📸 Photo series #32: The street, a large part of our lives

Street photographer: Brad Jones

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We are proud to showcase the exceptional work of Brad Jones this week. His photography brilliantly captures the emotions that mirror the essence of our streets and contemporary society.

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A Fragile Utopia by Brad Jones

⏱️ Reading time: 6 min

I want to stop and think about how I experience the streets in my city. I’m interested as a photographer in finding a way of converting the spaces that we pass through on our way to our destinations, into the destination. What if the overlooked areas of our cities could hold as much meaning for us as our homes, or our places of work, or schools. Even if we don’t realize it. The places we pass every day have an enormous influence over who we are and our general perceptions of ourselves. We compare ourselves all day to strangers that we encounter on the street. We react to disturbing things or uplifting things. We are influenced by the advertising we see. We become bothered by people who knock into us or bikers who nearly run us over. We fall in love in the streets. It plays a much larger role in our lives than we maybe understand.

We spend time thinking about what we’re going to do once we get to wherever our destination may be. But, not so much about what we just passed through. It’s the great subconscious subspace landscape that we all inhabit together.

I know that often in the US public space doesn’t register so much with us. Its significance doesn’t quite hit us until after we’ve moved away from there. Then one day we stop to remember the old place and, how much better it was than where we are now.

When I’m out shooting I’m always seeking a means of converting chaos into a sort of structure. Creating a photographic proposal of what this space could look like. I only wish that I could freeze the space in real-time instead, of temporarily making a two-dimensional representation.

Though ultimately, I’m working with the knowledge that reality is much smarter than I am and, is a much better artist. I’m searching to come to an understanding of the language that the people around me speak either implicitly or explicitly. And, I know I would be foolish not to appreciate that I exist in an environment of temporarily aligned random fragments of sublime majesty.

Written and shot by Brad Jones.

Who’s behind the lens?

Describe yourself as a photographer and where you are based

I am based out of Brooklyn, New York. I've been working in the street photography medium for about five years.

Your favorite camera and lens

Professionally I use several different cameras. But, for street work, I use almost exclusively Fuji XT3, with a 15 - 55 zoom lens.

Your 3 favorite places to shoot

Lately, I have enjoyed working on and around the Brooklyn Bridge. I love that there is a lot of foot traffic there. There are lots of disparate people from many different countries there milling about which makes it more interesting as an artist to engage with all of the different people from around the world. There is great light there until much later than the rest of the city.

According to you, what makes a good picture

The simplest way to explain it is that there is a strong composition, interesting light, and some level of storytelling happening in both the foreground and the background. This would describe the ideal picture. This also rarely happens.

Your favorite photographers and where you get inspired.

My favorite photographers are many and varied. But a few of them are Alex Webb, Harry Gruyeart, Maggie Steber, Bruce Davidson, Raymond Depardon, Constantine Manos, and Nikos Economopoulos. Just to name a few.

Portfolio and/or social media links

Instagram: @jones_of_nyc

Website: bradjones.work

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