If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes

Danny Callcut of Sticky Rice once told me that I ought to photograph people more often. "Street portraiture in Brighton is easier said than done", I replied. The southern English are very private in comparison to our friends in the north. Down here, it sometimes takes a unifying event to bring people out of their shells. In a quintessentially English manner, the snowy weather of December 2010 made strangers more receptive to pleasant, informal conversation. I wish for snowy winters more often, if the joyous company of strangers like Frank and Magnus are anything to go by. More recently, when I met photographers Alex Lawrence and Finn Hopson, we had so much to talk about that portraiture was not even an afterthought. Perhaps, out of respect for my comrades, I unconsciously refrained from making another photographer a subject in his own right. Rather than observe them via the intermediary of a viewfinder and lens, I instinctively felt the need to relate with them directly through my own, subjective human senses. If I can record someone being who they are, avoiding the trap of defining people by what they do, then I will have discovered a happy medium.

Magnus Agugu

Frank

Comments

Martin Lower said…
I look at you terrific landscapes, and by way of consolation, think to myself: "Well I bet he can't do people"! Now I see you can. DOH!!!!

Is it me, or is there a little of Derek Jacobi in Frank?
Alan MacKenzie said…
Yes, I see it now! Frank said he owns the Snooper's Paradise on Kensington Gardens. I still look out for him on Hove seafront, but I haven't met him again. Loads of people recognise Magnus.

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