One of the greatest challenges of mimicking photo journalist, Steve McCurry, is the sheer brilliance of them. Each photo captures the right moment, the right place, the right time, the right light, the extraordinary colours and the right story. They are picture perfect. Too perfect as some have said. This has been shown in his blatant removing of people in shots or placing in different people in the background of his shots.

They are picture perfect. Too perfect as some have said. This has been shown in his blatant removing of people in shots or placing in different people in the background of his shots.

Too perfect, as some have said. This has been shown in his blatant removing of people in shots or placing in different people in the background of his shots.

Apart from this, I didn’t quite have the budget nor the time to fly off to exotic locations or wars to cover. So, I had to make do what was at hand. At first, I thought I’d directly mimic McCurry’s work in some of my test shots using my daughter as the Afghan Girl:

As you can see, this didn’t quite work! So, rather than directly mimic McCurry I thought I’d aim for the essence of his work which for me would be trying to encapsulate a story my photos – ‘The Extraordinary in the Ordinary’.  I would also focus on using a deep focus and lower shutter speed to get a sense of depth. I would also choose vibrant backgrounds that McCurry is famous for using Melbourne locations. I chose Coburg Mall and  Degraves Street and Central Place, the former for its multicultural mix and the latter or its graffiti. Furthermore, the subjects had to be ‘gritty characters’ or ‘the average person’ which McCurry uses quite often.

The Five Images

After shooting 125 images, it came down to these five:.

I came across this woman who I thought was at first homeless but as I watched she seemed to be seriously drug affected. I chose her as my subject mainly because where she was sitting. It’s vibrant yet the picture to her left is somewhat a foreboding future for her  – a skull. I was going to use another shot of her which included a sign advertising crepes next to a cafe but the light of that sign was too distracting and didn’t balance the shot.

I shot this at 1/5, F-5.6, ISO 100.  It was a rainy day and I couldn’t get the F-Stop further up. I should’ve taken a tripod or upped the  ISO. In post I increased the exposure and cropped it which is always challenging as cropping can totally change the flow of the eye.

The Dirty Dozen DogThis was purely accidental this shot of the dog. It immediately reminded me of McCurry’s Dog in a Monsoon:

Alas, I didn’t have a white background to silhouette my dog subject. Anyway, I did have the sign ‘The Diry Dozen’ juxtaposed with the dog which is amusing.

I tried playing with the colour saturation in photoshop but it looked too surreal and instead increased the exposure and cropped the shot. I found by cropping this too much ruined the vulnerability of the subject. Camera set at ISO 400, 1/30, F-4.

I chose this shot because I like the light coming down the stairs and the woman to the right is actually in a barbers shop. I like the starkness as it suggests that the lady is here all day by herself, her only link to the outside is a landline phone.  She’s also covering her face which could suggest two things: she didn’t want her photo taken or she’s hiding from something. It also reminds me of the Ed Hooper painting, Nighthawks. Something art deco about it.

The camera was set at ISO 400, 1/20, 6.3 and in post I cropped and adjusted the exposure levels.

What I liked about this shot is that the three ticket machines almost seem to be characters themselves. The arrows are pointing in one direction to a no entry signal. Almost like Monkey See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil. I shot this at 400 ISO, 1/20, F-6.30. I like the greeny tinge to the image here. For some strange reason, one of the green arrows was in reverse and on the man in red in the background. I had to clone out the green arrow in photoshop. I also cropped and adjusted the exposure. I guess I could’ve cloned out the people in the background to give this more dramatic effect, in retrospect. After rall, this is what McCurry does! I could’ve also waited and then used a flash on the man in red but it wasn’t until I looked at this at home did I think of this.

Here I was trying to tell a story of a chef taking a break in the alleyway and checking his phone. By choosing to have the eye in the shot (I had originally had just the chef cropped in the doorways only) suggests that he is being watched while he is on his break. I love the vibrant colours that fill most of the shot, then curve into this washed out dark grey. Great contrast. I had the camera set at ISO 400, 1/60, F6.3 and played around with cropping and exposure levels. Below was an alternative shot but it just didn’t quite work as well as the one above. The eye is not connected to the subject as much as the previous image.

Conclusion

While I set out to capture human stories and The Extraordinary in the Ordinary, I didn’t quite get what I wanted. In Coburg, by the time I got there on my shoot day, most of the restaurants were closing up and there was barely any life to shoot.. Also, people these days are always looking down at their phones so it can be quite hard to get an unguarded moment from them or one that is at least interesting.
Where I did succeed is getting some amazing colours contrasted with the greyness of the city. In addition, this exercise helped me brush up my skills and learn DSLR camera which I knew nothing about previously.

Other shots I considered:

The Prac – Outside on the street with DSLR

Though I’ve had some experience with photography, mainly with a compact when travelling and the ubiquitous iphone, I have never used a DSLR. So this week it has been a learning curve understanding the camera terminology such as F-stops (higher the number, the greater depth of field; the lower the number, the shallow depth of field), ISO and aperture speeds. The last two I’m more familiar with, especially using analog cameras where you simply focused on the speed of the film (usually 100 ISO).

Experimenting with the DSLR around the city was more pleasurable than I thought as I was able to get some shots that I thought were at least reasonable.

I like the first one here with its bold pink in contrast to the dark framing.  Also, the chair in the foreground leads you in. I call it “Flamingo Noir”. Mmm. Have I invented a new genre?

I seem to have, rather accidentally, found a use of shadows formed off buildings. I was trying to develop a way of guiding the viewer into the image. For example, this one below. It’s a little over exposed but I feel like I’m walking into the frame.

FAVOURITE PHOTOGRAPHER

I chose Steve McCurry because like many people I was taken by the iconic and arresting portrait of the  Afghani girl in a refugee during the Afghani War. There is something haunting and accusatory in

the young girl’s eyes. I’d never seen anything quite like it.

It wasn’t after I was perusing in a bookshop that I saw some more of McCurry’s work and I ended up buying his Monsoon series which focused on Asia and Australia.

But what I really loved about McCurry’s work was the way he was able to not only achieve these brilliant and vibrant colours but draw you in with the subject matter through framing the subject with something juxtaposed in the background.

Take for example the photo below. The train, a symbol of progress and modernity (by Indian standards – the shot was 1974), cuts through the frame with the ancient Taj Mahal in the background. The men seem quite at home on something that is not from their culture and perhaps McCurry is trying to say that India has always been a country happy with change while keeping its culture in tact.

In fact, McCurry’s photography inspired me to go to India,  and I ended up going to Jodhpur, the ‘Blue City’ (below).

Alas, it wasn’t as blue as it is here in this photograph. Clearly, McCurry had used filters and has admitted to Photoshopping his images – a crime surely against photojournalist orthodoxy.

Thus, he’s had to redefine himself more as a storyteller rather than that of a photojournalist. In any case, I think he has made some fantastic choices and has a keen sense of what holds the gaze of the viewer and the subject’s story.