“You need to fuck it up more”. Gee, I thought I was good at that. But my fuck ups were too graphic for Matt Stuart. “Graphic images can never rate better than 6/10”. In a few moments Matt had reduced the majority of my proud output to date to the lowly status of “great square Instagram pictures”. Bugger!
In Sydney as a guest of Aussie Street for the AS2019 street photography festival Matt Stuart was privileged to spend a weekend with me and 11 other photographers who let him believe he was facilitating his workshop…. ha ha. I’m joking!
Matt, too, would say: “I’m joking!” as he went about jolting us and challenging the language we used to critique the photos taken by the workshop participants. I loved his workshop! Now, that statement would rankle Matt who believes you cannot love anything that cannot love you back.
I had known of Matt Stuart’s photography since 2014 when I enrolled in a photography course with Lynn Smith. As is standard-fare with these things we had to bring prints of street photos we admired. I landed on Matt’s work, attracted by his cheeky visual puns that seemed like a poke-in-the-eye to street photography. My other prints were by an Aussie photographer recently crowned International Street Photographer of the Year: Jesse Marlow. Jesse’s work was similar to Matt’s but to me seemed slightly more serious. It turns out they are good friends and at the time both were members of the same online collective: In-Public. Lynn showed me ‘Street Photography NOW’ and ‘Bystander’ that set me on my path of street photography.
The idea of fucking something up a bit to add that spice was actually before me in 1968 when I was 11 but I missed the point. To reach that 1968 moment starts in the year of 1954 which saw the birth of an instrument three years before my birth that was to be continuously manufactured throughout my life (and beyond I suppose). It featured benefits not seen before that became well copied. It was the result of genius design for it takes a genius to imagine something nobody else sees and give it birth.
This instrument fell into the hands of a youth in the mid sixties who possessed a creatively fertile mind. His head held creations that others could not imagine or possibly reach. With this instrument in his hands his creations found a voice. Often taking existing fragments from others and he built those into a new vocabulary which ended up defining the standards all followed from then onwards.
It became the vocabulary of rock guitar. He was Jimi Hendrix, it was a Fender Stratocaster and the song Hendrix fucked up and made it his own was Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower which had only been released six months before Hendrix’s masterpiece in 1968.
To hear Hendrix was an experience. An observation in new sonic lyricism and rhythms that budding guitarists poured over and analysed in an effort to unlock enough of the ‘how’ to give emulation little wings. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was much more than the name of Jimi’s band. It was a way to describe the challenge a listener was about to face.
Mother Nature was kind in 1954 and paralleled the birth of the Stratocaster with another instrument of mass cultural influence: the Leica M3.
I never did get a Stratocaster and it took years of wealth creation before I bought a Leica camera in 2018. A year later I was fortunate to embark on what Simon Ross called the “Matt Stuart Experience” (see Reference 2). An experience that left me keen to practice the learnings and mould them into habits. An experience that left me excited and keener than ever to street shoot.
This is what I recall of the many aphorisms of Matt Stuart.
Edit as you shoot.
This requires a lot of thinking on your feet. The aim is to shoot to minimise processing. This would suit me as I dislike what Hendrix called his second instrument - the recording studio - where he loved to spend hours manipulating sound and multi-tracking instruments making a live performance of his studio output (sadly only three LPs) impossible. Matt banned us from any cropping that weekend with the aim of forcing us to capture a final image. Ahhhhrrrr!! My best companion, the crop tool, summarily dismissed. Was I heading for trouble with my choice of 28mm focal length?
Spray and pray is OK.
In a surprising twist, Matt thought spray-and-pray was a valid technique. Matt would take many photos when "a scene was on” to increase his chances of getting that sort after poetic keeper.
Look like a dip shit.
Hang the camera around your neck. Don’t use a cuff - it looks too much like you are drawing a gun when you lift the camera. After you take the photo go into your best Gary Winogrand impersonation, look at the top of the camera (never the back screen) with a facial expression suggesting you don’t know what you are doing and this complex thing around your neck is set up wrong. Don’t make eye contact or engage in conversation with the subjects and look over their head after the photo. Oh, and no business shirts allowed. Although that tenet may belong to someone else I know.
Graphic photography rates poorly.
Graphic photography cannot rate higher than 6/10. What is a graphic image? None of my many, many photo books have any reference to graphic photos. Could it refer to the output of advertising photographers? On the day, I thought graphic meant geometric and realism. This is probably the best link after a Google search:
https://digital-photography-school.com/5-tips-to-create-graphic-photographs/
Aim for poetic images.
This is where the “fuck it up for interest” probably best sits. And forget the facts - it’s said they only get in the way of a good story.
L.A.T.C.H.
Set up a series as a smile - start high and finish on a high with your lesser work in the middle. Order can be arranged by location, alphabetically, by theme, by category or on a hierarchical basis or a mix of each. I was actually caught napping with this workshop. Having been to many workshops over my corporate career you get a bit numb to them. I have a deep seated fear of butcher paper. I usually seek votes what time the first acronym will drop. Matt surprised me with his only acronym coming in the first hour of the workshop.
Don’t shoot people masticating.
Avoid photos of people as they eat. This discussion led to the intention issue. Are your intentions good? Try to avoid making people look unnecessarily bad.
The question to ask when a street portrait is granted.
If someone is agreeable to be photographed then ask them “How much time do you have?” Set them up in the best possible light looking at how shadows fall across their face as you circle around to the best spot. Take your time now they have agreed unless their time is limit.
Keep returning to good locations.
If the location has merit then milk it; keep returning to it, maybe at different times, different seasons, watching the changing light and waiting to get that perfect person walking through it.
Women should take photos men cannot and vice a versa.
Women are better placed to photograph children. Consider isolating children, placing them in their own world. Cut out the safety of adults. Make the children look as if they are about to face danger. And women should avoid photos of cute puppies. Think about shooting with an opposite sex partner to cover a broader range of photo subjects.
The language of looking at photos.
Avoid simply saying you ‘love it’ when assessing a photo. Concentrate more on describing how the photo makes you feel. Work subjectively eg qualify your statements by saying “For me, I feel that…” Curtail the photographer’s propaganda by not allowing them to speak about their photo.
Typical camera settings (Note: Matt was shooting with a 35mm focal length)
ISO 800
SHUTTER 1/1000
APERTURE f5.6 to f11 adjusting as you move from shade to full sun
FOCUS DISTANCE 12ft. A 28mm lens at f8 has DOF 5.7ft to infinity. Distance in front of subject is 6.3ft. Pull focus if the subject is nearer than 5.7ft then remember to reset to the rest position of 12ft. Hyperfocal distance (ie infinity set to f8) is 10.8ft.
“A great talent is someone who can hit targets others cannot reach,
a genius is someone who can hit targets that others cannot see.”
References:
“Heroes: Zane Banks on Jimi Hendrix”, The Music Show, Radio RN, with Andrew Ford. Episode broadcast Sunday, 15th September 2019.
“You're not going to take any good photos: The Matt Stuart Experience”, The Antipodean Photographer, Simon Ross. Simon attended the same workshop. Here is the link:
Photograph by Simon Ross, Paddington, 2019
The classic soccer pose.