New Portfolio

the opening shots seem out-dated to me,mandela,blair before his hair turned grey,road protests?,mother teresa,and all taken at press photo-shoots.

you then follow them with a whole bunch of seemingly random shots,with nothing in common,stylistically at least,except they contain american flags.

then i zoned out.

sorry if this sounds harsh,but if you going to present your work all lumped into one long timeline,with no previews,galleries or way of jumping around,then you have to keep the viewers attention.

you are trying to sell your work through your eye for humour(judging by the title of the site),yet only one or two of the first dozen or pictures are funny.

i guess this is not the sort of feedback you wanted,but i know your work fairly well,and i think this presentation is doing you a disservice.
sorry,but you did ask.

Perhaps I need an editor to sort it out for me. I’m sick of it.

Thanks Michael. I really appreciate your advice. Much to think on while I go out now and shoot some new work.

It’s clever the way the @ changes color based on the colors in the picture.

But I tend to agree with Michael about the diffuse nature of the selection. I think one difficulty you encounter is that you bill yourself as a Photohumorist, but your shooting style is essentially straight, so the thrust of the photo is not always clear. Is there something funny about the shot of Mandela? Not really. But the shot of Tony and Cherie? Yes, it’s a little kooky.

Personally, I wish your style were more extreme, more outrageous. It’s too subtle at the moment, as if you are not fully committed to the material; it seems a bit impersonal. Time to find your inner Martin Parr.

If this stuff is supposed to be funny, I wish it were really funny, and not (mostly) subtly clever. Too quiet, and you’re a fecking Irishman fer chrissakes!

Ok, going with the bride stripped bare approach, I have to agree. The older work is probably best off in another gallery, archives or such..and the family in another, and the flags in another..if you want to show all of this.

But Paul, what I would like to see from you is you digging deep into the angst of raising kids. I know there are plenty of sunshine moments, but it doesn’t make for particularly poignant photography in my eyes. I find it sweet that you want to show the love and joy and awe, but for me, that is only interesting when I know the kids. I suggest (my 5 cents worth ) that you be brutally honest down and dirty exhausted pissed off hair pulling self absorbed frustrated and all that if you are going to keep shooting kids. Something extraordinarily personal, something only you can do, and do it full- on. Re: satire/humor..truth is stranger than fiction, and you have lots of it right at home.

Hope that helps and that you aren’t swearing at me right now.

Stupidly second what she said! Humor works best when it bounces off the straight, ergo all the X&Y comedy teams. You have funny X down pat, it’s straight Y we’re missing.

Erica, does anyone ever swear at you?

Paul, You have some moments of radiance, but they are lost in the organization. You are assuming that people are willing to rummage through all the pictures to find the really great images – like going through a deck of cards, trying to find the aces.

Either categorize, or stack the deck to put the aces up front, then throw away some dueces.

Can’t say anything about the portfolio, because just now, apart from the text on the bottom of the openingpage, there was nothing to be seen on the site.

But it’s probably not a very good idea to be thinking about your website while your shooting.
S.

One more thing Paul, its waaaay too long, most people will not get to the end and will miss a couple of gems, to sum up what most people are saying; it could do with a real edit. I also concur with Erica.

Erica, I appreciate you thoughts on the kids. However, I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in documenting the day to day struggles for child rearing. Nor have I any intention of involving my camera in anything approaching a difficult situation for my youngsters. When stuff is tough, they get my full attention. Absolutely. My cameras will not come between. Besides, I’m only interested in that unstoppable force of curiosity and adventure. Nothing else. If I can represent, somehow, any of that magical mystery, then I’m happy.

I’m about to make films of this mysterious world of little boys’ adventures and imaginings. It’ll be challenging.

However, as regards the website, I’ll tweak and cut some more. But I’ll keep the larger size.

Cheers everyone.

Paulyman over and out for now.

Paul,

I understand what you are saying about your kids and your photography of them. I disagree with Erica about using your kids as the subject of child rearing challenges.

On the other hand, Paul, you need to come up with some new photos other than your kids and street photography because your photos of Mother Teresa, Mandela, etc. are dated. You are still in New York, so perhaps you might be able to find a project in which you can show your talents that might be publishable and might lead to assignments you like to get.

Tomoko

I can see your reasoning Paul about giving the kids your full attention in a difficult situation, and of course I don’t mean to suggest doing anything harmful in any way..there is an interesting article with Sally Mann here about this..http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5D61E38F934A1575AC0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Rather, I was thinking about working from the feelings that are inherent in every parent..not necessarily acting (shooting) in the moment when the kids need you.

And I certainly think you know best what your vision is and think its great you have strong conviction about seeking to show the ‘magical mystery’.Obviously, irrespective of what I or we think, you are the one who knows why you photograph..possibly there is a way to get the gist of the sentiment above and apply it to your desire, but only if you are interested in exploring possibilities via my / our perspective/suggestions.

I was just thinking what an interesting family we have created at LS, one that can handle honesty at times and can actually be a place of inspiration and growth, almost like a never ending workshop. Please know that I only want for you to find your greatest joy and success..nothing less.

I was thinking of Todd Deutsch when I made my stupid X&Y post.

I was playing with some of those old shots. I play with the pictures a lot. I like playing with the hands. Then with the police officers leading to the Masai warriors and the crowd around the Blairs, etc.. I just trying to play with linking the pictures. But perhaps is time to come up with something entirely new.

Your words are hugely appreciated, Erica. Hugely. You’ve given me much to think on.

I’m glad for that Paul..i thought I could here the swearing across the boroughs..

and Stupid Photographer – that’s close-ish to what I was thinking too..

Paul, doesn’t this have you written all over it?

copyright Todd Deutsch

or this..okay, a tiny bit of danger here, tho i bet all was fine..(OH look..mom is to the right..making sure nothing goes awry!)

copyright Todd Deutsch

I’ve reverted back to previous, smaller format. Too much work to make entire project large. Some galleries are not live but will be soon. Needs an edit.

Multimedia material to be added soon too.

Thanks. The single gallery idea was a no no, it seems.