I am a fan of Peter Turnley

[JTPhotography]

Based on what he charges for a print, I think Turnley is Turnley's biggest fan.

think of it this way. If they were paintings they would be 10 times that price.

But they're not. I've worked my way into the local "art" scene with my photography over the last several years and have learned quite a bit. Much of it is fluff and BS. I've seen a number of "artists" who work in various mediums who have marketed themselves into greatness. In reality, this guy is a good photographer, but I have seen work on this site that is just as good.

The art world does not operate on the quality of the work as much as the worth of the name attached to it. How that name becomes that valuable depends on several variables. Just look at William Eggleston whose photos of seemingly mundane things have fetched prices of up to $5.9 million.

Don't try to apply grounded, average-human logic to the art market. At the top tier level, $5.9 million to an art collector is probably like $100 to the average person.

And you bet your ass I would be marking up the price my mediocre photos by 1000% if I could get away with it.

Well said.

 

[photoguy99]

I've never seen anything on this site remotely as good as Turnley's work.

 

[sleist]

This thread makes me sad.

 

[photoguy99]

This thread makes me sad.

why?

 

[sleist]

This thread makes me sad.

why?

The Online Photographer: The Thousand-Yard Stare

 

[photoguy99]

That is a great example of the rare street portrait which, to my eye, goes past the cliche and makes us believe we know the subject a little, that makes us imagine his story not some generic story template.

Turnley is one of the exemplars of what separates the excellent from, well, us. He is a complete maniac. A single minded madman, focused with tremendous intensity on making photos.

Can you imagine the man who wrote that piece asking a bunch of strangers what they think of his photo? It's absurd.

 

[sashbar]

Speaking about great portraits - this is the best I saw this year. Here is the soldier defending the Ukrainian airport in Donetsk. 4,300 dead since March. This is going on right now in Europe. Photo by Ivan Loiko. Other photos by this guy in this series are amazing as well and put our street photography into some perspective.

Фото: будни украинских военных в аэропорту Донецка - BBC Russian

 

[richardbenson2110]

This thread makes me sad.

What makes you sad in this thread ?

 

[bribrius]

Speaking about great portraits - this is the best I saw this year. Here is the soldier defending the Ukrainian airport in Donetsk. 4,300 dead since March. This is going on right now in Europe. Photo by Ivan Loiko. Other photos by this guy in this series are amazing as well and put our street photography into some perspective.

Фото: будни украинских военных в аэропорту Донецка - BBC Russian

great photos. I think you guys are twisting this up a bit. If you were at ground zero there is a good chance you would come out with a similar photo. If you were with a platoon in war you would probably come out with similar photos. I am not sure this is so much all the photographers prowness but rather the setting they find themselves in. I do like the set you just posted though sashbar. Nice photos, again, partly attributed to the setting and content.
The thousand yard stare one above, really wasn't all that impressed with it actually I have seen better stuff from ground zero. Not really sure if I would be comparing this to street photography either as it seems something else to me. Especially if you are spending time with guys in uniform in a gun battle. I could be wrong.

 

[photoguy99]

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get Turnley's photos if I were in the same situation. Being there is a big part of it, but it's not the whole story.

Could I learn to? I doubt it. I don't react quickly, it's not how I operate. I have to work the photo. Often I have to shoot a thing over and over. On those rare times whenever I do point, shoot, and nail it, it's almost always because I've thought it over thoroughly in advance and I know what I'm doing.

See, react, click? It's a skill and maybe an inborn talent not all of us possess.

 

[bribrius]

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get Turnley's photos if I were in the same situation. Being there is a big part of it, but it's not the whole story.

Could I learn to? I doubt it. I don't react quickly, it's not how I operate. I have to work the photo. Often I have to shoot a thing over and over. On those rare times whenever I do point, shoot, and nail it, it's almost always because I've thought it over thoroughly in advance and I know what I'm doing.

See, react, click? It's a skill and maybe an inborn talent not all of us possess.

this might be different you should give yourself more credit. Envision this, local fire department call house burning down. You drive by as they start hooking up the hoses the fire is blazing. You get out your camera clearly thinking of the shots available here. A fireman carries a indistinguishable small figure out in his arms while another is soaking the ground around him keeping it doused, you miss that shot it happens to quick. You don't see what happens to the figure as it is brought around to the other side of the truck toward a waiting ambulance that just came on seen. You have now been there for about twenty minutes snapping photos, the house flames are just beginning to be brought under control. You notice a fireman sitting on the curb kind of zoned out. snap a photo of him. It isn't a rush shot, he looks depleted and isn't going far. You find out later he was the one carrying out the indistinguishable figure and it was a dead ten year old girl.

