Category: Street

Streets of Oaxaca

Photographer Alex Coghe

Streets of Oaxaca - Blog-Beitrag von Fotograf Alex Coghe / 19.08.2021 15:32

I am at home in Oaxaca, a city and a state in Mexico that I have elected as the city where I will one day go to live.I usually go to Oaxaca for my photographic expeditions, the Guelaguetza one in summer and the Dia de Muertos one in October / November.In Oaxaca I also worked for NGO, documenting the human condition of inhabitants of the central valley and Mixteca region. This means that my work there is largely documentary and journalistic.

However, I happen to take some street photos, and I think in particular Oaxaca de Juarez, the capital of the state of Oaxaca is great for street photography. For this reason now I am providing street photography experiences also there.

The images you see here are just a small example, and not even the best made there. All made in 2019, the photos reflect a little bit of what the charming Oaxaca can give us. Some of them realized in villages around Oaxaca where emerges the rural nature of a magic land.

Vote for the Cover of STRKNG Editors’ Selection – #54

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STRKNG

Vote for the Cover of STRKNG Editors' Selection - #54 - Blog-Beitrag von STRKNG / 11.08.2021 18:27

Please help us to find the next cover image for our issue »STRKNG Editors’ Selection – #54«

1) For no one – © Ed Wight

2) Natalie – © Doreen Seifert

3) Heliya – © Mehdi Mokhtari

4) La Femme au portrait – © Marta Glinska

5) Sunshine – © Bogdan Bousca & Irina ludosanu

6) Ents – © Michal Magdziak

7) prayer – © Photographer Tetsuro Higashi

8) watch me fall apart. – © inner destruction

9) FIRST LIGHT – © RRR DIAZ

Use only one number in the comment.

Only one vote per person. Thank you!

Voting ends Wednesday 18th August 23:55h MET

Publication covers so far….

https://strkng.com/en/publications/

Teilnehmer: Fotograf Bogdan Bousca / Fotografin Doreen Seifert / Fotograf Ed Wight / Fotograf gxlgentxnz / Model Irina ludosanu / Fotografin Marta Glińska / Fotograf Mehdi Mokhtari / Fotograf Michał Magdziak / Fotograf Photographer Tetsuro Higashi / Fotograf RRR DIAZ

Street Photography ES

Photographer Alex Coghe

Street Photography ES - Blog-Beitrag von Fotograf Alex Coghe / 08.08.2021 16:02

Let me introduce myself. While many of the street photographers here know me, I figure maybe I should let others in on who I am.

My name is Alex Coghe. I am Italian, born in Rome but I moved definitely in Mexico City in 2010.

I shoot Mexico City since 12 years ago so this means that I know enough this city. As a professional photographer I do photojournalism and portraits, specializing in books for models. I worked also for Leica Camera Ag on assignment and for Burberry. That was my debut in fashion photography.

I have been providing street photography workshops for quite a few years now.

My workshops are real experiences and usually I work with small groups or private one to one for all levels. My workshops in Mexico City are a success with students coming from any part of the world. Recently I added Oaxaca as city available for my masterclass street photography workshop. I propose also photographic expeditions in Oaxaca, for example in October&November during Day of the Dead celebrations.

For STRKNG I decided to focus on street photography but I reserve in future to show part of my work with models.

On my website alexcoghe.com you will find a lot of resources and I am publishing a small guide to street photography.

About Street Photography I can say that is part of me every single day. It doesn’t matter if I’m in my barrio or in downtown: every time I go out I have to do it with a camera, digital or film.

I ask my students what their motivations are. Because I believe that they have to be strong if you want to be a street photographer. There is a difference between being and doing it. I don’t want to go into too much depth here on the ontology of being street photographers but let me tell you that for me it’s about being willing to bleed. I mean not literally but willing to really pour ourselves into the work we are going to do.

When I am on the street I certainly do not hide what I am doing, or photographing. I am in an open and positive attitude, I smile because I love what I do and in all these years I must say that even shooting in places considered difficult if not dangerous I have never had excessive problems.

I photographed also with flash, it happens often to get very close to people, using lenses between 28mm and 35mm. The goal for me is a photograph showing gestures and that special humanity that you can find in a shot.

What I do is to interpret what has always been my curiosity towards other people. I do it and I did it as a writer and I don’t turn it off when I have the camera with me.

About making photos with a theme in street photography

Photographer Alex Coghe

About making photos with a theme in street photography - Blog-Beitrag von Fotograf Alex Coghe / 30.07.2021 14:24

To photograph on the street is most of the time we can find. And usually photos arrive to us. There are so many variables and it depends on the day, but this doesn’t mean we can’t make projects.

A unique theme for a street photographer is an important challenge and a way to learn to start thinking for projects that will take you to the next level.

