Paul Kessel
After a career in clinical psychology and university teaching, I began photography late in life. (one-month shy of my 70th birthday).
I always owned a camera before this time but rarely used it. In 2008 I started photography courses at The International Center of Photography in NYC and never stopped until ten years later. Originally, I was interested in portrait photography but discovered
street photography and became immersed in it.
I became a street photography workshop junkie and I feel that I have learned from some of the best. Now when I am outside, my camera is always with me and ready.
I worked on projects for a number of years. All culminated in self-published “Blurb Books”. There are 18 of them. More recently, I shoot randomly with the hope of finding an interesting image. My random street photography is self-published in the Blurb Book, “Never the Final Edit, version 6”.
I have been in about 85 group exhibitions. Some are by invitation and most are from contests. In addition, I have had 3 solo shows at NYC Galleries.
I have been a Finalist in the Miami Street Festival twice (2017 and 2018), the San Francisco Streetfoto Festival, the London Street Festival, and I was the winner of the most recent Los Angeles street contest (“Shooting Around the World_LACP 2020). I was a Lens Culture Street Finalist (2016, 2020) and won 3rd place award in 2020.
I have also been the winner of a few other events, nationally and internationally.
I treat street photography as a sport and I have yet to hit a homerun, a hole in one, or a 3 pointer from mid court. It is the quest and the elusiveness of a truly good photograph that keeps me going.
About The Collection
The twenty pictures included here are mostly relatively recent and are not necessarily part of a particular project. Most of them are culled from a project I had worked on, but many are random photos in public places, typically the street but sometimes on the beach, subway, or elsewhere. Most of these photographs have appeared in exhibitions. Some may appear to be portraits but all twenty are candid. I prefer to photograph multi-layered street scenes, but I often settle for a candid portrait with a bit of context.
