Category: People

Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Week 12a: ‘The Starting Grid’

Vroom, the race is on, in self-titled “The Starting Grid“, which Dennis Freeland captured on July 13, 2016, using Olympus OM-D E-M10. Vitals (incomplete): ISO 1250, 1/1600 sec. “If my time comes for a scooter, I will have a camera built in”, he chimes. Sentiment I share, if, and hopefully never.

The street shot is a no-brainer choice for our Sunday spot. This is a moment that could only work in black and white; colors would distract from the three gents. I got to ask about the last: Why is he considerably younger? His presence gives more sense of a race than would a trio of geezers riding about. Why does the lead rider look so miserable? The answer to these and other questions is the kind of storytelling that this series seeks to spotlight with each and every selection.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Week 11b: ‘Break Heart’

Architect Mariano Mantel steals Sunday with street shot “Break Heart“, which he captured on March 2, 2019, using Nikon D7100 and 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. Vitals: f/10, ISO 1000, 1/250 sec, 56mm. The settings are interesting, for what they deliver: Graininess that adds ambience and texture to contrasty colors.

What are we seeing? Mariano explains. “A kora player show(s) his instrument in a Barcelona street. The kora is a West African harp of the family of bridge harps or harp-lutes. It’s the highest developed string instrument of Africa. The construction of the instrument as well as the music are unique in the world”.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Week 9b: ‘Willing Prisoner’

Strange how foreshadowing metaphor can be a single street shot and its accompanying caption. Quinn Dombrowski captured self-titled “Willing Prisoner” on Sept. 23, 2012, using Canon EOS Rebel T2i and EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens. Vitals: f/7.1, ISO 400, 1/400 sec, 240mm. The gas mask and woman bound are eerily appropriate illustrations for the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)—also known as COVID-19—pandemic spreading across the Continents from China.

As I write, more than 3,000 people have died globally from the virus, which has infected around 90,000 in at least 60 countries. But those numbers are likely low, because of unreported cases—for numerous reasons: Inadequate testing; influenza confusion; political  coverups; and the extremely long, asymptomatic period when the infected are contagious. In the United States, six people have died from the disease in about 72 hours (four announced today)—mostly in a cluster within Washington State, where experts estimate unobserved transmission occurred for about six weeks. As such, the infection is likely widespread.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Week 9: ‘She Concentrated Deeply on the Message She Dreaded Sending’

Some street shooters swear by Ricoh GR II—or, presumably, the nearly year-old III. I can see why. If you asked me what camera J Stimp used to capture self-titled “She Concentrated Deeply on the Message She Dreaded Sending“—or any other image in his Photostream—I would have said Leica M10, or one of its siblings. But, no, the GR II. Wow.

I discourage you from looking at any other portraits but this one. To peek at his Photostream is to fall inside and became gloriously trapped in an enchanting and mesmerizing montage of (mostly) black and white street shots. You have been warned. I barely escaped from the sheer visual wonder and clever captions.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Week 7b: ‘The NYC Band, The Upwelling’

Our Sunday spot shouldn’t be, because of endings: The photographer is no longer active on Flickr, and I am unable to confirm that his subject matter still exists. But I can’t resist the portrait for looking to be exactly what it is—in purest, iconic, grainy, black-and-white composition: An indy rock group.

Steve Hardy shot self-titled “The NYC Band, The Upwelling” on Jan. 24, 2009, using Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 1600,1/15 sec, 33mm. He describes himself as a “Grammy Award and multi-platinum, award-winning mix engineer”. He mixed the group’s album “An American Stranger”, which released in August of the same year that he snapped the photo.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Week 6: ‘Paris’

The week goes to Matteo Pezzi, for self-titled “Paris“. Juxtaposed subjects sharing something unexpectedly in common makes the moment. The modern woman using smartphone is passé, unsurprising. But the nun! Who represents what some people would regard as anachronistic!

Matteo describes himself as an “Italian nostalgic photographer, living in Strasbourg”. The street shot is “nostalgic” because of its composition, location, and subjects. He captured the image on Feb. 25, 2018, using Fujifilm X100F. Vitals: f/8, ISO 200, 1/180 sec, 23mm. Yesterday, Fuji announced the camera’s successor, the X100V, with larger sensor, updated fixed lens, and articulating rear LCD screen.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Annie (Revisited)

On May 22, 2015, as Flickr a Day 142, I posted a self-portrait taken by my wife, sometime in 1980—likely at age 21. The photo was a screen-shot enlargement from a 2006 scan of a print. Image quality lacks, to say the least.

Quite unexpectedly, last month, Annie found the original negative for this selfie, and for several others. San Diego-based Nelson Photo made new prints and digital copies, and I present a fresh Featured Image,  with IQ worthy of the original.

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