Pau Buscató : The Mindfulness of What Is Street Photography
Pau Buscató, is one of those present day Street Photographers that very wannabe Street Photographer should aspire to! In addition to many other Great past and present Street Photographers, Pau’s Street Photography ought to be studies in any Street Photography Workshop or during Self Education.
In a world where over 8 Billion Cell phones are in use , many claim to be Street Photographers! But where is the Magic? Is There a Secret? No “Secrets” in Pau’s Shots! It’s all Revealed…. if there is a “Secret’, a Key, it is in his Mind! In his Eye….and The ability to anticipate a magical, unrepeatable moment which is “absent” in the photography of those who just CLICK on the street!
The Spontaneous Narrative
Not any snap shot on the street , is Street Photography!
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
The Days of The “Uniqueness” of colour or Black & White high contract light V Shadows, Silhouettes & Large Hats against the sunlight are probably over! Social Street Documentary is surviving well….Street Portraits are as good as they ever were & continuing…..Street Photo-Journalism is thriving (especially now with the continuity of social unrests ). A Flash in your Face like a shotgun close up, is Nothing new & Body Parts Photography are plentiful! & sure enough there are some fine examples of them on Gallery Walls, In books & on our computer screens. Dead or Alive, Long live the photography of the likes of Alex Webb, Elliott Erwitt, Joel Myerowitz, Robert Frank, Bruce Gilden, Vivian Maier et al to name a few….
When I first saw Pau’s Street Photography, recognised “How it Should Be”… I knew “THIS IS PRIME”… This is What Street Photography is! It’s Not just Shot on The streets! That’s NOT ENOUGH…. So, what is ENOUGH!?
You’ll have to Spot it for yourself!
Pau & I had a conversation about his Street Photography. Pau says it like how it is. It’s to the point, direct, honest & frank.
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Pao Buscató is a photographer from Barcelona and currently based in Norway.
Has Street Photography changed since you started? Has Anything Changed on the streets?
I started with Street Photography in 2012 and I’m not sure if it has changed so much since then. Maybe the way photos are shared has changed a bit, for the worse, imo. Those were the Flickr days, and that platform was much more friendly, not as fast paced as Instagram, and, if you looked in the right places (aka groups), it offered lots of opportunities for growing and learning. There was a sense of community over there, with forums, discussions, critique, etc.
In comparison, Instagram is colder and feels more like you’re on your own.
Another thing I noticed that has changed is the way people view our photos. Looking at the Google Analytics or Clicky insights, I noticed that back then most people viewed my photos on a computer screen, while now, unfortunately, most of the times they are viewed on a tiny smartphone device.
Opportunities are the same, I would say. You just need the TIME, really. As life happens, sometimes that’s the most difficult thing to have: enough time to go out and make photos. But the streets are still packed with people and opportunities.
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
What do you look for in Street Photography? What is a Great Street Shot? What isn’t?
I like to see photos that surprise me, photos that force me to stay with them for whatever reason: an outstanding moment that is hardly ever gonna happen again; or because it has some sort of cognitive friction that messes up with your eyes and brain (see Blake Andrews); or an original and clever idea, a strong emotion perfectly framed… Or all of those together. There is no magic formula.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t like one-liners. One-liners can also have the things I mentioned, and there are good ones and bad ones (the easy ‘low-hanging-fruit’ cliches). Quite often bad ones are the most popular in social media, and I have been guilty of making a few of them, too.. especially when I was starting.
In general, I like to see/feel that the photographer had a clear intent with the photograph. I like to see creativity and originality, because we are flooded with the same type of images being posted again and again.. photos that when you see them, you have the feeling that you’ve seen them before, a million times. We need more of the other ones, the ones that feel unique, original and difficult or almost impossible to replicate.
I love photos that are based on a creative observation made out of our most mundane and underrated surroundings. I love photographs that are able to turn the smallest thing, the most unimportant random thing, into an interesting image.
I’m bored of the typical photos of silhouettes inside a geometrical framing, or similar. If you stay in that place for 10 more minutes you’ll be able to make that very same image 25 more times. I don’t see the point.
DO you have a Favourite photo ? A story?
Not really. I don’t have any favourite one, just some photos that I like more than others. I also tend to get tired of some of my older images. Maybe I’ve seen them too much, and in some cases I think they are quite cliche and wouldn’t make them again.
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
This photo of my reflection holding an umbrella, for example. It’s from 2015 (Oslo) and I still like it, but there is no special story behind it. I liked the idea of a frame inside a frame, with the added reflection, so I waited there for a while until someone would walk behind the old house. The woman with the red umbrella was a nice final touch of colour that fitted well with the rest of the tones in the frame, and it gave some more depth.
Copyright ⓒ Pau Buscató
For our gear enthusiasts, Do you shoot film or digital & what is your current on hand gear.
I shoot digital now. When I was starting with Street Photography I did a year and a half of shooting only b&w film and developing at home. I did that so that I could learn the basics of photography, because in 2010, when I bought my first camera (digital) I got trapped in the buying-new-gear race, which got me completely lost, not knowing which direction to take. That’s a typical rookie mistake: thinking that the more and better gear, the better photos you’ll make..
Luckily for me I realized about this, so decided to make a radical change and simplify things: I sold all the accumulated gear and bought a used film camera and a lens. This helped a lot.
Then in the end of 2013 I bought a digital camera again, the tiny Ricoh GR, and have been shooting digital since then, always in colour.
With the GR camera I got very used to the 28mm focal length and have sticked with it. Shooting film on a rangefinder also got me used to zone focusing, and have also sticked with that, even when using digital cameras with great autofocus capabilities. I still think that an already pre-focused camera is faster than the fastest autofocus one. It gives me more peace of mind, too, when I’m out shooting.
My favourite gear is the one that makes my type of shooting easier. For example, the GR or the Fuji X70 are very good for the way I work. They are tiny, 28mm and very easy for zone focusing. I also have a bigger camera, the Sony A9 (first version, from 2017) that I use with a very small manual lens: the Voigtlander Color-Skopar 28mm. I need an adapter because this is a lens with a Leica M mount, but with this combo I work in the same way that with the smaller cameras: zone focusing and the “F8 and be there” approach.
To See More of Pau visit His website
And Follow him on Instagram
Leave a comment