Where do you take your photos?
In the main I tend to take pictures in Liverpool, but I always have a camera with me so it doesn’t matter where I am. I also tend to seek out the backstreets, the places where there aren’t too many people, so city centre shopping streets is a bit of a no no. I like to find a spot and wait for someone to enter the frame, it takes patience and a lot of days where I just don’t get a picture I like. This is life I guess.
How did you get into photography?
I’ve always tended to see and think in still images. I used to love looking at old black and white pictures of anything really and then the natural progression to start taking them myself emerged. I started way before we all had a camera on our smartphones, then you had to invest time to learn how to make an image…buy film (which I still do), develop it etc…. Taking a picture isn’t really photography, photography is about seeking out a story, learning to look for things that speak to you, learning about light and motion. Anyone can take a picture, but the hard thing is making a photograph. You have to imagine how the scene will look frozen in time, will it work? It’s best to think of the whole process, start to finish, which should end with a photograph you made hanging on a wall.
Why do you make our work?
Well for me I guess you could say I’m an observer…I like to watch the world go by in detail. In the images you see here, you’ll see a glimpse into who I am. I’m a pretty melancholy kind of guy, I like to convey solitude in things, that’s why lots of my photography tends to focus on one person in a scene. Not exclusively of course, but when a person is alone, no matter what they’re doing, they always seem a million miles away, thinking or pondering…I’m always interested to know what that might be about…
So the message is probably how I’m feeling rather than what the people in the images are feeling. I hope to project the mystery of our own thoughts. It’s up to the viewer to think about what the message is to them, but if they do get what I’m feeling, then I guess you could call that a success. Taking pictures is always a pleasure and never a chore.
Is there anything you’d like to say about yourself, or your work?
Tough question!! I’d only say that I’m not taking pictures for some grand plan to be a photographer, it’s more meditative than that for me. Sure I hope people like what I do, but my life doesn’t depend on it.
About myself? Im not sure there is anything interesting about me that would warrant a few lines here.
Probably best for someone else to write…
Where can people find more of your work?
I’d love it if people made contact or left a comment on my site, looking is one thing, communicating is where it’s at!!
My website – www.streetframe.co.uk
Instagram – stevecoleman_uk
Twitter – @stevecolemanuk