2014.09.29 Paris Street Photography / September 29, 2014 by Tom Glendinning

Last April I went to Paris.

This blog post is testament to my usual mess of personal project backlogs. The Paris - Architecture set is still in creation as well…

Similar to when I visited Barcelona I marvelled in Paris the proliferation of human life and business taking place outdoors. In Barca it was all about the squares and boulevards. In Paris everything seemingly takes place on the street, or where there are cars - lining the pavements.

My official line on candid street photography:

I enjoy making candid photography, capturing natural behaviour unbeknownst to the subject, and being an invisible eye onto the poetry of ordinary lives. Cartier-Bresson is my idol in this field of photography, where you must find a calm, unassuming confidence to be able to dissolve into the crowd.

Appearing, taking the photograph, hiding: his style of unmeditated, spontaneous photography has greatly influenced my attitude and purpose

The results of the trip broke down into 5 sets:

Movement - literally ‘Removal’

4 - Calme

Stillness

5 - Café

The epicentre of them all.

As always cutting criticism and comments via email (tomglendinning.photography@gmail.com) or facebook , are hugely helpful and welcome.

Tourisme

Voyager

Déménanger

Calme

Café

2013.07.31 Bulgaria Street Photography / July 31, 2013 by Mister Tom

A collection of some street photography taken whilst in Bulgaria - not as much as I would have liked but hey.

Mostly from a trip to Plovdiv.

13. 21/7/13

"… after a pleasant drive we get into Plovdiv despite Bobby's navigation :).

Most of the day is spent wandering the old town, which is an interesting mix of picturesque old architectural styles, old broken streets and rough edges. I teach Tedi some tips how to use her camera and get her excited!"

14. 22/7

"…we head out to the architecture school where Tedi is doing her internship and take some cityscapes whilst up on the building's 11th story terrace." [Via a Soviet lift which struggled opening its own doors and needed a hand..]

As usual you also can view this set on Flickr

As always cutting criticism and comments via email (tomglendinning.photography@gmail.com) or

facebook

, are hugely helpful and welcome.

If you don't like something then please, tell me - Also try to articulate why, it is tremendously useful to have constructive, critical feedback.

1 Duo

2 Walk over what is past

7 Bloc Utopic

8 Peace. People. Plov.

9 sories

11 Make your space

12 Dream Back

13 Dream Forward

15 hang

Cityscapes from SOFIA:

19 Think for yourself

2013.07.29 Protest in Sofia II / July 29, 2013 by Mister Tom

4. 12/7/13

"In the evening we go protesting again, this time a slightly different route which passes the be cathedral … and also centres on the 'occupy Sofia' surrounding a war statue opposite the parliament building. As before we meet fun and enthusiastic people willing to talk, but there are loads more this time (no rain) [numbers dwindle later on but the first march around the route was pretty big] and many more police lining the route. All is peaceful (if loud) and we see several times policemen happily posing for photos with protesters or smiling and chatting away, evidently pleased with the whole affair [nb: not all like this, but enough to be noticeable and affect the mood they might otherwise create.]

Most heartening is that with little or no central organisation, every person out on the streets has made a personal choice and effort to join and come every evening."

[I feel that the protests have already had an essential impact besides the political goals: They have called on everyone who (like Bobby) felt that they were in a small minority in opposing the government and the way things are in the country, brought them together and shown them to be bright, positive and many.]

"…also we bump into the German guys again - pure coincidence! Bobby's sign gets a good many photographs and nods of approval, and I take more care with my photos so hopefully I will have better results."

As usual you also can view this set on Flickr

As always cutting criticism and comments via email (tomglendinning.photography@gmail.com) or

facebook

, are hugely helpful and welcome.

If you don't like something then please, tell me - Also try to articulate why, it is tremendously useful to have constructive, critical feedback.

1 Occupy

2 Coverage

4 Examples

5 Start them Young

11 Ostavka !!!

12 Protest Sale Now On!

19 EU Support for protests

2013.07.09 Protests in Sofia / July 26, 2013 by Mister Tom

Written previously with no internet:

I am in Bulgaria!

Holiday time is here and my camera and new 24-70 f2.8 L lens are making full use of the time away from all responsibility.

To dive straight into it with this first post, I will explain with an extract from my journal, which as mentioned previously I keep whenever on holiday in beautiful moleskins :)

1. 9/7/13

"…and then head out to join the protests calling for the resignation of the current government…, now in it's 26th day of peaceful evening marches. On the way we pass a small [well, over 50 people, not thousands though] group of mostly young men marching in the streets, deafeningly loud with whistles and drums. It was pretty intimidating and the atmosphere felt to me uncomfortably aggressive - the protest we join is very different. We enter the crowd gradually, it becoming denser in stages of people moving toward the centre. There is a big range of people, with many families, small children, teenagers, middle ages and many our age. Everyone is evidently having a good time - and all are smiles and easy going, despite the noise and the shouted slogans there is no undercurrent of anger.

