The discovery of Vivian Maier's work has had a tremendous impact on the web and on the photographic world, so it was perhaps predictable that the output of some other heretofore unknown street photographers would start to get attention as well. One of these is Frank Oscar Larson, a banker who shot mostly on the weekends and after his retirement. His images provide a real window on 1950's New York, and well, they just look cool. He's not in Maier's class though, and I seriously doubt any other 'forgotten photographer' will ever come close.

Via Gothamist.

Because, yes, I will always jump at the chance to link to something about Weegee, here's an NPR story on some of his shots depicting murder and death. The original audio version of the story is on the same page.

Weegee was really the first photographer I ever loved, and I can remember seeing a travelling exhibition of his prints at the Glendon Campus of York University many eons again when I was just a kid. I think his work is much more influential than most people realize and is probably the biggest single inspiration for the entire 'noir look' of 1940's cinema.

Before it collapsed the Soviet Union had its own internal infrastructure of technology:  cars, planes, and yes, cameras. Many of these cameras were (by Western standards) weird-looking, shoddy and downright horrible. Some were quite good though, and that's the potentially confusing part.

There are in fact so many of these old cameras floating around they've spawned their own internet acronym: FSU cameras. The FSU means Former Soviet Union of course and includes cameras from such satellite nations as Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc. Just do a little Googling and you'll find dozens of FSU camera sites and forums with overwhelming amounts of info (much of it conflicting).

But one thing these sites really don't make clear is that the guys fascinated with these cameras are mostly collectors, not photographers. They judge equipment based on rarity and cosmetic condition, not functionality and picture-taking chops. And while there were indeed some 'okay' Soviet-era rangefinders and some very good lenses I would nevertheless recommend steering clear of all of them if you're an actual photographer looking for a bargain.

Why?

Well, the USSR didn't collapse for nothing. Like all Soviet manufactured goods, even higher-end cameras and lenses suffered from horrible quality control. One sample might be great and the next dismal, and for the modern buyer there's just no way to know which you're getting until it's too late. What's more, if you're buying from someone within an old Soviet republic I have heard of all kinds of eBay fraud horror stories.

If I really, really can't talk you out of it and you've absolutely got to have a Soviet-designed camera then you could get a Kiev 88. This was the Eastern bloc answer to Hasselblad and, yes, some of the Kiev lenses can be mounted on a Hasselblad body. Just don't be fooled into thinking that you're going to get something as good as a Hassie when you buy one of these.

Pictured above: A very rare Nikon FG 'Bakunin' model specially built for the 1973 Nixon-Brezhnev summit. *

*No, it's not a real camera. So don't email.

If you aren't familiar, Behance is a great site for photographers, designers, art directors, and any other sort of visual professional or artist. Even if you have your own site it gives you the chance to segment your work for a particular audience. To that end, I've just created a little presentation of music photography there. Note you can also embed a Behance gallery on LinkedIn and several other places.

Above is an old shot of Mark Seymour playing at the Balmy Beach Club in Toronto.

The Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2012 has just opened up. The prize this year is an M9-P plus a lens 'worth 10,000 Euros' (almost certainly a 50mm Noctilux) plus $5,00o cash. Pretty impressive. To win you must be a professional photographer and submit 10-12 images documenting 'the interaction between man and the environment.' I have to admit, I am absolutely terrible at interpreting these sort of vague themes and wouldn't know where to start.

Check all the rules for submission carefully because the site is actually very poorly laid out. And note the contest is free.

What more could you want than liquor and literature? As part of a series of events co-sponsored by Penguin Canada and the LCBO, you can meet Toronto author D.J. McIntosh and get a copy of her best-selling novel The Witch of Babylon, one of Amazon Canada's books of the year. The event is January 31st at the Bayview Village LCBO, and the cost only $35. More details can be found at the LCBO's website. Of course you get a drink too!

And if you're an author and need a book jacket photo of your own give me a call. Even if you're self-published a good author photo can make a big difference to your sales.

I don't often comment on other people's blog posts (in fact it's possible I never have). Today though I will, since I agree all the way with uber-photog Chase Jarvis that one should strive to capture what he calls the 'un-moment'. Personally, I think of these as 'in-between' moments but it's the same general idea. You want to capture a subject when they're not all tensed up to have their image taken and not necessarily even thinking of the camera at all. This is why it's crucial to always be ready and to be quick and why shooting street photography can really help your technique. It gives you lots of practice at being aware and quick.

The image above comes from a shoot I did with Marta in the fall, a nanosecond long look while we were all goofing around. I thought it was the best shot though it wasn't quite what she was looking for and maybe has too much of a 'Shania Twain' feel for Marta's public image. Still, nice IMHO.

Almost a year after the death of Buffalo's most famous photographer, Milton Rogovin, it's come to light that he was a subject of FBI surveillance with a file several hundred pages long. He was indeed a card-carrying member of the Communist Party as the saying goes, but it's hard to see what damage he could in Buffalo while working as an optometrist, which was his day job.

You can see some of Rogovin's fine work here.