Moscow Subway Portraits

[Erik Petersson]

Hi,

I am doing a project in the subway of Moscow and now Kyiv as well. I would like to share some of the pictures to get opinions and suggestions.

First some background. I have lived for one year in Moscow and now I regularly go there for work and to meet friends, and to Kyiv as well. I am very fond of Moscow and I have learned the language and appreciate the culture. Moscow is, how to put it, rough sometimes. Still people can be very kind and warm, more than you, as a cool Swede might expect. In the subway everyone expect the rich meet and mingle. You have those without papers, the migrant workers, the unemployed, the pensioners, the poor, the middle class. In the Stockholm subway people stare into there smart phones, but in Moscow they sometimes look on each other. I wanted somehow to photograph this, and this evolved into this project. The atmosphere in Kyiv subway is similar, so I made photos there as well when going there for work.

I use a Nikon F3, sit down, remove the prism, and voila, I’ve got a waist level finder camera. The film is most often Tmax 3200 exposed at 1600, then Xtol. These pictures are negative scans (I have no dark room).

This is a small sample. What works, what doesn’t? What can be improved? Etc, etc. Thanks in ahead.

Erik

 

[Erik Petersson]

 

[Colin Corneau]

I really like these, and I like the idea as a concept.

It's pretty easy to have 'street photography', being so (relatively) trendy nowadays, become a series of snapshots. But these are clearly well crafted and interesting...all the more so as a group.

On a technical note, I'm interested in the TMZ -- the grain and tones look pretty appealing. Haven't shot the stuff for over a decade but you've got good results from it.

 

[Erik Petersson]

Thanks Colin,
first, some of the photos are made on Ilford's and Fuji's fast films, I changed the description to reflect that.

I have tried to photograph in the streets for years, and for some reason it's much easier abroad, but in a city that I know. The first days in a new place I can usually not make any interesting photos, got to get a feeling for the place first. And Moscow is probably the foreign city that I know best.

 

[ColdEye]

I agree with Colin, the theme is very nice. The reason I have not tried Street Photography is cannot think of a theme. Kudos to you and I hope you create and share more images.

Have you tried Ilford Delta 3200? I have some coming and I wish the grain is as nice as yours.

 

[Erik Petersson]

Hi and thanks. I've used both Neopan and Ilford too in this project, and they all worked for me.

Hmm, in my case the first photos came before the project. Only after I while I saw the potential to combine them in this way. Now I work dedicatedly and shoot a roll or so every day when I am in Moscow.

There are more photos. If you are interested you could take a look at erikpetersson.livejournal.com

 

[Klainmeister]

Like I said in a another thread with your images...these are fantastic. I really don't care for street work most the time, but the theme is great and the execution perfect. I'd put this in my photography shelf.

 

[Erik Petersson]

Thanks again, Klainmeister!

Maybe I should show some of my less successful photos as well... I am struggling mainly with two things, to make sense of the often distracting backgrounds with advertisements etc, and to make sense of when people sit together. Sometimes they interact in an interesting way, sometimes not.

 

[perkeleellinen]

I really liked all the photos I've seen. I wonder if you could group them in interesting ways - either as an exhibition with an order or as a book so photos on facing pages highlight a contrast, similarity or theme. You may be able to tease out some interesting observations doing this. One other thing, could you also change your angle of view? Perhaps by standing and having the camera hanging round your neck? This way you could have a view down the carriage rather than across which may give you some nice compositions.

 

[Erik Petersson]

Hi Steve,
well, I am thinking of finding somewhere to exhibit them here in Stockholm. That would be a really interesting exercise. The order of the photos will of course be important. I don't know how to go about this though, I even lack a reliable way to print the pictures.

The angle of view has been decided by my sitting down and not raising the camera to my eyes. To do that would be too obvious, I believe, and the moment would be lost. Standing up might work, I'll think about it.

 

[jp80874]

You are doing beautifully by yourself.

However another source of guidance might be to examine the work of Walker Evans. He traveled the subways of New York 1938-1941.
“EVANS, Walker, "The Passengers", New York, 1938, Walker Evans, Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Princeton University Press, 2000.”
http://phomul.canalblog.com/archives/2006/01/12/1217571.html

Other books that have examples of this work but are not limited to his subway photos:
Walker Evans; Museum Of Modern Art, NY, NY; Szarkowski, John, 1971
Walker Evans; Hambourg, Rosenheim, Eklund, Fineman; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2000

John Powers

 

[Erik Petersson]

thanks for that link John. Walker Evans basically did what I want to do, just a few decades earlier. I'll try to find that book.

He seems to have had worse light than I have in Moscow, or maybe slower film.

 

[dehk]

Most everything looks great to me, you're still brave to use an F3 even without a prism, because I'd think its still a little obvious. I dont think it will work with my F4, they will hear the motor wind, lol.

I think it will work better with my EXA.

 

[Erik Petersson]

But people seem not to care. I try to think that photography is a contact sport. But also, that many people like to be seen and noticed.

 

[jp80874]

http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300106176

Here is another book on the subject. The lens peeking through a button hole may have been why the lighting was less than your experience in Moscow with a more modern camera and as you say faster film.

John

 

[Erik Petersson]

Ha! That explains his framing!

 

[hpulley]

When I'm trying to be inconspicuous with the WLF of a TLR these days I often get someone yelling, "Is that a Rolleiflex?!?! Do you still shoot film!?!? Do they still make it!?!?" Sigh...

