There is raw energy—emotional charge—behind the street photography of Ryan Raz. His style is unmistakably intimate and brazen. Composition often hides, at first glance, something intriguing on closer examination.
Self-titled “Squint Eyed At Casa Coffee” is unremarkable on quick inspection. But there is something about the motion of life—the women in and outside the shop—and the subject’s all-but-closed eyes that is immediate and unpretentious.
Clever is how I describe today’s selection. The shot appeals, but surely self-titled “An Auspicious New Year—Sex on the Beach with Sweet Bitch” teaches something. Perhaps it’s the stated topic, or use of “sex” and “bitch”, that racked up more than 158,000 views since Timothy Janecyk shot the black and white on Jan. 1, 2013, using Nikon D700 and 35mm f/1.4 lens. Vitals: f/10, ISO 200, 1/400 sec, 35.6mm.
“When I woke up, I thought it was all a dream or something”, he teases. “What an amazing start to the New Year! Sex on the beach with Sweet Bitch. I couldn’t ask for anything more than that. I am the luckiest guy in the world. I hope your New Year is off to as good a start as mine! Happy New Year!” But Timothy’s escapade wasn’t a woman. Sex on the Beach is a cocktail recipe and Sweet Bitch Moscato Rose is a wine. Not being a drinker, other than a wee bit during my 18th year (legal age in 1977), I wouldn’t know.
First looking at the photostream of Dan Reed, I puzzled over the perspective and subjects, which are unlike anything else yet featured in this series. He shoots streets, buildings, and such from vantage points that are atypical. Then I read his bio. He’s an architect and city planner. Dan looks at things with a dramatically different eye than I would; he sees things in another context that is refreshing and revealing.
Dan shares his insights at blog “Just Up the Pike“, which refers to Maryland Route 29, or Columbia Pike. Our daughter was born when we lived off 29, just outside Silver Spring, which is Dan’s hometown.
Last night, a Washington Post story compelled me to make a quick change in today’s selection. Lenny Robinson, better known around the Washington, D.C. area as the Route 29 Batman, was struck and killed after […]
I don’t know what best describes the photostream of Pete Zarria—urban decay, rural iconic, or something else. The Davenport, Iowa, native primarily shoots signs and buildings across the U.S. Midwest. They give a sense of […]
Searching for photos to feature, I come across many stinkers. The worst offenders are those with greatest potential: Composition is excellent, but the image is blurry—perhaps being out of focus or because of camera shake. […]
The photo service now owned by Yahoo shed some early adopters. David Tomic is among them. He joined Flickr in June 2005 but stopped posting the following year, despite clear enthusiasm as a “self-taught photographer”. […]
My daughter grew up going to the enclosed shopping center in Kensington, Md, where we lived for nearly a decade. There once was a kid’s play place on the third floor that was affordable and fun. Gone. We bought manga books, calendars, and tasty treats from the Borders. Gone. Molly trick-or-treated store to store on Halloween. No more, kiddies. My wife and I bought our wedding rings in a jewelry store that also is gone. The 850,000 square-foot upscale consumer cathedral closed earlier this year. Demolition is underway, and a court case brought by Lord & Taylor against the center’s management went before a jury earlier this week. Our memories, and those of others, are all that remain.
I chose self-titled “White Flint Mall”, which Mike Kalasnik shot on June 30, 2012, for its timeliness to current events. He used iPhone 4s, and for the first time in this series I slightly cropped a photo (to remove yellow road lines). Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 64, 1/2404 sec, 4.3mm. Mike, who joined Flickr in July 2007, runs the “Dead and Dying Retail” website, which offers startling look at urban decay.
Sometimes the right self-title makes the photo—”They Exist”, which Boris SV shot on May 10, 2010. “Well, they did not welcome the UFO”, he says. “As you can see, I was among them but turning […]
Our selection is so odd, or my ability to process the elements so lame, only the photographer’s explanation can make sense of it. “I went to the Institute for Contemporary Art today”, Nicholas “Nic” McPhee says of self-titled “Piercing”, captured on June 30, 2105. “As we passed through the Boston Financial District on our way there, we stumbled across ‘As if it were already there‘ by Janet Echeman. This is a big, glorious public art sculpture installation in the sky above a park—the Rose Kennedy Greenway”.
The suspended structure went up in May and goes down in October. So don’t delay getting to Bean Town if you want to see it. “This is actually a brightly colored—if the light catches it correctly—net/mesh of high strength fibers and LEDs that actually lights up in quite brilliant color at night”, Nic says. “I highly recommend the wonderful pictures on her website, which include some cool night shots”.
Perspective takes the Day—a March 22, 2013 capture from the hands of Jacob Aurland. Self-titled “New York—The Long End” is a “vintage looking american school bus on New York, 5th Avenue, just infront of the Plaza Hotel […]
Sometimes the photo you get isn’t the one you take but the one you make. “This was not exactly the composition I wanted, but I just didn’t wanted any people in the shot”, Miroslav Petrasko […]