Discussion Image: by Nick Turpin

by Nick Turpin

Jared: This surreal image by In-Public founder Nick Turpin, from his ongoing series The French, has that “What the fuck?” quality that stops you in your tracks as you try to figure out what exactly is going on in the frame. That, and he obviously carries around a pair of dismembered legs with him when he shoots, which is a nice break away from the detached hand technique that has become so cliche in much of street photography.

In all seriousness though, maybe we can discuss a bit about the different approaches to shooting street. The aimless wander, the conceptual long-term project – or a mix of both. How do you shoot, and why does it work for you?

Nick has been at the street photography game for years, and has long been at the forefront of the surge in awareness and appreciation of the genre with his blog, his magazine Publication and the recent publication of ’10′ celebrating the 10th anniversary of In-Public.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kyle-Morrow/100000383726204 Kyle Morrow

    Brilliant 90 percent french landscape 10 percent wtf, resulting in 100 percent street. Can absolutely see why Mr Turpin would include this in his The French project. As a kite jumper (a unknown sport/hobby to many ) and Street Photographer I totally get this and I bet that mountain side is a mecca of kite jumpers, the french love a good power kite jump. What adds to the height and allusion of the image is the cable car wires however we know Mr Turpin must be standing on the ground.

  • http://twitter.com/FrankieZing Frankie Sinclair

    Maybe it’s just that mountains, climbing, base jumping, that sort of thing are going to feature more in France? Because it has quite a lot of mountains.

  • http://jophilippe.wordpress.com/ jacques philippe

    I won’t elaborate too much on the photograph’s own merit which I think works well – though I personally don’t get the surreal vibe and figure out quickly what is going on. Instead I wonder about the reason to include this one into the “The French” project. Not that I don’t agree with that (it is not me that have to agree or not), but I am curious of the reason, beside it was shot in France. I am French, so that can explain why I am wondering, and probably over-critical and biased for that matter. But that interests me, the reason why an English photographer (who as far as I understand spends lot of his time in France) finds something somewhat quintessential of the 21st century French-ship / French-ness here. One thing I thought about this picture is it could be allegoric, and I believe can stand for a common critique made to French people abroad (and inside France too), that is the sense of feeling “higher” than others. In other words it could have to do with the now famed French arrogance, but I am not sure. Would be curious…

    As a side note I would be interested to know if Nick have some sort of concept or idea to convey for his French project – not unlike Robert Franck did with “the Americans” – or if it is more diary oriented.