Paul Nash, Truro
I’m a keen street photographer and love visiting
London, but with lockdown I’ve had to focus on my
own town of Truro. This scene unfolded when I looked
over the side of a multi-storey car park only to see this
wonderful bright square and lots of shadow. Shortly
after, this lady walked through the gap and I took my opportunity.
Ben says
There’s an age-old adage that you should photograph the light rather
than the subject. There’s also a belief that great street photography
requires time, patience and forward planning. I’ll let you gure out
which one of these ideas Paul’s superbly realised street scene blows
out of the water. It’s an intensely graphic image that takes advantage
of black & white’s textural aesthetic while breaking every rule in the
book: the gure is walking out of the scene rather than into it, she’s
scrunched into the bottom-left corner, and the shadows bleed to
pure black. Is there too much negative space? Does it need to be
displayed the size of a billboard to realise its potential? It’s certainly
an image crying out to be displayed at considerable size.
Henley Hughes, Leicestershire
I love going to the tearoom near this bridge, but never
had the con dence to go under it as the path is so
narrow. On the day I got the shot there was harsh
sunlight and I knew there would be shadows and
shapes under the bridge. My being a scaredy-cat
meant I only took one shot – it was very much ‘click and hope’.
Ben says
It takes a keen eye to extract such a fascinating image out of
something so apparently ordinary and it’s to Henley’s immense credit
that this was the only shot he took. The beauty is in the distressed
textures and the simple delineation between wall and water. While
there are some burnt highlights just above the waterline that will be
impossible to recover in post-production, there’s also a lot more
subtle contrast to be drawn out. Perhaps if Henley was able to return
and try again, metering for the highlights would result in a greater
dynamic range and more editing exibility.