The Sound of Photographs, Begging the Question, and Just Begging

Or: Dispatches #10

Jan 10, 2024

As the last days of 2023 dripped through some unseen hourglass, I sat on the bed in my parents' back bedroom. This room was once mine, then my brother's, and is now that of my nieces when they visit their grandparents. I sat on that bed as the rain battered the window and I looked back on the year and wondered where it had gone. A cliche, sure, but time does seem to pass much quicker the further from 1979 I travel.

Though Photos, mostly began in November 2022, it only began to find its feet in the spring of '23. Several months passed before something unknowable clicked and I began to find my rhythm. From around Issue 8, in June, the engagement began to increase, the subscriber count crept up, and I found the right tone of voice for my articles. I blitzed past my stretch goal of 500 subscribers in the year and ended 2023 with 767 of you, and several of you have been kind enough to support me with paid subscriptions. Thank you all so much for being part of this!

Paid Subscriptions

While I am on that thorny subject, I wanted to remind readers of my 1st paid content on Photos, mostly, the State of Street Photography 2023. In it, I cover topics as broad as Online Spaces, Education, Technology, Public Perception, Privacy, Representation, and several others. Over half an hour of reading, or just under an hour of listening, I was keen to give my 1st paid readers value for their hard-earned cash.

I did, however, time it quite badly. Publishing 5 days before Christmas and hoping readers might upgrade to a paid subscription now seems somewhat optimistic. I hope though, in the new year, there may be readers who will consider a monthly or annual subscription. Not only will you receive access to the State of Street Photography, but an additional issue of Photos, mostly, every month.

Most readers will know that I left corporate life early in 2023 to return to school to study for a degree. For the rest of my studies, I will be getting by with a miscellany of part-time jobs, freelance work, and money made from writing and teaching. I hope that Photos, mostly can be part of that income stream as I work my way through this year. As such, any readers who would like to support me through one-off donations or by upgrading to a paid subscription would be a significant help.

SAN

In the wake of Substack's insufficient response to the Substackers Against Nazis open letter, I had considered leaving the platform. Given my aforementioned circumstance, however, there isn't an alternative platform that will allow me to continue in this way - at least in the short term. As such, I will stay here for the time being, however, I am keeping a beady eye on the situation.

I know that there are readers who refuse to give Substack any money through paid subscriptions. I respect that, 100%. If you would like to upgrade to a paid subscription on Photos, mostly but do not want to do so through Substack, I have a workaround for that, so just send me an email and we'll make it happen.

I promise Photos, mostly won’t become a monthly exercise in asking for money, I just wanted to make up for the poor timing of my 1st paid offering.

Ok, begging letter done, oh - and the photos illustrating this month are some of my favourites from last year.

Right, let's get on with the news.

What's been happening this month

Françoise Bornet, the young lady in the romantic embrace in Robert Doisneau’s iconic Paris kiss picture has died, aged 93.

Towards the end of last year, Time Magazine listed their top 100 photos of 2023.

In a sign that I made the right choice sticking to black and white, Pantone’s colour of the year was recently announced.

The Guardian featured the British Cultural Archive’s Document Your Community project, made in connection with Modern Films who produced the Tish Murtha documentary.

What do photographs sound like? Over on Aperture, a group of leading curators, writers, and historians consider noisy pictures.

Dispatches from Substack

There are many responses and thoughtful essays in the wake of the Substackers Against Nazis letter. Ken White of The Popehat Report wrote one I felt was worth sharing.

And while we’re at it, Platformer reported a partial victory for SAN.

On the Present Age, Parker Molloy highlighted a clip of Joe Rogan's show going around at the tail-end of 2023. Watching it made my blood boil. A true indication of just how full of shit these just-asking-questions types are.

Marcel Borgstijn returns with issue number 2 of his Darkrooms magazine, featuring some excellent photography!

The New York Times published a nonsense article posing the question Is Photography Dead? In his In The Frame publication, Don Giannatti replied at length.

