Meeting Murray Bullard!

In April I met one of my photography heroes! Murray Bullard, he is a documentary photographer with a great deal knowledge around long-term projects and photography as a genre, I first met Murray when he was presenting a talk about his long-term series about being frozen for the afterlife his first opening line had me hooked! “In 1962, Robert Ettinger published 'The Prospect of Immortality', the book that gave birth to the idea of ‘cryonics’ – the process of freezing a human body after death in the hope that scientific advances might one day restore life.” 

Murray has had a book published by gost publishing it took Murray ten years to become established as a documentary photography his work was 6 years in the making, I was interested in discovering how he kept motivation and creative when documenting similar environments.

Who is Murray Bullard?

“Murray Ballard was born in Brighton, UK and remains based there. Murray graduated from the University of Brighton in 2007 with a BA in Photography and was selected for ‘Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 2008′ – the annual showcase of work by recent graduates at The Photographers Gallery, London. In 2011 the British Journal of Photography recognized him as one of the ‘Emerging Photographers of Note’, following his debut solo show, ‘The Prospect of Immortality’, at Impressions Gallery, Bradford. Murray’s work has been published internationally in a range of publications including GEO, GQ, The Guardian, Intelligence in Lifestyle, Wired and the photography journals: 8, British Journal of Photography, HotShoe and YVI. Murray chooses to work on medium and large format cameras mainly and creates highly stylised imagery which lends itself well to documenting innovative science research projects.”

 Credit: Murray Bullard: http://murrayballard.com/info

Patient Care Bay (Bigfoot dewar being filled with liquid nitrogen), Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. October 2006Patient Care Bay (Bigfoot dewar being filled with liquid nitrogen), Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. October 2006.

Above is Murray's image from his series, within the image the scientist is getting the chamber ready for the body to be frozen.

I traveled to Brighton to meet Murray to assist him on a project for Brighton hospital. I was going to catch a train to Brighton but was soon to realize that the train would take 7 hours to get from Devon to Brighton when I looked at a map is didn’t look that far but the train network doesn’t travel along the coast so I drove. 

When meeting Murray it was foggy and raining I thought I won’t be meeting then to help with his project which was set to walk over the South Downs photographing the Ancient yew tree it’s said that “

Who or what lies beneath Kingsley Vale? Tales of hauntings in the dark and silent grove of ancient yews will come as no surprise to those who know this spot. But are the ghosts marauding Viking warriors, left to rot until the trees grew over their bodies, or do the gnarled trees take human form by moonlight?”

6 mile walk 

I had a call from Murray to say we were still going on the photo shoot and I was going to help I’m. Murray was shooting on film medium format this was cool because I have not shot on film in this way before. We managed to find the Kingsley vale to photography the trees the mood was ideal very Eyrie with the mist setting in. I learned a great deal from Murray to take my time when creating photography as a street photographer I often rush to capture the subject or location I should blend into the city be one with the motion of the crowd and city.

Image above is the trees Murray was photographing. 

When going to Murray’s office he had loads and I mean loads of photo books from street to landscape to documentary, I have learned from looking over his book collection to broaden the knowledge of my photography by viewing not only street photography books but photography genres this will give me a greater understanding of photographer.

I would recommend meeting your photography hero if possible even if it was over coffee to gain more confidence in your own work and learn how to create a professional body of work to show to the world.

My tip for myself, if I was starting off in the street photography genre, would take my time create a film my audience will understand and be bold and brave don’t hesitate when photographing the subjects, the main advice would be to understand my reasoning for the project I’m undertaking. Research and research use a notebook and create a solid outline for the body of work.

25th May is this the end of street photography?

Let us start off by saying I’m not a lawyer or person with great knowledge of the law. This is my view on the new data protection act. I have been hearing many conversations about the new data protection act, this has got photographers worrying about the future of their craft that they won’t be able to create street projects. 

Personal data is defined as information relating to an identifiable natural person, in computing world this includes IP addresses and the use of cookies if they are capable of being linked back to the data subject. This also includes physical & physiological, cultural or social identity.

So does this mean I can not create street photography any more!

You still can create street photography as a freedom of self expression as an art form basically the rules haven’t changed within street and creating candid images without permission, for example: if I took a photograph of  someone in the street and sold it for advertising that would be a not be advisable due  a breach of data, you have not got consent to have the image sold commercially without permission of the subject, this still applies now. 

When your managing data for a photography business, I think it’s similar to how businesses handle their databases for clients now, contact details etc., plus archived client images. Most businesses should have been aware of previous data protection laws, basically, GDPR which covers data security and how you keep data safe from hackers, issues around deleting records, backups etc. if the data subject requests it, plus the use of facial recognition technology. Law around data project is to tightening up but also to keep up with evolving technology for this the law needs to change. 

Confused?

Let’s try and figure this out the fact for a fact!