 

[Gadfly_71]

The Walker Evans title that you should probably seek out is "Many Are Called". Though Evans made his subway photos during a 3 or 4 year period starting in 1938, he was uncomfortable with publishing the photos until 1966 (lord only knows why). He used a Contax 35mm which he concealed in his coat, with a cable release that was threaded through the sleeve. He often rode with a decoy (Helen Levitt was one, there were others) to help conceal what he was doing. Though it's often stated that he "shot through a buttonhole", he actually shot through the opening between buttonholes (so his problem wasn't so much dim lighting as it was slow film).

I've made photographs on the San Diego Trolley (a couple are posted in the gallery) and found that using a TLR wasn't problematic in the least. I think that the move away from film and into digital happened so rapidly here that it's made it very easy to do this sort of thing in the open. Nobody really knew, or cared, about what it was that was perched on my knee. I think that to do this right and place a unique stamp on it, you have to use a different methodology. 35mm SLRs restrict your vantage point and because they don't look vastly different, they're still a recognizable camera, thus harder to conceal and operate.

I'm actually getting ready to publish my photo-book via Blurb. The version available now is really just a review copy. I've been going back and forth with one of my mentors regarding the current edit. You can take a look at it here;
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/1963832/799d8e1030d48c1593e7383383bcd606a8d289eb

Good luck,
Andrew

 

[Erik Petersson]

Andrew,

That is a wonderful book you are publishing. I especially like the portraits of passengers. But one also gets a feeling of the entire thing, the tunnels, stops, wagons etc. And such a good idea to make a book. The blurb is book on demand service, right? They print and deliver the books after each order? It is true that a TLR would be easier to get away with, but the Moscow metro is dim so I really need the depth of field that 35 mm gives on f4, f2.8, sometimes f1.8. Also, I really like the puzzled faces I sometimes get. The woman with the number 51 in the background for example.

About the Walker Evans book, I am already ordering it. By the way, there will be a Helen Levitt exhibition in Stockholm starting next week, which I am looking forward too. The photography world must have been small in those days.

Perkelleinen, you said something about the angle of view earlier. I have been thinking, some of my pictures are made with an almost unpleasant angle. Too low. Thanks for that observation.

Best
Erik

 

[perkeleellinen]

If you haven't got a copy of Bruce Davidson's famous book now is a good time as Aperture have just published a third edition so the price is back from the stratosphere for a while.

 

[BrianL]

I agree a tlr like a Rolleiflex may provide a better result. As you are using the camera at a position not disimilar to a tlr it is not the perspective in height but the abiluty to include more of the surroundings in the environment. Surroundings can be very important in placing and telling the story. A little more in the image might help in saying this is on a subway vs a bus, etc. An alternative is a wider lens on the Nikon.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Excellent photos!

Jeff

 

[Erik Petersson]

If you haven't got a copy of Bruce Davidson's famous book now is a good time as Aperture have just published a third edition so the price is back from the stratosphere for a while.

I’ll take a look at Bruce Davidson, I will be sure to learn something. He must have been much more confrontational, using a flash. Without really knowing I imagine the New York subway in the 80:s to be a place where people might have talked back to Bruce Davidson.

 

[Erik Petersson]

I agree a tlr like a Rolleiflex may provide a better result. As you are using the camera at a position not disimilar to a tlr it is not the perspective in height but the abiluty to include more of the surroundings in the environment. Surroundings can be very important in placing and telling the story. A little more in the image might help in saying this is on a subway vs a bus, etc. An alternative is a wider lens on the Nikon.

I did use a 24mm lens for some of the photos, the first one above for example with the single boy. The last one is also made with a wide angle (and then slightly cropped). I have mostly been interested in faces and expressions, and not so much in the surroundings.

The style of the seats and windows and the subway plans in the background are easy to recognize. Personally I need nothing more to set the scene. The noisy carriages, the stairs, the magnificent platforms. In a way I have taken the Moscow subway itself for granted. But most of you have of course not seen it. Wouldn’t have thought of this myself.

 

[Gadfly_71]

Andrew,

That is a wonderful book you are publishing. I especially like the portraits of passengers. But one also gets a feeling of the entire thing, the tunnels, stops, wagons etc. And such a good idea to make a book. The blurb is book on demand service, right? They print and deliver the books after each order? It is true that a TLR would be easier to get away with, but the Moscow metro is dim so I really need the depth of field that 35 mm gives on f4, f2.8, sometimes f1.8. Also, I really like the puzzled faces I sometimes get. The woman with the number 51 in the background for example.

About the Walker Evans book, I am already ordering it. By the way, there will be a Helen Levitt exhibition in Stockholm starting next week, which I am looking forward too. The photography world must have been small in those days.

Perkelleinen, you said something about the angle of view earlier. I have been thinking, some of my pictures are made with an almost unpleasant angle. Too low. Thanks for that observation.

Best
Erik

Thanks Erik. I'm still going through an edit of the book at the moment so the final product will probably be quite a bit different. As one of my mentors pointed out, in it's current form it feels like two different books. Keeping that in mind, I'll probably be removing the London Underground content (not that they're bad photos, they just don't fit with the SD Trolley images).

Blurb is very much an on demand service. At no cost to the book maker, they let you set up a "storefront" and do all of the fulfillment. You set the profit margin you'd like to receive (above Blurb's cost). I usually use them to produce keepsake books for my commercial clients and I use SharedInk for my personal work. The problem with Blurb, until recently, was that their print quality wasn't that great. The problem with SharedInk is lack of a market place (I have to order the copies and pay out of my pocket to do so). Blurb seems to have improved their output quality so I'm trying them for this to see if I can drum up a few extra dollars to go in my pocket.