Sydney Unposed

Candid colour people photography

The following is a gallery of street photographs of Sydneysiders, taken between 1998—2008. They are of complete strangers, photographed in the Sydney CBD and suburbs, with little or no interaction from me.

I didn't use a concealed camera, just Leica Ms or a V Series Hasselblad (see the Hasselblad tab above). Each image was taken from about 2½ metres and (mostly) from the front. To keep the results natural and spontaneous, I seldom asked for permission.

Quick Links
Location Description
Shoppers Inside retail environments
Work People at work
Play Relaxation & leisure
Street Street scenes
Commuters Travelling & moving about

Image Gallery

shoppers

work

play

street

commuters

Notes

About this project

It was done in my spare time and was self-funded. It was created not only for artistic reasons, but also arising from an interest in Sydney cultural and social history. It was originally called Everyday Life in 1998, but it slowly transformed into Sydney Unposed during 2002.

How did I do it?

The 35mm work was done with 50mm or 35mm lenses, while a 80mm or 50mm was used on the 6x6 'Blad. Permission was seldom asked and I never used a concealed camera. If I thought I could get a away with it, I simply took the photo I wanted and then moved on.

Consent? Invasion of privacy?

Neither. See the discussion in my photography legal issues article at <photorights.4020.net>

Is the project complete?

Yes, its heyday was during 2001–2007. Since 2010 I have spent most of my time on a new project called The Boomer Legacy.

Australian Photography July 2004 Article

Australian Photography Magazine published a 2300-word feature about this project called “Suburban Candids: Exploring the portrait world beyond your family and friends” (pp.48-53). To illustrate the text, six of these images were reproduced, two of them full-page. As most Australian libraries have an APM subscription, drop into your local if you want tips on how to shoot this sort of thing.

I originally wrote the article in January 2004, so a few things need updating:

  1. John F Williams' website no longer exists following to his death in July 2016
  2. Likewise Ingeborg Tyssen's website also became unavailable around the same time

Cameras & Lenses (circa 2010)

Over the last thirty years I have used a large variety of cameras, lens focal lengths, film types (35mm and medium format) and even digital (FourThirds and Micro FourThirds).

Unposed was shot using a 2000 Leica M6TTL rangefinder camera, 2003 Hasselblad 501cm 6x6, 2009 Panasonic Lumix GF-1 or 2008 Leica D-Lux 4. Lenses used were mainly a 50mm Summilux-M and a 35mm Summicron-M ASPH on the Leica; a Zeiss Planar CF 2.8/80 or Zeiss Distagon CFi 4/50 for the Hasselblad; and a Panasonic Lumix G 20mm / ƒ1.7 Pancake on the GF-1.

The joys of using film (in 2005)

For those who are puzzled about the digital churn remark, see The Shape Of Things That Came at The Online Photographer blog, along with Get off The Technology Merry-Go-Round by Sydney Morning Herald photographer Wade Laube.

Sydney Unposed and the critics

My candid photo project usually gets positive feedback, but at the beginning it also attracted a bit of flak. If you want to see what all the fuss was about, see the discussion in my Critics article.

 

Hasselblad

6×6 candids

In August 1999 I bought the book Full Moon, a collection of Apollo Lunar photographs re-scanned and printed by Michael Light.

A surprise was that almost every moon-walk photo was done using chest-mounted cameras. Unless they wanted to use a 500mm telephoto, the astronauts never raised a camera to their face or even looked through a viewfinder.

Now if NASA could rely on this technique for a once-in-a-lifetime billion-dollar shoot, then it should also work for humbler street photography in Sydney. Thus from November 2004 onwards, I ventured forth with my own 'Blad…