Rui Pahla

'Street photography is all about observing people, their actions and juxtapositions. Keep your eyes open, look for interesting connections. You’re more likely to get a memorable photograph when you’re part of the scene and reacting to the emotions and drama that is being acted out around you'
Rui Pahla.

Look familiar? This decisive moment (top right), taken on a rainy day in Lisbon was captured just a few years ago by the Portuguese photographer Rui Pahla. Undoubtedly influenced by one of the first street photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Palha's quick and intuitive eye has captured many incredible moments, testament that the art of black and white street photography is still alive and well. He recently published his first book, 'Fotografia de Rua', (Photographs of the Street) which contains beautiful images of his native city, Lisboa, and all it's interesting characters.

Fishing by Flashlight, Killiney Beach, Co. Dublin.

After a few hours photographing the white cottage, as darkness gradually fell over Killiney Beach I came upon what initially looked like a search party. There were bright spotlights moving around the sand, flickering back and forth. As I moved closer I realised the lights were torches, attached to the heads of people who were fishing in the dark. Each one had a little tent perched further back on the strand so they could shelter and thread their lines and return to the waves to where their fishing rods nestled waiting for some unsuspecting fish to bite.



It was then that the thought occurred to me...we're all just trying to capture something...right?

White Cottage, 5pm, Killiney Beach, Co.Dublin.

While taking a walk on Killiney Beach in Dublin with my father last summer we came upon these ruins, covered in graffiti, consumed with overgrowth and beer cans. A sad place, but I couldn't quite make out what it was originally, a strange mish-mash of rooms tacked on to one another with the most spectacular glassless panoramic views of Killiney bay. The cheap ruins of a make-shift building in a priceless location.

Then my father began to tell me stories of when he used to go there in the 1950s and 60s. There was a lady living there, during the day she'd bring big pots of tea out on the beach and sell them to people. Then in the evening the place would come alive with bands playing music, people dancing and singing.

Roaming around the now neglected ruins my father reminisced , 'We'd stay up until all hours singing and dancing. Everyone would go there. You could drive your car right down to the place.'

I decided to return to the cottage today with my camera, to capture a place that once was. This evening as I walked away from the building I looked back and began to see it in a whole new light. I could almost hear the live music carrying from it's windows and the trains thundering above it, bringing more party goers to join the foray. The sound of their laughing voices, frenzied chatter and engines purring to a park. The bewitching hour brought it alive again, just for a few moments.

Trolley - New Orleans, 1955 by Robert Frank

'Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected'. Robert Frank

Meet Robert Frank. In 1955 he traveled across his new adopted home, America and photographed what he saw. Coming from a Jewish family which survived the second World War in Europe and lived to dream the nightmares, he was certainly equipped with an empathic eye. With the push of a button the American dream was shattered and a realism ensued. Frank captured all levels of society, giving a hugely refreshing insight into the often bleak and lonely existence of America's citizens who were living in an increasingly consumer driven society. This photograph, taken in New Orleans captured the segregation of white and blacks on public transport from an interesting angle; from the outside looking in.

Butte, Montana by Robert Frank

A beaut indeed. Unsurprisingly Frank's depictions were not well received stateside. 83 of the 28,000 shots were selected and published in a book simply called 'Les Américains' by Robert Delpire in Paris in 1958. The following year the American edition was published with an introduction by the beat poet and writer Jack Kerouac, whom Frank had met on a side walk after a party. He showed him his photographs and Kerouac agreed to write about them.

Candy Store - New York City by Robert Frank

"Everybody get on your feet, you make me nervous when you're in your seat" ('Barefootin', Robert Parker)

Frank had a fascination with juke boxes or rather a fascination with the American's fascination with juke boxes. They seemed to bring people together.

Funeral - St. Helena, South Carolina by Robert Frank

Robert Frank's photographs managed to capture the tensions between race and class in America in the 1950s, which popular culture at the time was glossing over with an unrealistic optimism. Though sales were slow at first, Jack Kerouac's introduction to Frank's book brought in a wider audience. 'The Americans' became a seminal piece of documentary evidence, capturing the history of American culture and influencing many great artists and photographers.