“In Magenta” is a series I completed in February 2021. I’ve been trying through the use of a flash off camera and an old reflex to explore my hometown, my neighbours, the beach, where people wander endlessly and dead bodies are carried on the shore, unable to escape. The use of colour is meant to underline the enstrangement between me and what I once called home following the Corona Virus pandemic and the global lockdown.
Densely populated and hyper-connected by technology, people in thriving metropolises are paradoxically growing further apart; some finding solace in their solitude.
Hauptbahnhof, the main train station in Frankfurt Germany, is a major hub for European travel. The skylights generate good light and as I have been there many times, I like to photograph there. All photos are candid and mostly no more than 10 feet away.
Every street photographer has items that attracted them more than others. For me, these are cotton candy, hanging fabrics and mostly… balloons . Balloons are colorful, have a nice shape, seem to dance in the sky and are usually accompanied with playful kids. They can also yield mysterious images by hiding people’s faces. They are for sure a good starting point in a photographic composition
These pictures were born of necessity. As the global Covid-19 pandemic raged during the Summer of 2020, the epidemic of police killings sparked mass Black Lives Matter protests throughout the United States. But as thousands of people took to the streets, I was obliged to shelter at home as the protests, and the often brutal police reaction, played out on screens in television newscasts, live streams, and video uploads, bringing the streets into our homes. And so, I photographed the screens as I watched, a process that distorted reality, just as it paradoxically revealed its intensity and emotion. Although I was physically distant, the images felt intensely present.
The song from Los del Rio* has always told us that Seville has a special color (by the way, I still do not know which one it is). From Benidorm, which also has a “special color”, I found it very quickly: The electric blue. Beyond the “guiri”* tourism and IMSERSO* travellers, Benidorm gives off joy, light and color in all its corners. The Sun of the Levant and the Mediterranean sea, are the main guilties of all this. In this context of almost infinite vacations, is where the electric blue is omnipresent. In the streets, in the buildings, in the posters, in the clothes and of course in the sky and in the sea. Everything is blue. My surrendered look, was seduced by the blue, mainly because escape from it is almost an impossible task. The images of this serie were born from this almost dictatorial charm.*Los del Río: Spanish musical duo characterized by its flamenco style of flamenco pop and flamenco rumba. *Guiri: Colloquial term to refer to foreign tourists. *IMSERSO: Institute of Seniors and Social Services of the Government of Spain.
“Comitiva” is an Italian term that refers to a group of young friends with a close bond of friendship. I met this group of young people along the shores of a small town in southern Italy in the summer of 2020 by chance. We spent a few afternoons together where I captured their daily rituals along the rocky beaches that characterize the landscape of their sea. With this series, I tell the intimate dynamics of a group of friends and their desire to live and be together. Framing the beauty of their youth, they appear to me as timeless bronze statues, and I try to relive the lightheartedness of an Italian summer.
A world unto itself that of the Circus, a world suspended in its elusive and eclectic universe with unpredictable declinations of colors, shapes, sounds and smells. Where everything seems the opposite of everything and what appears is not or perhaps is only the instant stolen from the imagination of a constantly changing scenario, always poised between reality and dreams. The images are only part of the work that involved an autistic girl who lives in the circus. The project ended with the creation of a book.
Each of the pictures of Columns, Poles and Trees“ combines a formal element of composition – the vertical line – with the spontaneity of street photography. Thus, the series aims to explore the interplay of formality and freedom. In composition, strong lines divide the basic area of a picture into several smaller sections. Harald Mante, author of The Photograph: Composition and Color Design“ writes that vertical lines suggest closeness and warmth – contrasting the effect of horizontal lines suggesting distance and coolness. This resonates well with the intention of street photography to draw us into various urban scenes. Street photography also intends to capture unique moments within everyday life and tells little stories about them. In the series the vertical elements are integrated into these little stories. We see people partly hidden behind a tree, leaning against a pole or fingers grabbing a pole.
Hi there, last year was special for everyone, i focused on the citizens of my little town of Rodez in the south of France as we was living between the multiple levels of lockdown. I was participating for the Ricoh GR challenge with all the finalists of the Spi awards 2020 and i have to say that it was a special moment with a lot of luck and good energy. This kind of times when things happen with an idea in it, i feel i just have to capture them in the timing. I selected this ten photos because of the short period in witch i did them and it seems to me that they fit well with each others and making a good série of how i saw my city and the ones who was living it with me in this hard cover situation, maybe i needed to put more creativity into my work to balance. I only used the Ricoh GR3 for this série. Thanks a lot for your time !
