your guide to everything photo december / …the charm of the soviet lomo lc-a camera. essentially,...

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DECEMBER / JANUARY 2020_V. 45, N. 1CONTENTS

EXPOSURE04 EDITORIAL

06 CONTRIBUTORS

06 THIS AND THAT

10 THE COMMUNITY A DIFFERENT NARRATIVE LISTENING DEEPLY FOR A MORE LAYERED STORY

VISION16 WISDOM, WIT AND OTHER TIDBITS EXCERPTS FROM OUR INTERVIEW WITH MARLENE CREATES Marlene Creates explores the relationship between humans, language and the land. 20 RISE OF THE SHADOW WORLD A REFLECTION ON STREET PHOTOGRAPHY Every image becomes part of a legacy. Every single one, regardless of its photographic

value or where it was taken. But street photography holds a special place in the vast spectrum of genres because cities, big or small, are miniatures of society as a whole.

30 SHOWTIME SPORTS

TOOLBOX32 THE PHOTO ESSAY RECONSIDERING 11 CLASSIC PHOTOJOURNALISM RULES In a photo essay, the images are everything, and the photographer is the author.

Crafting an essay allows us to be storytellers, and the process immerses us in people’s lives, creating opportunities for human connection and profound images you just can’t get from dropping in.

42 TRICKS OF THE TRADE THE VISUAL INVENTORY FIND THE CREATIVE POTENTIAL OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS Many would argue that photography is much more of a creative endeavour than a

technical one. And, if that’s the case, perhaps creative skill sets should—at least at times—take centre stage and greater importance in our development?

44 THE JOY OF TOY CAMERAS TRY A LO-FI APPROACH TO CONQUER MONOTONY Consistency in photography is a good thing. When we are consistent in our approach

and style, our images take on a signature. But another name for consistency is repetition, and repetition can lead to apathy and boredom. Enter the toy camera.

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THE PHOTO ESSAY RECONSIDERING 11 CLASSIC PHOTOJOURNALISM RULES

BY AMBER BRACKEN

What moves a photo beyond the literal, beyond the surface beauty, is its power to say something with visual language. It’s an opportunity for authorship. So often in daily reporting, photographs serve as illustration for the larger ideas covered by a writer. But in a photo essay, the images are everything, and the photographer is the author. Crafting an essay allows us to be storytellers, and the process immerses us in people’s lives, creating opportunities for human connection and profound images you just can’t get from dropping in.

But how do we go about building these relationships and crafting our ideas? How do we get people to care? Classic journalism-school essay advice is a solid place to start. But, like all things in the practice of photography, nothing is a perfect fit for every practice. Canadian photographers and documentarians Tim Smith, Jen Osborne and Darren Calabrese discussed nuance in the traditional rules and their individual experiences finding, making and editing photo essays. The following observations are excerpts from that conversation.

FINDThe first step is always deciding where to focus your attention and planning for success. Questions to consider include: How will this project add to discourse on the topic? What are you trying to accomplish, and, especially when photographing vulnerable communities, what are potential risks for the people you plan to photograph? How will you stay engaged over the course of the project, and how can you be prepared for the challenges ahead?

RULE 1“PUSH BEYOND YOUR COMFORT ZONE.”Journalism instructors are often pushing students to step outside their families and circle of friends for their topics. This is useful for learning how to get comfortable with the social awkwardness that comes with being a documentary photographer. But at the same time, “insider” stories are sometimes the best—or only—way of telling a story (e.g., family life in conservative cultures). “A ‘stick to what you know’ kind of mentality can gain you greater insight and access,” says Jen Osborne.

RULE 2“FIND WHAT WILL HOLD YOUR INTEREST.”Compelling work typically takes time, so consider a topic that is likely to keep you engaged. Look for something that connects to your deeper interests rather than getting caught up in the news cycle. Osborne’s projects are sometimes based on an idea she gets obsessed with. She believes that “finding an overall area of interest helps one find smaller stories that play into a bigger picture.” Osborne has been researching and shooting stories within the theme of escapism for the past 12 years. She also highlights the need for visual potential in a piece: not all compelling stories are best told photographically. Being able to recognize stories that will produce striking images to capture attention is an important part of the process.