No rush or foresight needed. The work up for 911 wasn't a moment, but a serious of moments over a long period, what seemed like perhaps a never ending period I was glued to the tv that day and it went on, and on, and on you kind of wished it would be over it was so shockingly horrific..(and I later went online for recoverable pics from there from the "off market " sites and was lucky enough to get downloads from a photographer on site..which is what you didn't see on tv and REALLY horrific) Now the ones that caught the jumpers in a split second before they hit the ground. Now that was timing. Missed and got them after they hit. Just flat out gruesome and undeniably real. But then again since there was many a jumper they at more than one chance at it. Horrific as it was.

The thousand yard stare, I think that would have been the shot you take after you missed the real horrifying ones or in between them. And there was probably more than one person to choose from with that stare given the on going events. Just my take on it though really. There were photos from non photographers with cheap cameras that were down right freakn astounding just because of the content. Entirely situational.

 

[Gary A.]

Speaking about great portraits - this is the best I saw this year. Here is the soldier defending the Ukrainian airport in Donetsk. 4,300 dead since March. This is going on right now in Europe. Photo by Ivan Loiko. Other photos by this guy in this series are amazing as well and put our street photography into some perspective.

Фото: будни украинских военных в аэропорту Донецка - BBC Russian

Reminds me of this image captured by an LA times photog.

 

[pgriz]

Although many photographers believe in the mantra that everything that we need to interpret a photograph should be in the image itself, understanding the image usually also requires context. Capturing enough of the context within the image takes both talent and luck. As we've learned over the years, many of the iconic images we thought were spontaneous, were actually staged, because image couldn't be taken properly at the moment. It seems that there are four different aspects at play with a powerful image - the technical aspects, the visual aspects, the context, and the timing. Bringing all four together is not a trivial exercise.

 

[Gary A.]

Speaking about great portraits - this is the best I saw this year. Here is the soldier defending the Ukrainian airport in Donetsk. 4,300 dead since March. This is going on right now in Europe. Photo by Ivan Loiko. Other photos by this guy in this series are amazing as well and put our street photography into some perspective.

Фото: будни украинских военных в аэропорту Донецка - BBC Russian

great photos. I think you guys are twisting this up a bit. If you were at ground zero there is a good chance you would come out with a similar photo. If you were with a platoon in war you would probably come out with similar photos. I am not sure this is so much all the photographers prowness but rather the setting they find themselves in. I do like the set you just posted though sashbar. Nice photos, again, partly attributed to the setting and content.
The thousand yard stare one above, really wasn't all that impressed with it actually I have seen better stuff from ground zero. Not really sure if I would be comparing this to street photography either as it seems something else to me. Especially if you are spending time with guys in uniform in a gun battle. I could be wrong.

There is a lot of truth to your statement. Are news photogs good or are they just in photo rich opps? I'd say both. What few people don't understand is that similar to reporting the photo journalist has to also seek out the stories. The photos just don't jump into the camera. Even if you're embedded, you still have to find and capture the stories. Photojournalists are journalists first and photographers second.

 

[Gary A.]

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get Turnley's photos if I were in the same situation. Being there is a big part of it, but it's not the whole story.

Could I learn to? I doubt it. I don't react quickly, it's not how I operate. I have to work the photo. Often I have to shoot a thing over and over. On those rare times whenever I do point, shoot, and nail it, it's almost always because I've thought it over thoroughly in advance and I know what I'm doing.

See, react, click? It's a skill and maybe an inborn talent not all of us possess.

this might be different you should give yourself more credit. Envision this, local fire department call house burning down. You drive by as they start hooking up the hoses the fire is blazing. You get out your camera clearly thinking of the shots available here. A fireman carries a indistinguishable small figure out in his arms while another is soaking the ground around him keeping it doused, you miss that shot it happens to quick. You don't see what happens to the figure as it is brought around to the other side of the truck toward a waiting ambulance that just came on seen. You have now been there for about twenty minutes snapping photos, the house flames are just beginning to be brought under control. You notice a fireman sitting on the curb kind of zoned out. snap a photo of him. It isn't a rush shot, he looks depleted and isn't going far. You find out later he was the one carrying out the indistinguishable figure and it was a dead ten year old girl.

No rush or foresight needed. The work up for 911 wasn't a moment, but a serious of moments over a long period, what seemed like perhaps a never ending period I was glued to the tv that day and it went on, and on, and on you kind of wished it would be over it was so shockingly horrific..(and I later went online for recoverable pics from there from the "off market " sites and was lucky enough to get downloads from a photographer on site..which is what you didn't see on tv and REALLY horrific) Now the ones that caught the jumpers in a split second before they hit the ground. Now that was timing. Missed and got them after they hit. Just flat out gruesome and undeniably real. But then again since there was many a jumper they at more than one chance at it. Horrific as it was.

The thousand yard stare, I think that would have been the shot you take after you missed the real horrifying ones or in between them. And there was probably more than one person to choose from with that stare given the on going events. Just my take on it though really. There were photos from non photographers with cheap cameras that were down right freakn astounding just because of the content. Entirely situational.

I was also unimpressed with The Thousand Yard Stare.