Oblique Strategies, Perp-Walks, and the Visual Style of Cinema
Or: Dispatches #15
I have no earthly idea how to start this issue of Dispatches, and my cat crying incessantly at the door to be let out is not helping. That's an odd way of beginning the newsletter, you say? I agree. Isn't it just. I was struggling, so I turned to Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies and pulled out State the problem in words as clearly as possible. So, I did. And there you go, would you look at that! We're on our way, you and I.
Like many creatives in December, I sketched out a summary of my year, with some intention of making a pithy recap of 2024. I had many exciting things to talk about, and there were some moments of heartbreak that I decided would stay private. In the end, I abandoned the plan as there was so much to think about at the end of the year.
In December, I left a corporate job I had taken in March when money was becoming a concern. Combining full-time employment with the full-time exertions of photography left me little time for much else - and joining the photo agency in May only aggravated the situation. School was put on hold, and as you will have noticed, Photos, mostly was frozen in carbonite.
In December, I left the corporate role, and, with an unrelated though creative part-time job to help me get back on my feet, as of January I am back to photography, writing, and school. For a few months now, I have been slowly thawing the newsletter to put it back into action. I have returned to Dispatches, and I launched two new publications: A music photography newsletter, The Tinnitus Diaries, and an occasional series of interviews, Conversations, mostly. This month, all being well, I will bring back the Photos, mostly essays after a long break.
It has become something of a tradition for me now to spend the week between Christmas and New Year planning for the year ahead, setting some goals, and figuring out where the hell my life is going. One part anxiety to two parts excitement. By the time the New Year bells of Big Ben rang through an iPhone in Warsaw at 1 AM, and I munched on my Hogmanay Tunnocks Tea Cakes, Caramel Wafers, and Barr's Irn-Bru, I felt confident in my plans. What I really needed was an early success.
On the afternoon of New Year's Day, I decided to set my shyness aside and, after several years of considering it, submit some of my photographs to Leica Fotografie International (LFI)'s gallery. For my first submission, I chose the photograph of the flower girls from last year's Corpus Christi parade in Warsaw. I uploaded it, opted in for inclusion in Leica's Mastershot series, clicked submit, closed the tab and forgot about it. Sort of. The next morning, I woke up to the following email. Now that's an early success!
Anyway, there's a lot of music photography, a lot of street photography, and an abundance of work ahead of me in the next 12 months. A significant part of that is returning to full fitness, so to speak, here in my newsletter. If the year unfolds even close to how I would like it to, if it even nods in the general direction of my hopes, it will be a good one. That being said, and not to crash the mood straight down through the floor, but will the world itself make it out of 2025? It doesn’t feel great, does it? Lets find out together.
Okay. On with the news.
What's been happening this month
Magnum Photos looks back on the life and photographs of Constantine Manos, who sadly passed away on January 3rd. (Magnum Photos)
A collection of photographers including Alec Soth and Dawoud Bey consider the legacy of Robert Frank's pioneering book, The Americans. (Aperture)
In Frames magazine, W. Scott Olsen reviews the superlative A Falling-Off Place: The Transformation of Lower Manhattan by Barbara W. Mensch (Frames)
In the autumn of last year, Tate Britain opened The 80s: Photographing Britain, an exhibition tracing the work of a diverse community of photographers, collectives and publications through that turbulent decade. Here, Diane Smyth reviews the exhibition, one that is open until May this year. (British Journal of Photography)
Petapixel highlights the work of Richard Sharum, a documentary photographer who spent several years travelling across America to explore the division riven through the country. (Petapixel).
Dispatches from Substack
On Art + Math, Bill Sawalich writes of the visual style of cinema and what still photographers could learn from it.
After photographs were released of the absurd, heavy-handed perp-walk of alleged CEO killer, Luigi Mangione, Patrick Witty looks back at other famous perp-walk photographs.
In his Tender Photo series, Emmanuel Iduma highlights and analyses a photograph by Aymen Mohamed, then the photographer writes about the image, himself.
As a fan of jangly guitars and sugar-sweet harmonies, I have enjoyed S.W. Lauden's excellent newsletter, Remember the Lightning and his occasional power pop playlists. In a summation of the year, the playlists are collected together.
In a particularly dark period of my mid-20s when I was struggling to write music, to help me break through the creative block, a friend introduced me to Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies. Strategies that I continue to use, obliquely, with my photography. In a revisited Bus Stop, Bryan Padrick introduces his readers to this unique pack of cards.
Something Funny
For a few years now, I have been a fan of the tremendous and at times inscrutable podcast, Trashfuture. Inexplicably, I had missed the show's sister podcast, Glue Factory. Featuring TF mainstays Milo Edwards and Riley Quinn, they are joined by Olga Koch and Pierre Novellie for an often directionless ramble that is clever and hilarious in equal measure.
And Finally…
I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with part 3 of The Tinnitus Diaries, and later in the month with a new Photos, mostly.
If you’re new here, I’d be very grateful if you would subscribe to or share Photos, mostly. Sharing with 1 or 2 friends who enjoy street photography really will help more than you may think.
If you’re a Substack writer and enjoy this publication, I’d be more than humbled if you would consider recommending Photos, mostly to your subscribers.
Photos, mostly is free to read, however, paid subscriptions and donations help me keep making photographs and writing. All labour required to publish Photos, mostly is undertaken by me alone. As I strive to better live by my anti-capitalist beliefs, I will donate 10% of all income to anti-capitalist, leftist or progressive causes or organisations.
Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription or buying me a roll of film. You can do so by clicking here, or by aiming your smartphone camera at the QR code below.
I'm partial to some of that Tri-X 400 if you're asking. Thank you!
Thanks for the shout out! I've been interested in Oblique Strategies for years, and love the way that - despite being originally created to get out of music/recording slumps - the cards help solve any number of creative problems! Congratulations on your Mastershot - it's a great photo!
Hey, thank you for the shout out!
I have been intrigued by oblique strategies for a while now but haven’t made the purchase. Would you say it’s more broadly/generally helpful, or do you use it to get through specific, acute challenges?