Street Portraits #2 - Syd Shelton

Street Portraits #2 - Syd Shelton

These portraits are a sort of ongoing conversation with people in the theatre of the street. My approach, in some ways, has more in common with the studio photographer, and as I have returned many times to the same location, somewhere like Hare Row in Hackney I even called ‘my studio’. Usually I like to position people in a shallow theatrical space with a fixed backdrop and the combination of favourable available light which provides the venue for that conversation. Sometimes the trust between photographer and the people I am photographing happens very quickly and other times it takes a long time for the camera to disappear, and for it to become about me and the person I am photographing — there becomes a sort of implicit contract between us.

36 pages
printed in England
staple bound
14cm x 20cm

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"Café Royal Books is the idea of Craig Atkinson, an artist and lecturer. Our first title was published in 2005.

Craig wanted to create a way to make artwork accessible to a wider audience. The solution needed to be small, functional, open to collaboration, affordable, and work independently of galleries. These ideas remain at the heart of what we do.

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We make weekly publications, focussing on documentary photography linked to Britain and Ireland, printed and bound locally by a small 170 year old printing company. Libraries and museums around the world collect the books, so the work will remain preserved and accessible for many years. Our books don’t need batteries, or screens. We hope they will be used, create conversation and be passed down through family generations."

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Street Portraits #2 - Syd Shelton

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