The face is a biometric information or data. The GDPR defines biometric data as “personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to the physical, physiological or behavioural characteristics of a natural person, which allow or confirm the unique identification of that natural person”.  It is called  “special categories of personal data” that can only be if:

• The subject has given explicit consent; this were the model realise form comes into use but we are alreadyusing this system now.

But I’m a street photographer this GDPR won’t effect me!

If your a photographer that is creating small Individual projects you might not be so concerned, e.g. consider a street photographer that has creating imagery for a new photobook. Now, do they stop every subject and ask for a model releases forms from every subject? Well no they don’t  because if the images are for the purpose of art and If the book is made and sold in UK, there’s freedom to take images in public places. 

So is my work Art?

The Data Protection Act in place now, exemptions exist for photographers for images taken as art and for journalism.

With the new GDPR allows member states to introduce exemptions. These were not in the Data Protection Bill – it could be likely there will be a similar exemption for personal data processed for the purposes of “journalism, literature and art but the GDPR has not yet been approved and agreed by Parliament.

“Journalistic, academic, artistic and literary purposes

24 (1) In this paragraph, “the special purposes” means one or more of the

following—

(a) the purposes of journalism;

(b) academic purposes;

(c) artistic purposes;

(d) literary purposes.

Overview

If your an amateur street photographer taking candid shots in the street you  will be exempt from the GDPR regulation. The arts are free to create, according to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

If I am reading the law correctly, and remember I’ am not a lawyer, photographs would only be able to be used without the law applying if used for journalistic/academic/artistic or literary purposes.

So, if I took a photograph of you on the street and published it as art, then this  would be okay because it’s freedom of expression.

Blurred boundaries 

Street photography is a sub-genre of documentary photography I feel to start building a successful body of work we need to go back to creating a documentary piece of work below is a  few ideas I use to stay focussed and on track when creating a body of work through street photography.

Creating a theme

The most challenging task of street photography is to create a body of work that can be taken seriously, personally, I often find myself so excited to photograph interesting characters in an urban environment. I often found that when presenting my body of work to judges and other influential photographers the theme can be hard to get across because apart from the area I have taken the images the subjects are not linked together strongly enough. Bruce Davidson is a photographer that inspired me to start to work with the theme because the street photography will have the main focus to create an interesting story, street photography can easier to understand when I use the documentary style to my street photography I find this helps funnel the impact and main focus of the series. 

Bruce Davidson image: 1980

USA. New York City. 1980. Subway.

Bruce Davidson is a magnum photographer he has recently had his subway series re-issued printed this is his first extensive series in colour. Davidson focuses on the Subway riders the subjects are set against a gritty, graffiti-strewn background, displayed in tones that Davidson describes as "an iridescence like that I had seen in photographs of deep-sea fish". Never before has the subway been portrayed in such detail, revealing the interplay of its inner landscape and outer vistas. The photographs move from the menacing to the lyrical, from the soulful to the satiric. Just from this brief over few of the project I was hooked I need to create a documentary street photography style project.

Theme ideas can be easy few ideas below

1 Colours

2 Bikes

3 culture

I know there is not a massive list but these are just to get the ball rolling for you start your own street theme.

This use of a notebook!

For the last few years, I have heard professional photographers use notes books I could not think of anything worse, I just want to create images not write! I thought I would give the notebook idea a go I can honestly say this was the greatest thing I did. I bought myself a nice leather notebook to hopefully encourage the writing process. In my notebook, I wrote about the themes around which I will exploring through street photography but also any experiences I have had within the street environment and any setting for the camera. I have also used the notebook to document any unique subjects I see and the places and times. 

I found that having a notebook has made me more productive when starting and maintaining a focus on my theme. 

Printing 

Over last few years I have found that printing of my body works helpful, a contact sheet has the entire body of images on one sheet of paper, this meant I was able to see all my images and select the best images. Once I had selected the images best for my project I would the print off below is Martin Parr ’s the contact sheet from his last resort series.

finally, once I have selected my images 6x4 size then I  place them out on an open space so help put the work into an order that body of work is easily understood by the viewer. 

I then created a focused impactful body of work which they will be put on my website to act as a digital portfolio.

Overview 

I have had success in my street photography being printed in Digital Camera and Devon life I put this down to create a strong theme throughout my work and the use of a website has also helped create a professional outlook on my work. I felt for a while street photography almost relays on the one perfect image that helps establish how good a street photographer is but often this means that the images as a collection don’t sit well together this why I would encourage street photographers to focus on a theme and work on creating an outstanding body of work. 

Quick tips 

Look at past professional photographers work to help influence your work.

Take your camera out with you and your notebook everywhere if possible.

Plan your shoot days. 

Make prints once you feel your work is something to show the world.

Don’t be afraid to challenge your creative thinking to create interesting photography.

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