More Brutalism

Well just picked this thread up!
I do like the image very much, terrific design (photographically!) I do agree the black borders do not enhance your images, but detract.
I think it is a little bottom heavy, I'd be tempted to crop the bottom off a bit an make square format, IMHO, but it is personal taste at the end of the day.

The discussion about depressive images is interesting, it is usually these type of images that arouse the most discussion and that is good, we all learn from healthy debates.

I personally find controversial images far more interesting than pretty ones, they make one question and have an opinion. The world is not a pretty place a lot of the time and a healthy balance is needed, you only have to look at Magnum's site to view a lot of depressing images, but we do need them and there are not so many photographers out there taking these much needed images, well, we don't get to see a lot of them on this forum anyway!

I must admit I do tend to censor my images I post up, perhaps I shouldn't in future

I can live the odd ' 'ere n there, certainly ain't as bad as some we have had in the past (remember PC Pete?)

Lilly

Totally agree with your comments we do need people to image the world as it is. It is pure indulgence on my part that I like to take 'pretty' pictures, there was a time I would have been tracking down the messy side of life but now I only enjoy the decrepit if it is picturesque as well, just like me.

Lilly, I have played around with it before I came to post it up. The crops you suggest don't work for me, but your welcome to have a go yourself.

What kind of a 'messy' side of life was you into?

I have a still life shot planned that I hope will work well as a bit of a statement of our times. I'm still collectin' for it yet though.

Now if I had had the money, time and skill when I had the youth I would have loved to record the tribal folk before the rest of us messed it up for them. I doubt now if there are more than one or two places left in the world that people genuinely live by there own skills with no influence or help from the 'enlightened' and rich societies.

Also remember the children, bare foot, sitting in the gutter eating jam butties, not abroad but in England, they tell me life is better now but I sometimes wonder, there may have been a higher mortality rate amongst those children I just don't know but they were happy and articulate and I wish I had recorded them when I had the opportunity. In the north people lived in tiny houses around a single yard housing the communal toilet and water tap uncomfortable and inconvenient but people did not die not to be found for months then. We do live longer now, for which I am grateful, but we have lost a good deal and I have lived through all these changes but lost the chance to record.

I worked in London during the 1960s and the capital was then a photographers dream but I accepted it and was part of it and did nothing to record it for the future. So carry on there will in the future be those who are grateful for your efforts, but poverty is not always bleak that is where you will find humanity to others.

Sorry, too long

I wish I could've been around to photograph London throughout the sixties, I see the old pictures of the place and its cars and people and its very nostalgic.
The pictures of that time are so wonderful to look at. I wonder whether it will be the same of this age?

It was indeed an amazing time particularly for those in my age group, I was in my late twenties with all the new found confidence that gives you, add to that it was the first time women really had control over and freedom over the way they chose to live their lives. Truly an amazing time that kept me so busy I doubt I would have had the time to take shots.

Getting back to the original post when I see the state of some of these building now when at the time they were thought to be wonderful villages in the sky saddens me but not as much as the behaviour of some who live or perhaps exist in them.

Anyway, London is changin' fast now jackie, with the amount of new buildings bein' built. Its a busy time for construction in London. I'm eagerly awaitin' what they're gonna' look like and give me as an image.

Well we are here now in 2009.
So, to go back in time and photograph the 'photogenic' 60's might be an easy option perhaps?

There is still so much beauty all around us now in the most unusual places if you take the time to look for it, and this is the challenge, to seek it out, have the vision and shoot it. I personally love Paul's images and this is exactly what he does.

His photographs go under the surface of 'so called normal' life. Paul is clearly very passionate, serious and sensitive about his photographs, the subject matter he chooses and the people he approaches, which is reflected in his work.

I really don't see what droppin' a g has got anything to do with this.

I appreciate that Karl. You should come on down sometime.