heres a few photos i took while walking around nyc with jeff spirer... please let me know what you all think if anything...and i'll bet you can't tell which cam and lens i used for any of these! :)
Nyc 1
Nyc 2
hope that works... :)

-- grant (lotusphotography@yahoo.com), May 08, 2002

Answers

What film and developer, please?

-- Bill (bmitch@comcast.net), May 08, 2002.

why would you want to know that?

-- grant (lotusphotography@yahoo.com), May 08, 2002.

Love em. Thanks for sharing. I don't have a clue on the camera. Something between a Leica and a Lomo? Makes me want to pack it off to city.

-- Ronald Wills (youngdeer@earthlink.net), May 08, 2002.

just to make it fair, i'll tell you the cameras. a minox, a leica, a hexar, and a contax. :)

-- grant (lotusphotography@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

Shooting from the hip?

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), May 09, 2002.

Well in that case the photo shot with the Leica is clearly superior which ever one it is...and I especially like the 1st photo (2men); very Winogrand-ish. Very nice.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), May 09, 2002.

Grant,

A lot of goodies..my favourite - 'Splat'. Truly excellent.

-- William Westergren (westergren@skynet.be), May 09, 2002.

is this some kind of experiment? shooting with eyes closed?

-- Dexter Legaspi (dalegaspi@hotmail.com), May 09, 2002.

Love your stuff Grant, creative and has really inspired me. But I have to ask also, what film and developer? I really like the "look" and are these scanned negs, or prints?

Thanks and keep up the good work.

-- john tomljenovic (zadar72@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

Grant, you were inspired that day. Or, is it everyday? Seriously, while they are not all great shots, each one has something of interest regarding subject or approach or both, and seeing them in a slide show format enhances the whole set. It's like we're walking along with you. I particularly like the shots from the train and the last one of the woman's legs cracks me up. Mind if it becomes my computer wallpaper for a few days?

Sincerely,

-- Carl (cpultz@earthlink.net), May 09, 2002.

my cameras are acutally used, yes....they cant seem to live without film in them, something you guys might wanna try sometime....

-- grant (lotusphotography@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

grant,

you should use a contax G2 more and a larger # of photos would be in focus ;-)

seriously, i'm sure you had a real nice day w/ jeff. some of the photos are real keepers (very creative and thought provoking, i.e. the impressions/experience from watching them are not obvious, it forces one to think a bit, evaluate.) also, biggest collection of backs and buts I've seen in a while :-)

thanks for sharing, don't hesitate to post more

cheers,

pat

-- pat (modlabs@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

I wonder if anyone has worked out how many pictures of butts that leica cameras have been used to take pictures of (in the name of street photography, of course!) ;)

j

-- jim (jverner@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

at least a million and a half with mine alone...

-- grant (lotusphotography@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

Grant is a very bad influence on me...

Blood Line, Copyright 2002 Jeff Spirer

Shot while harassing New York with Grant...

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), May 09, 2002.

jeff, that is the funniest pix i've seen in quite a while :-)

-- pat (modlabs@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

well damn, now i gotta post another one.. :)



-- grant (lotusphotography@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

Remember how distressed people became when John Chan posted such a shot? The woman in the auto showroom . . .

-- Preston Merchant (merchant@speakeasy.org), May 09, 2002.

A similar thread:

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=008Bvl

-- Preston Merchant (merchant@speakeasy.org), May 09, 2002.

To what do we owe our new-found collective depravation? Any guesses? ;^)

-- Preston Merchant (merchant@speakeasy.org), May 09, 2002.

well, the point w/ Jeff's phot is not the girl's rear per se, but rather the moment he captured, the ambience, the look in the people faces. bottom line - a funny moment!

-- pat (modlabs@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

(Sigh...) another bunch ot B&W, tilted, out-of-focus, shot-from-behind amateurish clichŽs. Congratulations on towing the SP-party line, but otherwise there's nothing to distinguish this set from the 100s of other monkey-cam images out there.

The 2nd colour shot of the woman's posterior only underscores the point. Really creepy mate. This is exactly the kind of sleezy, cowardly, one-handed-kid's-stuff which is making legitimate candid people photography harder and in some places even illegal to do.

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), May 09, 2002.

(Sigh...) another bunch ot B&W, tilted, out-of-focus, shot-from- behind...

well, someone might have thought that Winogrand has a lot of tilted shots, trying to tilt those blurry, out-of-focus images will make them look cool...heh.

-- Dexter Legaspi (dalegaspi@hotmail.com), May 09, 2002.

i guess opinions are much like buts - everyone has one... (and are rightfully entitled to it)

-- pat (modlabs@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

trying to tilt those blurry, out-of-focus images will make them look cool...heh

Hmmm, just like pretenting to play a piano by banging randomly on the keyboard with clenched fists… ;?)

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), May 09, 2002.

i dont believe ive seen your pix before andrew....you got any??

-- grant (lotusphotography@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.

How about them buns?

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), May 09, 2002.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), May 09, 2002.

i dont believe ive seen your pix before andrew....you got any??

About a hundred online - see 4020.net

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), May 10, 2002.

ha, thats a funny site....and you're raggin on me??

-- grant (lotusphotography@yahoo.com), May 10, 2002.

ha, thats a funny site....

Hmm, a strange and somewhat befuddled remark.

and you're raggin on me??

Not so much "raggin" as reality-checking.

Listen, there are no short-cuts to glory. Take then time to learn and practice your craft and then one day, in a few years from now, you'll be producing professional quality and meaningful work.

Leave the lazy mediocrity for kids or newbies or happy snappers who have no idea what they are doing (and have no interest in learning).

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), May 10, 2002.

Andrew,
You got to be kidding! Right? If Grant's photographs were half bad, then maybe I could understand your harsh comments, but many of them are playful, dynamic and have an edge.
You do not have to be a master photographer to offer useful criticism, but when you are trashing someone’s photographs without constructive arguments, you reverse the focus upon yourself.
When looking at your series ‘Everyday Life’ for example; Does it raise above mediocrity? It it meaningful work?
Would you allow criticsm (in the same spirit you give it yourself)? - and would you listen?
-Or did you just have a bad day?

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), May 11, 2002.

Does it raise above mediocrity?

Yes, way above it.

It it meaningful work?

Of course it is. I appear to be the only candid photographer working in the west (or at least in Sydney) who photographs people from the front, in colour. My subjects aren't mugging at the camera, nor are they pets, acquaintances or great-grandchildren (the usual PAW Leica fare).

Would you allow criticsm (in the same spirit you give it yourself)?

Again, of course.

and would you listen?

I would listen exactly as much as others listen to me. ;?)

Constructive criticism…

There's nothing to be "constructive" about. The guy clearly has to learn how to take photographs. Focus. Composition. Framing. Film choice. How to use the aperture ring to control focal depth. How to use shutter speed to freeze movement. How to draw inspiration from life, rather than merely copying the (poor) techniques of other newbies…

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), May 11, 2002.

I enjoyed your photos....thanks for posting them.

-- allen herbert (allen1@btinternet.com), May 11, 2002.

andrew, ever hear of william klein? daido moriyama? garry winogrand? just curious....

your pix are the fronts of people, and in color. thats an achievement? your photos lack any and all quality of diverse light. most are flat and quite bland. no real atmosphere. focus and sharpness cant make up for lack of feel, and a sense of time and place....

-- grant (lotusphotography@yahoo.com), May 11, 2002.

Hi Grant, These pics are amazing! Much magic for my inner eye.Thanks for the real in-SIGHT and inspiration!

-- Emile de Leon (knightpeople@msn.com), May 11, 2002.

william klein?

yes - but he's not taking any photos now is he?

daido moriyama?

The moma pin-up boy? If a Curator of Photography somewhere says something is good, it's gotta be good right?

garry winogrand?

Is more interesting. I have one of his books - ' The Man in the Crowd' - and you can see that the care and quality of his work deteriorated as he got older and more famous. Careful compositions gave way to lazy monkey-cam clutter.

Furthermore, Winograd worked hard at his craft and relied on shooting literally 1000s of images in a scatter-gun approach just so he could get just one keeper. Unthinking, starry-eyed acolytes should keep this in mind when they pretend to draw inspiration from him, just so they can lazily avoid having to learn even the most basic rudiments of taking photographs…

Listen, clearly you have no idea what I am talking about and looking at all the enthusiastic fan-mail you've attracted, clearly I'm out of sync with groupthink here. So there's little point in my contributing to this topic anymore. Only time will tell if your or my images will be unique and interesting enough to stand the test of time.

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), May 12, 2002.

Simply put....yes.

You should try life from the other side Grant, you will find it takes talent. The backs are really easy. I've always found it rather bizarre that people will buy the 'best' cameras and lenses and then take uncomposed, unfocussed, etc., photos with them. You could get as good (maybe better) results with a cheesy plastic bodied Canon SLR and auto-everything zoom setup.

And, Andrew, even though you don't need the reassurance, some of us do know what you are talking about and showing. Your work will last and have meaning well into the future.

-- Ian MacEachern (iwmac@sympatico.ca), May 12, 2002.

Well here I am again, the critic police. Just because one photographer shoots nice stuff doesn't mean their POV is the rule. Diverse work simply underscores the amazing versitility of a simple piece of equipment to express a very personal vision. Personally, I like that the work is all over the place in terms of approach. Worrying if the body of work will stand the test of time is really sort of ridiculous, isn't it? 99.99% of the photos taken for purposes of personal expression will die with the taker. We should enjoy the present. Shoot. Post. Look. Learn. And maybe, just maybe, in the process become a little more aware of life around us.

-- Marc Williams (mwilliams111313MI@comcast.net), May 12, 2002.