Recently read Gretchen Garner’s Disappearing Witness: Change in Twentieth-Century American Photography. Decent if selective history of the mainstream movements in American photography in the twentieth century. Nothing revelatory, but all the major names present and correct. Her focus is on the transition of the art from one of ’spontaneous witness’, to late-twentieth century postmodernism. Would have been more interesting (to me), if she’d also dug a bit deeper to explore the corners of photography where ’spontaneous’ witness is still alive and well, if transformed — war photography, perhaps, and of course ’street’ work.

Don’t look at it — just glance! Sometimes in a mere glance one can see more than in the close scrutiny of a thousand details.

Bridget Riley

Vision runs back and forth from objects to eyes, and whatever is seen also sees… seeing is self-definition. Objects look back, and their incoming gaze tells me what I am.

James Elkins — from The Object Stares Back.

Elkins’ books, especially (for me) The Object Stares Back, are fascinating phenomenological pickings-apart of the familiar — art history, perception, representation — into shards of pure revelation. Essential reading.

I’m not attempting to present or represent any particular truth about a night, or the people there, in my nightlife pictures. Nor am I trying to impose any judgement or narrative of my own. Rather, I’m trying to make pictures which combine the actions of people in their worlds, doing their own thing, with my own tools and techniques, to make an image I’m happy with.

The pictures I most like, are built from counterpoint, harmony or dissonance, with and against the rhythms of a night — the ways in which individuals and groups move, the ambient lighting, the music. Knowing what’s going to work as a photo requires getting a feel for the moments when all those come together into something that a particular action with the camera can complete as an interesting image. As I see it, the good shots are ensemble pieces, not solo works created by me as photographer. That’s part explanation also as to why I dislike overly-posed shots: those would simply be a record of someone-else’s performance, with little involvement from me other than selection and framing. Usually that’s not so interesting to me. I guess I feel that photography, in the worlds where I work, can be (and is more interesting when it is), co-performative with the music and style of a night, rather than being simply documentary of those other elements.

I take a lot of frames — not because I’m hoping that some of them will work out, but because I need to learn, for each potential shot, how my potential subjects, as individuals, move in the 1/10 of a second between pressing the release and image capture, how the rhythm of lighting rigs work with rear curtain sync &c , in flow. Learning the environmental and social rhythms of the night is necessary to plan — and planning is a matter of seconds usually — shots that will successfully entangle these factors together with camera movement, depth of field &c to make an image that works. For that to be possible, it is also necessary (tho not sufficient) to understand the tools intimately — to know what technical specifics will add or subtract, change or emphasise in the moment of shooting, to keep the technical planning short and effective.

I’m planning more studio work, and I’m very interested to see how and where I and my subjects can get to something collaborative and improvisational that will work as well for me as the the best of the ‘live’ images from clubland…

The London police have apparently decided that Keeping Track of ‘Dangerous’ Music Scenes will be easier if they mandate the organisers of events to help them keep tabs on both performers and punters, via some new paperwork, Form 696. This is a Bad Thing, and smacks of past efforts to keep young people Firmly In Their Place when it comes to music and nightlife. We’re written about this in more detail over at BigShinyThing — have a read, check out some of the links (including petitions and FaceBook groups dedicated to stopping Form 696 in its tracks), and if you agree with us that the new measures are wrong, then Do Something About It.