Both Tim Smith and Darren Calabrese work in rural areas and allow the region to lead their interest. Smith is known for his long-term work in Prairie Hutterite communities, and Calabrese explores Canada’s eastern coast. Smith says he focuses on what is nearby with the hope that his more intimate knowledge helps him to cover a topic more fully and with better commitment than an outsider would. He says, “I really take the ‘find a story in your own backyard’ advice to heart.”

RULE 3“BE PREPARED.”Research, research, research. Become an expert in the topic, and find a minimum of two contacts on the ground. Field time is valuable, so don’t miss opportunities by being unprepared or waste time doorknocking when you could be making pictures. Osborne and Smith both also prepare by using a storyboard process to brainstorm scenarios that may yield photos they want. “I can kind of set up what events I attend or what elements of the story are photographed at what time of the day, based on those portraits that I want or those action pictures that I need. But the rest, that stuff I can’t storyboard, that’s just the magic of discovery,” continues Osborne. Calabrese mentions that he likes to float the work to editors to gauge their interest before embarking on a project. Investing in stories is expensive, and, adds the father of two, “I have day-care bills to pay.” Continued on page 37

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THE JOY OF TOY CAMERASTRY A LO-FI APPROACH TO CONQUER MONOTONY

BY MICHAEL ERNEST SWEET

I believe photography should be fun. Even when we are compelled to buckle down and make a living through commercial work, we should still strive to be in touch with the art of it all, shouldn’t we? Consistency in photography is a good thing. When we are consistent in our approach and style, our images take on a signature, which can often be a critical first step toward a lasting legacy for our work. But another name for consistency is repetition, and repetition can lead to apathy and boredom. Enter the toy camera. In this article, we’ll explore how the toy camera can help free us from the familiarity of our digital set-up and re-energize and reinspire our practice, making photography nothing but pure joy.

THE ORIGINS OF THE CRAZEIn 1992, the Lomography Society was formed in Vienna by a group of students that had discovered the charm of the Soviet Lomo LC-A camera. Essentially, the LC-A is a cheap plastic 35-mm camera that produces unpredictable results. This unpredictability was indeed the X factor that captivated and inspired those students. It freed them from overthinking their photography, and, hence, the motto of the society was born: “Don’t think, just shoot!” Despite the fact that Lomography has come to dominate the genre of toy photography, the Lomo wasn’t the first toy camera by far. In fact, toy cameras, arguably, have been around as long as the camera itself. I’m thinking of the pinhole, for example. The fundamental idea behind a “toy camera” is simplicity—the simplicity of the tool itself as well as how it is used.

In the age of all things digital, it might seem, at first blush, that this craze around toy cameras is a product of too many pixels in our lives. In some ways, this may be true. But toy cameras have long

been a part of photographic history, and, over time, some of them have become icons. One such camera is the Diana, which first appeared in the early ’60s. The Diana was (and still is, largely) an inexpensive box camera that wholesaled in the U.S. for a mere fifty cents per unit. Recording on 120-mm film, the camera was renowned for its dreamy imaging and heavy vignetting. Later, the ’80s would give birth to another icon, the Holga. The Holga has been released in a wide array of variants and film formats, but the concept remains the same— impulsive, dreamy images captured through a plastic lens. Not all toy cameras have a plastic lens, especially in more contemporary times, but it is a characteristic very likely to be present. What the digital age has contributed to the toy camera craze is megapixels. Well, perhaps not so mega: the Harinezumi, a cult classic from the Japanese market, produces images with just a 3-megapixel sensor. Toy cameras span nearly all eras and all technologies, including digital, but, as a general rule, the genre is about film-based photography, normally with plastic-lens cameras from the 1960s to the present.

THE BENEFITSReturning to the idea of the toy camera as an approach to photography, let’s consider what they can bring to the table in our current, visually saturated world. One might say you’d have to live under a rock to not be familiar with photo filters—or at least their look. Instagram popularized this tap-and-go method of adding “charm” to images shortly after its launch nearly a decade ago. So why not just use Instagram? Well, you can. But remember: a lot of what people appreciate about toy cameras is the image-making approach they engender. You know your randomness will be, well, genuinely random, and the unique will actually be unique. And, finally, and perhaps most importantly, you create in the dark, blind to what you’ve captured.

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your guide to everything photo december / …the charm of the soviet lomo lc-a camera. essentially,...

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