongolia, these photographs reveal the many ways street photography moves, informs, and excites us. The book includes work by the likes of Margaret Bourke-White, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Joel Meyerowitz, Gordon Parks, André Kertész, Garry Winogrand, Roger Mayne, and other masters of street photography who pushed the genre’s boundaries and continue to innovate today. Each exquisitely reproduced photograph is presented on a double-page spread and accompanied by an informative text. David Gibson’s insightful introduction traces the history of street photography, reflects on its broad appeal, and looks toward the future of the genre.
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Masters of Street Photography explores the craft and creative secrets of 16 leading lights of the genre. Through probing Q&A style interviews, beautifully reproduced images, captions telling the story of each picture, and detailed technical information, the reader is given an insight into the photographers’ working practices, from their career paths and inspirations, to the equipment, techniques, tropes and tricks they employ to create their breathtaking and visionary works. The result is a book that combines visual inspiration with tried and tested “street smart” advice from leading professionals, providing everything the aspiring street photographer needs to create their own distinctive urban portfolio. Contributors include The Bragdon Brothers, Melissa Breyer, Giacomo Brunelli, Paul Burgess, Sally Davies, George Georgiou, Ash Shinya Kawaoto, Jay Maisel, Jesse Marlow, Dimitri Mellos, Rui Palha, Ed Peters, Alan Schaller, Marina Sersale, Alexey Titarenko, and Martin U Waltz.
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The ultimate collection of street photography from Magnum Photos.
Magnum Streetwise is the definitive collection of street photography from Magnum Photos, and an unparalleled opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the true greats of the genre. An essential addition to the street photography canon, this volume showcases hidden gems alongside many of street photography’s most famous images.
Magnum photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson pioneered modern concepts of street photography before the term was even coined. A rich seam of street photography runs through the heart of Magnum to this day, both in the work of recognized masters of the genre―including Elliott Erwitt, Martin Parr, Bruce Gilden, and Richard Kalvar―and in the work of those who may not think of themselves as street photographers, despite their powerful influence on the current generation of budding artists. Magnum Streetwise is a true visual feast, interleaving insightful text and anecdotes within an intuitive blend of photographer- and theme-focused sections. Ambitious in scope and democratic in nature, Magnum Streetwise is an unmissable tour through the photographs and practices that have helped define what street photography is―and what it can be.
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‘The first thing I always tell anyone who asks me for advice is: “Get outside”.’ – Daido Moriyama
Take an inspiring walk with legendary Japanese street photographer Daido Moriyama as he explains his groundbreaking approach to street photography.
For over half a century, Moriyama has provided a distinct vision of Japan and its people. In Daido Moriyama: How I Take Photographs, he offers a unique opportunity for fans to learn about his methods, the cameras he uses, and the journeys he takes with a camera.
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Hopefully, you all can find something to add to your photo library, or someone else’s. And if you have any recommended books from 2019 to add to the list, comment them below.
Hey everyone, I have an exciting announcement. Starting today, I have a Limited Winter Run of prints for sale for a limited time.
I hold these limited winter print runs once a year for a short time. Most prints are only 1-of-1 and all selections are first time prints. This run comes in a 8″x12″ (20.32 x 30.48 cm) size (similar to A4 size, w/ small .25” white border). Three prints also have a 12″x18″ (30 x 46cm) option. I’ll gift a free signed 8″x10″ for every 2 prints ordered (or 1 larger) as an extra thanks.
They’ll never be available again in this size and print at this price. They all come signed and numbered on the back (shipped in protective packaging). Sale will only be going for two weeks before I get back on the road and since most prints are 1-of-1, get them while you can. Thanks for looking!
Check out the link below to see all the prints available (25) and order:
(Sale ends 12/31/2019)
Thanks and Happy Holidays!
– Forrest
Specials:
*A series of guides on shooting Street Photography in cities around the world. Find the best spots to shoot, things to capture, street walks, street tips, safety concerns, and more for cities around the world. I have personally researched, explored and shot Street Photography in every city that I create a guide for. So you can be ready to capture the streets as soon as you step outside with your camera!
