Tony Cole Photography

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yorktone/

 

 

 

What kind of equipment (camera body, lens, filters, flash, tripod, cleaning equipment other) do you use?

The majority of my photographs are taken with a Panasonic Lumix G3 though I do also carry a compact Lumix TZ6 which is pocketable and goes everywhere with me. I don’t own any other camera kit.
What do you like and dislike about your equipment, specially your camera, and how would you improve it?

The G3 is great, small, light, discreet and the flip-out screen means that I can shoot quickly at the low angles I prefer . Overall though, I don’t really consider the camera equipment particularly important.

 

 

What is your favourite lens, and why?

My favourite lens is my only lens! The kit 14-42 supplied with the G3. Again, for me, the equipment is secondary to making the photograph.

 

 

When you travel, what is in your essential photographic kit bag?

Sticking plasters or Band-aids! I walk miles and miles to get street-shots and the avoidance of blisters is very important!

 

 

What kind of software/tools do you use for post-processing, if any?

There are enough free editing tools online to suit my needs. I tend only to crop and straighten with a bit of ‘burn’ every now and then. Basic stuff. Picmonkey is great ( http://www.picmonkey.com/ ). As you can probably gather I’m not particularly concerned with the technical side of photography.

 

 

How long have you been taking photographs? How do you find inspiration? How do you take your pictures?

I only began to make photographs of intentional and chosen subjects about 18 months ago. People fascinate me. Whenever I can I grab my camera and start walking the streets looking for those people just on the edges of crowds or standing aside from everyone else, the people who don’t quite fit the mould of the society the majority of us comfortably and unconsciously inhabit. In general I’m inspired by books, song-lyrics and poetry. The scenes I see and try to capture are all filtered through the poems of Philip Larkin or the books of George Orwell or Primo Levi or the lyrics of Morrissey or a hundred other influences that shape everyone’s outlook on life.

 

 

Which style of photography do you like the most, and why?

Street-photography. I don’t think there are more interesting subjects than human beings simply going about their lives – however mundane or ordinary, the variety is infinite and ever-changing.
What goal are you working towards within your photography and when will you know you have reached it?

I don’t have a goal.

 

Looking at your own work, which piece is your favourite? Why? Please provide a link to the picture.

This is the photograph I think best sums up what interests me and motivates me http://www.flickr.com/photos/yorktone/8557036377/ “the value of culture” – taken in Euston station, London. Photographing homeless people is important to me – though many viewers express understandable reservations about it – and it’s a source of endless inconclusive ethical debate among photographers. I think it’s important that there is always a broader context to the photograph, recording or reflecting in some small way the society we share and our collective values and culture. Why are some people pushed right to the edges of our communities? Why does a man with no soles in his shoes still read a novel? Lots of questions triggered by the image. No answers unfortunately though.
Does your work fit into any one or more distinct genres (nature, landscape, long-exposure, black-and-white, infra-red, urban, artistic, macro, vintage, vernacular, social, street)? If other, please specify.

I consider the majority of my photographs are street, though that in itself can cover a multitude of variations and types. I’d certainly be happy if someone said “Tony Cole is a street-photographer” – maybe I do have a goal after all?

 

 

Are there any photography websites that you visit regularly?
http://www.americansuburbx.com/ and http://www.magnumphotos.com/

 

 

What is the one most important lesson that you have learned since you started taking photographs?

Photographs don’t have to be spectacular or technically perfect to be interesting – “Nothing, like something, happens anywhere” as Philip Larkin memorably noted.

 

 

And finally, what other interesting photographers would you like to see in this blog?

I find this guy’s street portraits very interesting – http://www.flickr.com/photos/poppellus