A favourite Photostacker of mine, Andrew Eberlin wrote about his favourite photobooks of the last year. Good man!

Recommendations

Photographer

Around this time last month I was photographing at Warsaw's annual Human Rights film festival, Watch Docs. Following the screening of Hong Kong Mixtape, there was a panel discussion on activism in art which was joined by Polish associate member of Magnum, Rafał Milach. Back in 2006, he co-founded Sputnik Photos based in Warsaw, and more recently he has created Archiwum Protestów Publicznych or the Archive of Public Protests. He is well-known in Poland for documenting the Strajk Kobiet (Women's Strike) that rose in the wake of the right-wing Law and Justice Party's anti-abortion laws. Milach's photography of the Strajk Kobiet makes up some of the Archive of Public Protests and illustrated, in often flash-lit colour, the fierce and indignant protest of Polish women at the loss of basic human rights.

Music

Being a wee guy, I tend to opt for small sizes which normally works out well. Of course, every now and then I'll buy a t-shirt online and it'll arrive and only then I'll discover that it's not just small, it's small. At the bottom of my t-shirt drawer lies one of my all-time favourite shirts that I just can't quite squeeze into. The t-shirt, the classic cat design from Olympia band, Sleater-Kinney. In 2024, I am going to fit into that thing, though alas not quite soon enough for the release of the band's new album. Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker are back on the 19th with their 11th studio record, Little Rope. The album has been described as delicately layered, and I'm excited to hear it in its entirety. By the evidence of the lead single Hell and follow-up Say It Like You Mean It, the record has a darker tone no doubt affected by the loss of Brownstein's mother and stepfather in a car accident in 2022. Certainly, the band have described the album as dealing with personal grief and global crisis. So, in anticipation of the new record coming out, I want to recommend my favourite record by the band, their third, Dig Me Out.

TV

I may have written about this before, but I tend to consume a lot of television between 6:30 and 10 am depending on the time I wake up. I prop my laptop on the ledge of my stationary exercise bike and I go for a ride for the length of an episode of whatever I'm watching. Sometimes, when the going is tough, I need an action-driven show that will pull my attention away from the pedalling, and at other times I just want something that feels good - televisual comfort food, as it were. This month's TV recommendation fits very much in the latter camp. It's almost a year old so I've slept on it somewhat but I finally got around to it. I am borderline obsessed with how exceptional Natasha Lyonne is in everything she does, and boy howdy does she do it in Rian Johnson's Poker Face. I've always been more a fan of a whodunit mystery than a howcatchem show, so I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this case-of-the-week vehicle but it is magnificent. The stories are tightly told, and there are more guest appearances here than in a season of SNL. 10 episodes didn't feel nearly enough so thank goodness there's a 2nd series somewhere down the line.

Fun

Some more music now. There’s not a lot to say about this one except that a guy named Steven Goldberg created a browser emulation of the classic Roland Juno-106 analog synthesizer that can be controlled by MIDI. I have had this in my bookmarks for years and I dig it out occasionally to fiddle with it. This is the 106.js. Enjoy.

Interesting

Though I have become much less irritated by bad grammar or poor word choice to bother policing language used by others, I used to be a less violent analogue of David Mitchell’s character in this Mitchell and Webb sketch. I’ve finally come around to accepting the word literally can be used somewhat not literally, and I had only just started to tolerate the use of the phrase begs the question to mean raises the question before I found this… begthequestion.info, a tongue-in-cheek website encouraging the correct use of the phrase… and now I’m back on my high horse again. Damn.

And Finally…

Happy New Year! Stay tuned for the 1st paid content of the year, coming on 24th of January, and then Issue 15 of Photos, mostly published on the 31st of January.

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 and Dispatches are free to read, however, in 2024, there will be additional monthly paid content. Last year, I left corporate life and returned to school, so if you like what I do you can help me avoid a return to the daily grind. 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.