I love shooting in Tel Aviv , It is such a vibrant city and events like pride parade attract various interesting characters. Because of our strong summer sun I’ve started to use flash , I like the results , it brings out a little bit harsh reality , peals the masks off.
Scalpels of the Sun In Mexico the sun defines how we experience the street. Its twin scalpels of light and shadow often appear to sculpt the public space into a magical realist’s creation of mystery and high drama. As a matter of fact, however, my camera only recorded the typically random events of daily life.
Amongst other things these photographs depict a child at a carnival , a commuter waiting for a bus, and a dog leaping over a city wall. But maybe it’s sometimes better to suspend our faith in the camera’s ability to render definitive narratives, and instead embrace its ability to generate ambiguous meanings and reverie. It’s in that spirit that I made these photographs, and now invite viewers to engage with them.
David Gibson (1957) is a British street photographer and writer on photography. He was a member of the UP Photographers street photography collective.
Gibson’s books include The Street Photographer’s Manual (2014) and 100 Great Street Photographs(2017) / Street Photography: a History in 100 Iconic Images (2019). His photography has been published in a number of survey publications on street photography, and exhibited in group exhibitions in Britain (including at the Museum of London, which acquired his work for its permanent collection), at the Museum of the City of New York, and in France, Bangkok and Stockholm.
Italian Street Photography Festival
Andrea Bruce is an award winning documentary photographer whose work focuses on people living in the aftermath of war. She concentrates on the social issues that are sometimes ignored and often ignited in war’s wake. Her clients include National Geographic and The New York Times as well as many publications around the globe. Andrea was a 2016 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University where she studied political theory and democracy. Andrea started working in Iraq in 2003, bringing a local reporter’s knack for intimacy and community focus to the lives of Iraqis and the US military. For over ten years she has chronicled the world’s most troubled areas, focusing on Iraq and Afghanistan. For eight years she worked as a staff photographer for The Washington Post, where she originated and authored a weekly column called “Unseen Iraq.”
David Campany is a writer, curator and artist, working mainly with photography.
This website is an archive of David’s published writings, with information about curatorial projects.
His books include A Handful of Dust (2015), The Open Road: photographic road trips across America (2014), Walker Evans: the magazine work (2014), Gasoline (2013), Jeff Wall: Picture for Women (2010), Photography and Cinema (2008) and Art and Photography (2003). He also writes for Frieze, Aperture, Art Review, FOAM, Source, Photoworks and Tate magazine.
Recent curatorial projects include Dust (Le Bal, Paris, 2015) Walker Evans: anonymous (Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France, 2015), Lewis Baltz: Common Objects (Le Bal, Paris 2014), Victor Burgin: A Sense of Place (AmbikaP3 London, 2013), Mark Neville: Deeds Not Words (The Photographers’ Gallery London, 2013) and Anonymes: Unnamed America in Photography and Film (Le Bal Paris, 2010).
David has a Phd and teaches at the University of Westminster, London.
Anna Godfrey is the London-based Commissioning Editor for Prestel, the international arts publishing house. Prestel publishes award-winning books on photography, art, architecture, design and fashion. These include best-selling street photography titles such as, ‘100 Great Street Photographs’ (2017), ‘Street Photography: A History in 100 Iconic Photographs’ (2019) and Anna’s recent project, ‘Women Street Photographers’ (2021); the first book on women street photographers which collates the work of 100 contemporary women to explore the intersection of public space, photography, gender and power. Anna’s publications have been reviewed and featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue, i-D and many more.
Nikos Economopoulos was born in the Peloponnese, Greece. He studied law in Parma, Italy, and worked as a journalist. In 1988, he started photographing in Greece and Turkey, and eventually abandoned journalism to dedicate himself to photography.
He joined Magnum in 1990, and his photographs began appearing in newspapers and magazines around the world.
In the same period, he started traveling and photographing extensively around the Balkans. The work in the Balkans won him the Mother Jones Award (San Francisco, CA) for work in progress. Upon the completion of his Balkans project in 1994, he became a full member of Magnum. His book In The Balkans was published in 1995 in New York (Abrams) and in Athens (Libro).
Masoud Gharaei was born in March 1988, he is a photographer. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in particular documenting the social classes. He is also the founder of Street Photographers foundation.