John Roshka Photography Blog

It is very hard to write on a blog about photography, especially when everything you feel you want to write is already written on other blogs. I mean, that my ideas and my feelings about a particular issue can be very well described on Blake Andrews blog, Joerg Colberg’s blog on LPV Magazine digests and I don’t get it to write it better, no way…they are the best. What should I write about then…have no idea.

First, I was thinking to share on my blog the links to the posts I really like or to paragraphs that I find as inspirational. But, anyone can just go to their blogs and read the posts and decide for themselves what is good or bad for them as photographers.

Then, there is these trend of writing a whole Bible about “how I made this photo, from the beginning till the end” without even noticing that the audience might have another opinion about the power of the image itself.

So, what is left is images. I think there are people/photographers/authors/philosophers that CAN do the talk and the photography, and there are those who can’t really do it. I think I’m one of them. I have it all in my have but I don’t have the ability to let it on paper as these 3 people do that I really respect. They inspire photographers, at least me, by writing thoughts, ideas, searching for the future and finding a reason in what we photographers do.

These are the main blogs I read everyday and can’t wait for a new post to appear:

Blake Andrews Blog

LPVMagazine

Joerg Colberg Blog – Conscientious 

The other blogs and sources I like:

Eric Kim Photography Blog

A Photo Editor

Wayne Ford’s blog

TIME Lightbox

So, if there are people designed to write and inspire us photographers…and themselves also…what is left for us is to produce images…and share them.

Palm trees and house with green carpet, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012 / from Views without People

Mosque and intersection, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012 / from Views with People

During the Tunisiana Beach Challenge, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012 / from Moments

For me photography is becoming more and more subjective…and I think because its rules are drawn by us, humans…we make the rules for it, for everything actually.

A photograph must please the eye or put questions and one can’t do that in an infinite number of ways…or styles. Every major photographer has his/her style. But I think it is not the style that they have, but the ability or the choice of making the photographs the way they do. I tend to say that almost all photojournalists, reportage photographers shoot their own way but within the same style.

What makes your own “style” is the selection of subject, the way you compose the image, the message and the most important is the dedication to the medium and the loyalty to you as an explorer of the world.

Untitled #8, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012 / from Views without People

Untitled #8, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012 / from Views with People

Untitled #8, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012 / from Moments

Garage door and arch, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012 / from Views without People 

These kind of images give me a real aesthetic pleasure. I like to fill the frame with forms and compositional lines. They are simple views that tend to organize space through balance. I am at the beginning of exploring this kind of photography, but I like it. It is very calming and relaxing. Check this out: http://www.gerryjohansson.com/page2/photos-2/page72.html

Women resting on the beach, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012 / from Views with People

These images contain the same workflow and meaning, but have people in them. I consider them as a straight social documentation. A still moment captured and composed as the social scene takes it’s place without me interfering.

A Family on the beach, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012 / from Moments

This essay contains images more related to street photography. Interesting moments with subjects connecting with each other through motion, emotion, gesture and activity.

More photos are coming.

Untitled #5, Lonely house, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012

A MOMENT IN TUNISIA/Views without People

In 2012 I traveled to Tunisia. I stayed there 8 days so I haven’t documented any serious project. I was there as a tourist and the images I captured represent an unintentional, unplanned reflection of my feelings and mood at that very moment. I photographed everything that caught my attention: interesting, beautiful and different and I classified the images under:

Views without people

Views with people

Moments

Views without People is a series of images that have no people in them, that are captured and composed both from the bus and from outside, and that have an interesting subject. These image are a reflection of myself, of what I find beautiful and different in comparison to the environment I am used to live in.

Untitled #5, A MOMENT IN TUNISIA/Moments, Nabeul, Tunisia, 2012

In 2012 I traveled to Tunisia. I stayed there 8 days so I haven’t documented any serious project. I was there as a tourist and the images I captured represent an unintentional, unplanned reflection of my feelings and mood at that very moment. I photographed everything that caught my attention: interesting, beautiful and different and I classified the images under:

Views without people

Views with people

Moments

Moments is a series of street images taken in Tunisia during my stay. The images are not straight composed frames, but a capture of a moment.