People are out in force with cameras and what looks like full news coverage film teams. Bobby spots a female news reporter (recognised from TV), and comments that what with censorship and falsifying in the media many journalists may have quit.

Everyone, especially those with a slogan sign or costume [often witty and laugh out loud funny], are happy to be photographed. I find myself meeting people by taking their photo.

It really feels great to be a part of the crowd with such an undercurrent of good feeling, [if only directed at one another, definitely there was frustration and anger at the situation and the politics, but protest through humour was definitely in force.] There was no wish for violence or retaliatory justice, just peace and change to an operational system that supports the people rather than just itself.

As usual you also can view this set on Flickr

As always cutting criticism and comments via email (tomglendinning.photography@gmail.com) or

facebook

, are hugely helpful and welcome.

If you don't like something then please, tell me - Also try to articulate why, it is tremendously useful to have constructive, critical feedback.

3 People vs Greed

5 Protest is pointless

9 Communisticus Bulgaricus

10 Journalists Discussing Politics

11 Red Angry Grannies

12 Flag is Nation

13 Nation is Flag

14 Nation is People

15 People make Nations

Southside Project, Twerton, Bath / June 12, 2013 by Mister Tom

This is a departure from normal projects and posts.

Meaning I got paid for this one! Hurrah!

So all thanks to Jackson Kingsley who asked me to help him out for this job. We took both my cameras and took all the shots together. Below are photos by him and me in no particular order.

He is a cinematographer also living in Widcombe, he makes great short films and arguably even better barbecues.

Check out his showreel and work at his website:

http://www.jacksonkingsley.com/

This project was to provide photographic material for a media company, pitching for a job to make a documentary film and accompanying book to raise awareness for the Southside Project in Bath. This is a locally organised family support group in Twerton, which in stark conrtast to most of Bath is actually a deprived area and very much outside of most Bath resident's radars.

http://www.south-side.org.uk/

Seen below is a selection of the shoot used for the pitch. The idea was to demonstrate a very much 'as-found' documentary view of Twerton. Most striking was the almost complete lack of people from streets and multiple green parks on a sunny sunday half term holiday afternoon. The shut up shops, (except bargain booze and co-ops) aside from the more obvious state of disrepair and neglect; in comparison to the more, 'select' shall we say, spots in town.

As usual you also can view the set on Flickr

As always cutting criticism and comments via email (tomglendinning.photography@gmail.com) or

facebook

, are hugely helpful and welcome.

If you don't like something then please, tell me - Also try to articulate why, it is tremendously useful to have constructive, critical feedback.

TWERTON

BATH

Llangranog Candid Kids / April 27, 2013 by Mister Tom

An addition to the Llangranog post - these were a few candid shots I took of kids playing on the sands at Llangranog.

As usual you also can view the set on Flickr

As always cutting criticism and comments via email (tomglendinning.photography@gmail.com) or

facebook

, are hugely helpful and welcome.

If you don't like something then please tell me - and try to articulate why, it is tremendously useful to have feedback like this.

Llangranog Beach 1

'Intense Concentration in Construction'

Llangranog Beach 2

'Bravery'

Llangranog Beach 3

'Flee!'

Llangranog Beach 4

'Big world to run away into'

Llangranog Beach 5

'Wet Pitch Conditions'

Llangranog Beach 6

'Tide Stops Play'

Street Photography / March 19, 2013 by Mister Tom

First post for a while now. I am becoming more consistent but what with work and limited time where I feel creative enough to sit at my computer and pick and edit, large photographic events like my recent short holiday to Barcelona take an age to publish.

This is part one of that holiday.

I love making street photography and it is one of my favourite forms of photographic art. It is so fleeting and unexpected, it tells stories in an instant and it is sheer joy to be there to capture.

Extract from my

website

on candid street photography:

Appearing, taking the photograph, hiding: his style of unmeditated, spontaneous photography has greatly influenced my attitude and purpose

I find it rare however that I am in a position to spend time on street photography in a place which inspires me - cities can feel so dull and flat at times, especially in England I feel at times that every person separates themselves from the crowd and hurries from box to box. Barcelona I knew would be a great place to find people living out their lives on the street - and so it was, even in February! So I focused the trip on searching for these moments and have achieved the highest keeping rate of candid photos that I am happy with to date.

I tried to spend a little time arranging the set to tell a story of sorts. This was not premeditated but reflects the feelings I have about cities and how people live together in them.

This is also one of my first entirely (almost!) B&W sets.

Partly due to the discovery of Silver Efex Pro (by Nix Software) but also because it seemed more than ever to fit the medium and bring the emotive message of each photograph to the fore.

Click to view as slideshow in Flickr: