Guardian Photographer of the year – 2015 Shortlist

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Olivia Harris: A cosplayer poses at the 2015 Comic Fiesta event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. London-born Harris is based in Kuala Lumpur for Reuters. She covered news and features in London before moving to South-east Asia, where her images often make our photo highlights selections.

Some compelling pictures here:

Photographer of the year – 2015 shortlist: atrocities in Paris and Syria, bodybuilders in PalestineSpanning the human cost of air strikes in Syria and the refugee crisis, child jockeys, forest fires and Boris Johnson taking a tumble, here are the most incredible images that agency photographers sent to our picture desk this year. The overall winner will be announced on 21 December

Source: Photographer of the year – 2015 shortlist.

Some 40 plus pictures appear here – all but two of them feature people. Compare that to my pictures almost none of which have any people in them. I guess I shouldn’t look forward to appearing on the Guardian pictures of the year short list any time soon. After all this is the Guardian and newspapers tend to focus on reportage and photojournalism so I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised.

I look forward to hearing who the ultimate winner is.

Perfect and Unrehearsed

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Source: Perfect and Unrehearsed

Interesting take on Cartier-Bresson’s “The Decisive Moment” with, as always from Lens, lot’s of great pictures. I’ve always been a bit confused by exactly what was meant by the “decisive moment”. This article helps a lot in clarifying things. The definition that I’ve heard most goes something along the lines of “the single short moment in time when everything comes together perfectly”. The moment comes and then is gone and can never be recaptured.

This article points out, however, that the original French title of Cartier-Bresson’s book was “‘‘Images à la Sauvette’’, which means “images taken on the sly”. In the article photographer Alex Webb suggests (in conversation with the article’s author) that:

To limit Cartier-Bresson’s photos to just a single moment misses the point. As Webb told me, Cartier-Bresson allowed him to see that there are ‘‘often multiple potential moments to discover in many situations — and that different photographers will find different moments.’’

There’s no single right answer, just as there’s no photographic formula.

Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) at 40

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Elliott Erwitt, Jackie Kennedy at Funeral, 1963, portfolio 1980

The greatest names in American photography are to be exhibited in one place as the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago turns 40. Over 100 pictures will be on show from its permanent collection including Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, Walker Evans and Robert Frank. It opens 28 January 2016 and runs until 10 April

The Guardian piece provides examples of 15 of the works.

Source: The very best of American photography – in pictures | Culture | The Guardian

Tuba Quintet

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New York circa 1915. “Police tuba players.” HALT OR WE’LL TOOT. 5×7 inch glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

About 45 years ago I was a semi-professional trumpet player. By semi-professional I mean that I was paid, but not an awful lot. It did give me an opportunity to travel around the UK quite a bit and to play in some nice venues (e.g. York Minister; the Royal Albert Hall). I thoroughly enjoyed it, but then real life crept in and I moved on to other things – specifically working with the United Nations for 38 years. I’ve always retained a love of brass instruments and music that features them so I was excited to come across the wonderful picture. Look at the expressions on their faces: the guy in the middle seems to really be enjoying himself; the one on the left looks as if he’s supervising; the one second from right looks as if he’s been told to pretend that he’s playing. I found myself wondering what they might be playing: maybe Berlioz March to the Scaffold arranged for five tubas as seen in this video (thus proving that tuba quintets do actually exist. If you ‘google’ ‘tube quintet’ a surprising amount comes up):

Source: Brass Coppers: 1915 | Shorpy Historic Picture Archive