Every Month or so the Ulsan Mirae (Future) Photography Forum brings in a new speaker to talk to it’s members about a range of different topics. If you remember a while ago, I was their first speaker and it was an interesting time. This time around it seemed more of a formal event. People seemed more engaged with the speaker and certainly asked a lot more questions.
The speaker this time was also none other than Mark Cohen a famous American street photographer with a career dating back to around the 1960′s. His lecture lasted around 3 hours and there was a short Q&A period after. It was a great time and interesting to see how the presence of an established photographer changed the crowd. During this lecture people were actually asking questions. During mine they just starred blankly back at me. At any rate, it was interesting to see Mark explain his techniques and how he captures his shots.
I am not a big fan of this style of photography. I have never found street photography interesting at all beyond shots taken from many years ago and comparing styles to how they are now. Mark’s style is very intrusive to say the least. His earlier works used a 22mm or 28mm lens and thus he had to get close to his subjects. He also utilizes a flash that he carries in one hand. SO you can imagine how that would go over with people having a stranger pop a flash about 3 ft away. He basically stated that he was no stranger to threats and confrontation due to his approach.
At any rate, it was an interesting evening and I am happy that I got a chance to chat a bit with Mark before we were all ushered out of the building. For those in Ulsan, I am slowly getting around to including the Ulsan Photography Club in on these events. As it stands now, the yearly rate to join the forum is quite high, but if I can bring it down a bit, I will planning some joint activities.
