I can’t recall how I discovered Nick Turpin’s You Tube channel but I’m glad I did.
His wiki page introduces him as:
a British street photographer and advertising and design photographer. He is based in London and near Lyon, France. Turpin established the first international collective of street photographers, In-Public, in 2000 and was a member until 2018. His work has been published in his own book, On The Night Bus (2016) and in various survey publications, as well as being included in a number of group exhibitions. He publishes through Nick Turpin Publishing, makes short films, and gives workshops on street photography.
Phil Coomes, writing for BBC News in 2009, considered Turpin “one of the best” street photographers.
What I found invaluable, and I think unique, was the way he showed his approach to street photography through his POV ‘point of view‘ videos. He works a scene by finding a good location, such as a Trafalgar Square monument, and then stays there for quite a long time. By that I mean he hangs around and watches carefully for a good composition to develop, then makes an image. He’ll do one after another and you really sense that through this process he’s seeing what works and what doesn’t. Just watch this video below – it’s fascinating:
There’s another example of him at the British Museum:
The learning for me, and the approach I’ll adopt next time I’m out, is to scout a location and then do as Nick does and wait for something interesting to evolve. It won’t always be successful and, as he says you need to take many ‘good’ photographs to get a ‘great’, but I think doing this will improve my chances. Previously I’ve rather aimlessly wandered around looking for something to somehow magically appear in front of me but of course it rarely does.
I’m so appreciative of photographers such as Nick who have spent the time putting up videos such as these and sharing their wisdom – it’s a huge help to those of us seeking to learn more about photography. His Complete Beginners Guide to Street Photography is an invaluable and challenging reflection on this genre and throws down the gauntlet to those of us who have chosen black and white instead of colour! I’ll need to think on that more … but in the meantime do visit his website and Instagram.