Photographers like Garry Winogrand showed us how to make photos with a theme can bring you to realize books. Think about his work about business men, or about the women, or the zoo. Joel Meyerowitz in 1983 published his book Wildflowers, because by looking his archive he discovered there were a lot of pictures including flowers. So he back on the street to make other photos to add for the book.

To my students I recommend them to start thinking about themes. Maybe also by looking to their archive. The work with the photos already made is important because you can discover a lot of you as a photographer, your attitude and your interests. It is an important experience with yourself and with your photos, always with the focus to let your inner voice emerge.

As an example I show here some photos I made some years ago about men shoes.

EDOMEX, Street Photography and approach

Photographer Alex Coghe

EDOMEX, Street Photography and approach - Blog-Beitrag von Fotograf Alex Coghe / 25.07.2021 14:59

To photograph in EDOMEX (state of Mexico) is a total different experience. In fact you can’t think to go and simply start to make photos. You need to prepare yourself. It is not like photographing in downtown. The State of Mexico faces a critical situation of citizen security, being one of the most violent states in the country and the one with the most crimes per 100 inhabitants, with 93 (when national average is 41).

To try to make street photography is "cosa de loco" and despite not any place in EDOMEX are unsafe or criminal areas you have always to consider where you are.

The fact is that I live in the north side of Mexico City. And just on the border with EDOMEX. I am used to trespass. Next week I found myself in the state of Mexico for a book fair and, as always, I was with my camera (I always carry one) and I started to make some photos. You can see a selection here.

What I do on the street

Photographer Alex Coghe

What I do on the street - Blog-Beitrag von Fotograf Alex Coghe / 20.07.2021 16:43

I would define myself a concerned street photographer.

I consider myself belonging to old school street photography, the one that still considers it important that the photograph taken on the street is a document of the era and of society and not a form of showing my photographic eye. To visual games and optical effects I prefer gestures, expressions, how the human being fills the public space, the interaction with the urban context.

The new breed of street photographers is focused often on the wow effect: this is because today with instagram and the social networks the attention is only 3 seconds as maximum.

I prefer to focus the attention on things that will have value to see in 20 or 50 years.

Black and White film mood

Photographer Alex Coghe

Black and White film mood - Blog-Beitrag von Fotograf Alex Coghe / 17.07.2021 15:04

This week I was in downtown and I decided to back to photograph something in black and white. Despite I consider now color is my main voice when it comes to street photography, I was looking to document street life in Mexico City, in a old school way and this is exactly where my instinct took me.

I like the pictures presented here because in my opinion I achieved o give them a film mood.

A rough place

Photographer Alex Coghe

A rough place - Blog-Beitrag von Fotograf Alex Coghe / 15.07.2021 17:05

I am not new in photographing rough places. Indeed I live in a barrio of the north side of Mexico City, a popular barrio. And in all these years I have photographed in Tepito, Cuautepec, Itzapalapa, and I photographed also in EDOMEX, the state of Mexico in several parts, in particular in Naucalpan.

Despite my appearance as a foreigner recommends not going to take pictures in certain places, I do. Motivation is stronger than the fear of encountering problems. These are places that not even the Mexicans think for photography.

Yesterday I went to Plaza Meave. In the end it is a small area, between 2 streets; Eje Central Lazaro Cardenas and Republica de San Salvador. My wife advised me not to find myself there. There is a commercial plaza where they specialize in selling cell phones and other electronic equipment. The market is not completely crystal clear. There are also stories that come at you and simulate that you dropped your cell phone and then extorted money to repair it.

Yesterday I was there: i was not intentional. I just found myself…there. I can assure you that the vibe was completely different, even from Tepito. While in Tepito I photographed without any problem, here I could see how someone was looking at me and my camera. Despite this I decided to take 4 photographs that you see here.

It was just me and my camera. I could not know what the reaction could be. A man in particular observed me in a very bad way. I have been careful. More alert than usual.

The photos are not that good. But it shows a documentation of what I have been able to take at home from that place: Plaze Meave.

Back to Life – Pandemic City (Part 2)

Photographer Deborah Swain

Back to Life - Pandemic City (Part 2) - Blog-Beitrag von Fotografin Deborah Swain / 10.07.2021 13:49

When I first started photographing the streets of Rome during the pandemic for my 20/20 vision project, my primary interest was to record people, and the behavioural differences being played out on the streets in these strange times of social distancing and lockdown.

I live very close to the Vatican City, an area full of businesses that depend on tourism for their very survival. It’s a busy area which is usually thronging with crowds. Now there are many shuttered shop fronts, and permanently closed restaurants. Tourism is still predominately domestic at time of writing, but very recently, as restrictions slowly lift, there are suddenly more people on the streets. The atmosphere is charged again with an albeit faint buzz of human activity and renewed energy. I hope these recent photographs convey this.