0n Friday 22 November 2024 Andrew Foley gave a well recieved talk entitled “People”. ndrew descrivbes himself as a travel and documentary photographer and his talk took members to pretty mutch the four corners of the world.
He said that he’s not a technical speaker and was not interested in talking much about the equipment, but much more about the people and his relationship with them as a photographer. “Playing with the consrtaints of the frame”, was one importan challenge as he described it.
He began his tour with some evocative images of India and explained that it was much easier photographing people there than in the UK, people seemed to want their photos taken, “you can hide behind being a stupid tourist”.
Shooting on a dull day is much better for getting pictures of people and patience is the key, “if you set up a shot and are patient something will happen”, he said.
Traveling around the former Soviet Union is something he’s done a lot of, “I’ve been to about half the countries”, he said as he introduced images of Ukraine.
The backgrounds of images are as important as the subject, and sometimes they can add information about the subject, but they have to be free from unnecesary clutter.
He explained that for him, photographing on his own was essential, “best to photograph on your own rather than with a group, you need your own head space”
Andrew recommended a number of excellent photographers to take inspiration from:
Joel Meyerowitz
www.joelmeyerowitz.com
Bryn Campbell
www.in-publication.com/bryn
Garry Winogrand (1928 – 1984)
www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/garry-winogrand