Moscow Subway Portraits

[Erik Petersson]

I thought that was two different parts of the same metro... The tunnel photos are cool, by the way. I might try to do something similar in Moscow.

Good luck with your book!

 

[Erik Petersson]

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Walker Evans and Bruce Davidson. I bought the books, they are great. Evans did what I am trying to achieve, a few decades earlier and much better. This is great inspiration to me. Bruce Davidson is also very interesting. The colours are amazing. (My results are very yellow and green.)

(I spent a week in Moscow recently and have got a dozen or so more photos that I like. For the first time someone protested. He walked up to me and talked confrontationally but soon disappeared in the crowd. It made me think, though.)

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

 

[h.v.]

What works? All of these photos, everything about them. You have really great detail and focus. I adore the variety of intimate expressions you were able to capture. Bravo!

 

[cliveh]

Erik, fantastic, don't worry about the technical stuff, just keep taking the images. A marvalous project that could form the basis of an exhibition to exhibit anywhere on the planet.

 

[markbarendt]

An interesting start, keep after it.

A few thoughts, strictly my opinion for you to chew on.

First, I find the perspective of looking up, a bit odd/unreal. Best way I can explain it is that I don't feel like I'm connecting with the subject. For the shot of the mature couple it's ok, for the rest it's a distraction. It emphasizes the things in the lower half of the frame so hands and knees become too large. Two suggestions/possibilities to remedy this; portrait orientation for the camera and include the feet in the shot or raise your camera to their eye level.

Second, is the framing. Two things here, most of the examples shown are 1- subject center and 2- wasted space left and right. Centered subjects can work (see Steve McCurry) but are hard to do well, for most shots getting the subject off center horizontally and vertically will help. Also again, shooting with the camera in portrait orientation may help, maybe a slightly longer lens or getting closer to the subject or doing some cropping for the print.

 

[cliveh]

Can I just say that it is easy to give armchair critisism, but another thing entirely to take shots like this.

 

[ColRay]

Hello Erik I reckon you have started a really interesting series, and should make some excellent exhibition material. If only I had the chance of doing the same.. my (small) Russian camera collection would get a good work-out Colin

 

[markbarendt]

Can I just say that it is easy to give armchair critisism, but another thing entirely to take shots like this.

The OP specifically asked for criticism.

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

Erik

 

[Erik Petersson]

Thanks for support and encouragement! I'm grateful for for criticism. How could I otherwise improve?

Mark, over time I have to become more and more bothered by the perspective thingy. But this comes from my method, I use the SLR as a TLR which leads to a lower point of view. Otherwise people would be too bothered by the camera. And the framing is no easy thing to fix. The metro is full of people, commercials etc. I always concentrated on people's expressions and let the other things just be. I somehow like the faces cut in half etc. The empty areas, well I'll have to think about that.

A friend of mine who also is a very good photographer helped me to choose about 45 pictures from this series that I will go through and try to do nice prints during the holidays. Then I'll show them to a gallery. Let's see how it goes!

 

[JerryWo]

Man, I love the shot of the two guys sharing music player earbuds!

Gotta be a caption for that somewhere.

 

[markbarendt]

Otherwise people would be too bothered by the camera. And the framing is no easy thing to fix. The metro is full of people, commercials etc. I always concentrated on people's expressions and let the other things just be. I somehow like the faces cut in half etc. The empty areas, well I'll have to think about that.

Eric, you need to answer these questions for yourself.

Which people would be bothered, them or you?

Does your audience care if taking the shot bothers either the subject or you?

As to the framing, if you get the camera up that problem is much easier to solve.

 

[h.v.]

I actually liked the lower point of view as it offered something different and unique. It's so common to do the same old eye level, or sometimes overhead look, but the lower point of view, from below, is much more rare.