Untitled #5, A Moment in Tunisia / Views with People, Tunisia, 2012

Cafe,  A Moment in Tunisia / Views without People, Tunisia, 2012

Untitled #2, A Moment in Tunisia / Moments, Tunisia, 2012

House near the beach, A Moment in Tunisia / Views without People, Tunisia, 2012

In the shade, A Moment in Tunisia / Views with People, Tunisia, 2012

Magnum Irrelevant

What is originality?

Is it when you are the first at something or when from a lot of like you, only you have the ingenuity to make something different?

Magnum guys were the first in Photojournalism/Documentary Photography/Reportage/War Photography/Street Photography. I don’t think it was very hard…because there was none to compare them with, they were and still are the Gods.

Today, you must struggle, fight, learn, work, sweat to be original because there are so may of us, photographers…

Untitled, Chisinau, Moldova   Canon EOS 1n, Kodak Color Plus 200

This image is part of Film Street Photography project.

You can take a look at 3 more projects I have done on film:

Wide Streets

Black and White

Reflections in Black and White

Shephers by Jost Franko

After seeing this story, one (photographer) would definetly think about his photography…I did.

What is it that makes a photograph work? Or, what is MY photography and do I understand it? or…am I a photographer at all?

Jost Franko knows it. He enjoys it, he loves it…this is what I noticed from his story. He did’nt even bother about exposure sometimes (I guess). His hands were capturing his heart beats. He was living his story…right there…in the mountains.

At the end nothing matters. Big photographers are big as a result of infinite of circumstances. Their photos remain in museums and art galleries, but they are just a materialistic interpretation of the world we know and feel. We all know that there is beauty and there’s blood. When we look at images we realise that either there is more beauty or either there’s more blood.

But what is continous is their love for the medium. They loved photography…and this is why they made great work…

Untitled, Chisinau, Moldova   Canon EOS 1n, Kodak Color Plus 200

This image is part of Film Street Photography project.

You can take a look at 3 more projects I have done on film:

Wide Streets

Black and White

Reflections in Black and White

FlakPhoto is one of the best photography resources out there. After looking at it’s content and maybe realizing that photography is not for you (kidding) you will want to buy an analog medium camera…and then maybe a scanner…and a good monitor…hmmm, what about the film.

It’s the type of photography that let’s you think and relax, it’s the documentary type of images that let you decide what you want the message to be. It’s not the Henry Cartier-Bresson or Garry Winnogrand images that gives you a fraction of a second in which all the elements work perfectly with each other. Or, am I wrong…

I personally would devide Documentary Photography like this:

in-Public – Street Photography

FlakPhoto – Kind of Compositional Documentary. Have no idea, but it’s different.

Magnum Photos – Classic Reportage and Photojournalism.

I wonder what my preferences and views would be after a couple of years.

Untitled, Chisinau, Moldova   Canon EOS 1n, Kodak Color Plus 200

This image is part of Film Street Photography project.

You can take a look at 3 more projects I have done on film:

Wide Streets

Black and White

Reflections in Black and White

Everyday I look at photos on internet. I don’t feel that much has changed since the moment the first image was taken: same rules, same compositions, same moments, same construction of subjects so that it pleases the eye. Interesting, but we still go on and try to be better…

This image is part of Film Street Photography project.

Untitled, Chisinau, Moldova   Canon EOS 1n, Kodak Color Plus 200

You can take a look at 3 more projects I have done on film:

Wide Streets

Black and White

Reflections in Black and White

There are street images that contain a number of subjects and elements that put together represent a funny moment, a frozen second of sarcasm and an amazing ability of the photographer of seeing how things exist in space and how they relate to each other. Matt Stuart is an example. I love his photography and the way he combines the subjects in his images.

And there is street photography that has a documentary touch, a descriptive element. Joel Meyerowitz, David Solomons, Trent Parke and others are some examples.

This is image is a part of Film Street Photography project.

You can take a look at 3 more projects I have done on film:

Wide Streets

Black and White

Reflections in Black and White

Untitled, Chisinau, Moldova   Canon EOS 1n, Kodak Color Plus 200