 

[Erik Petersson]

Mark, the photos have succeeded because I go unnoticed or in other cases confuse people. "What does he do with that camera in his lap?" As Walker Evans noticed in his book "Many are called", people tend to relax their faces in the metro, to act as if no-one was watching. This is very interesting and this is why I do not want to bother them too much.

Thanks h.v. I think the low viewpoint is hard to do well, this was how it turned out and I am actually satisfied with many of the pictures. Satisfied enough to show them!

 

[lesm]

It's a great collection of shots, Erik and you're to be congratulated on an exciting project. My only concern would be that the very nature of a "captive audience" like this, all crammed into a carriage, can lend a certain sameness to the shots. For my money, it's all a bit static, not much happening. That has its own validity, of course - people don't tend to do cartwheels in a railway carriage - but for your exhibition/book you might want to maybe expand the theme a little to include, say, the activity on the platforms, with people struggling with luggage etc. You might also consider using several shots in a collage format. Great that you're considering an exhibition in Stockholm, but how about approaching the station authorities in Moscow or Kiev and setting up an exhibition inside the stations? That would really be a sharing with the people.

My two cents, for what it's worth. Keep on! Show us more!

 

[Erik Petersson]

Hi lesm, and thanks!

I have a few photos from the platforms as well that I might include. But to me the story is not the metro system, it is the faces, the people. this will of course be a bit static.

It will be a big step for me to have an exhibition at all. I'll start with that and see how it goes. Then I'll think of next thing!

more pictures? They're all here: erikpetersson.livejournal.com
/Erik

 

[coigach]

Series is a real treat - will keep coming back to these. Thanks for sharing.

 

[lesm]

But to me the story is not the metro system, it is the faces, the people. this will of course be a bit static.

more pictures? They're all here: erikpetersson.livejournal.com
/Erik

I understand. And I'm glad you've survived this exercise, Erik. One or two of those blokes look as if they'd love to punch you out of your shoes! There's always a bit of that with street genre - that's what gives it the sharp edge for me.

Looking at the rest of the photos, it struck me that no-one looks very happy. (After the recent elections they have even less reason, it seems). It made me feel like whipping out my mandolin and giving them all a jig to cheer them up.

Will you be putting captions to the prints?
Les

 

[Erik Petersson]

I understand. And I'm glad you've survived this exercise, Erik. One or two of those blokes look as if they'd love to punch you out of your shoes! There's always a bit of that with street genre - that's what gives it the sharp edge for me.

Looking at the rest of the photos, it struck me that no-one looks very happy. (After the recent elections they have even less reason, it seems). It made me feel like whipping out my mandolin and giving them all a jig to cheer them up.

Will you be putting captions to the prints?
Les

I felt safe most of the time. It is often easy to walk away in the crowd. I was confronted only once, so no sweat.

I'd love to have you along next time and do bring your mandolin! Evenings in the Moscow metro are not likely to be full of smiles and cheers. People are tired or exhausted from work and have to endure noise and bad air in order to get home. Then next day - more work.

And the elections - people are angry because they are lied to and robbed from by the "power". (The impersonal and abstract word "vlast" is hard to translate.) They know it, the politicians know it, and still the charade goes on. A reasonable strategy for many is to think about it like the weather. Sometimes it is cold, tough luck! But that should not stop you from being happy with your family and friends. Recently many such apolitical people finally lost their temper.

 

[Two23]

I live on the Northern Plains of South Dakota, which has real cowboys & Indians. Sometimes I go to Chicago and ride the subways and elevated trains there. For me, this is exotic. I love to take photos of trains, so this fits right in for me. I sometimes use older cameras such as Voigtlander Bessa and Ilford ISO 3200 film. I am loving the look I get! I also like the waist level finder (brilliant finder) on the Bessa as I don't appear to be pointing a camera at anyone, and it's more steady. You might also like to read about a guy doing this in New York City:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/dec/01/train-thought-subway-photographs/

Hopefully things will work out for the people of Moscow and they get their freedom back. I see Putin as the Prince of Darkness.


Kent in SD