Shooting black-and-white candids of everyday life 拍摄日常生活中的黑白

We join Kevin Mullins in Bristol for a morning of shooting black-and-white candids of everyday life

For someone who never set out to be a photographer, Kevin Mullins has built a successful career and carved out a distinctive niche for himself. His main income derives from candid wedding photography, shot in his trademark black and white style, but that’s not the only string to Kevin’s bow. He’s also a Fujifilm ambassador and an educator on subjects such as image editing and street photography, and it’s for the latter that we’re joining him today – for a walk around Bristol.

It’s quite a departure from his previous career, building websites in London, until Kevin decided to swap his long commute for a photographic journey instead. Now, following a chance encounter with some inspirational photography in a magazine in 2008, plus a lot of hard work in the intervening years, all the coding Kevin gets to do these days is for his own f16 website, and benefits his own business rather than that of high-powered corporate clients.

As we rendezvous outside the Bristol Hippodrome and walk over to the Harbourside in bright sunshine, I ask Kevin what it is that draws him to this type of photography.

“The street is where I can understand not only the technicalities of street photography, but also the characteristics of people,” he replies. “The way people behave, how they move, how the light falls on them… I can understand all this better when I’m in the unstressful situation of street photography. Then I can use these experiences – ideas of light, composition and being in the moment, which I constantly think about when focusing on the street – when I’m shooting weddings.”

After Kevin fires off a few frames to catch some sun dapples on the water, we walk back into the city and head for the Broadmead Shopping Centre. Every street photography practitioner has their own method of maintaining a low profile while shooting, but Kevin has the ability to hide in plain sight.

Part of this is the camera setup he favours: you can’t get much more subtle than packing a Fujifilm X100V compact and an X-Pro 3 rangefinder, especially when all it looks like you’re doing is methodically composing a photo of the ground in front of you. Kevin deploys a pre-metering and pre-focusing technique that he has tailored for his cameras, then waits for his subject to enter the frame. He’s interested in capturing the difference between light and shade in a given scene, and for him this often forms the most interesting part of the image.

We leave Kevin to it for a while, hanging back to get a widescreen view of him at work. He moves around unobtrusively and takes his time, working through a couple of location spots before setting up his camera on a mini-tripod opposite the entrance to Cabot Circus shopping centre. Now he can slow his shutter speed and capture some abstract frames of shoppers ambling through the precinct. Security staff are milling around, and we’re half-expecting an Street photography helps me to understand the characteristics of people: how they move, how light falls on them intervention from them, but fortunately nothing materialises. With his laid-back, unobtrusive style, Kevin looks less like a pro photographer and more like a tourist taking some holiday snaps for the family album. And that would be fine with Kevin, because for him there’s nothing wrong with nostalgia.

“It’s important we have pictures that remind us of something – that’s why we buy photo books of street scenes from the 1950s, 60s and 70s,” he says. “I do worry a bit about the clampdown on street photography and the negativity around it. I feel like our children and their children could miss out on having a nostalgic visual reminder of the past because we were so tied up with people saying things like, ‘You can’t take this photo because of my...

I do worry about the negativity around street photography – we may lose it

privacy.’ We could lose street photography as a result – in parts of Europe, it’s already very hard to take pictures in public. So what are future generations going to learn from?”

Kevin talks very well about photography and is passionate about it. Although we didn’t sign up to come on a workshop with him today, it feels like we’re learning a lot about candid photography without even having to try – it’s not just the technical know-how that Kevin is imparting, but his whole philosophy of how an experienced and successful shooter approaches the street.

We continue to our next location, the Bristol Bearpit. An open-air circus where a series of pedestrian subways converge under a busy traffic roundabout, the Bearpit features a variety of street furniture that document various attempts to find a use for the space; of interest to street photographers are the subways that funnel pedestrians in and out of the Bearpit. Kevin positions himself against the wall of one subway entrance, capturing scenes as people walk through the areas of light and shade before emerging into the strong sunlight. Showing us the resulting captures on the rear of his camera

afterwards, the strong contrast in the light has created an appealing ensemble of layers: a streak of white wall at the rear of the image, and deep shadows in the middle that give way to midtones in the foreground.

As we move on, it feels like a good opportunity to ask Kevin why he adopted black and white for his signature look.

“There are a few reasons,” he explains. “One of the first photo books I ever bought was by the documentary photographer James Ravilious, who documented the village in Devon that he lived in.

“I remember buying that book and thinking his pictures were amazing. It was like an epiphany, realising that you don’t need colour to understand what you’re seeing. I also know for a fact that good, honest, black and white photographs will stand the test of time.”

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to take any photos at our next location, Christmas Steps, as some of its historic buildings are under scaffolding. So we continue our walk to Broad Quay, and Kevin concludes our time together by locating a promising patch of light and photographing cyclists as they ride through it.

“It’s not the most interesting scene,” notes Kevin. “But when seemingly uninteresting things are happening, the light is ultimately what will help you.” Like so many things we’ve heard today, it’s extremely good advice.

Discovering the photos of James Ravilious was like an epiphany for me: you don’t need colour to understand what you’re seeing.

我们和凯文·穆林斯（Kevin Mullins）一起在布里斯托尔度过了一个早晨，拍摄日常生活中的黑白

对于一个从未想过要成为摄影师的人来说，凯文·穆林斯（Kevin Mullins）已经建立了成功的职业生涯，并为自己开辟了一个独特的利基市场。他的主要收入来自坦率的婚纱摄影，以他标志性的黑白风格拍摄，但这并不是凯文弓上唯一的绳子。他还是富士胶片的大使，也是图像编辑和街头摄影等主题的教育家，我们今天和他一起在布里斯托尔散步。 这与他之前在伦敦建立网站的职业生涯大相径庭，直到凯文决定将他漫长的通勤换成摄影之旅。现在，在2008年在一本杂志上偶然遇到一些鼓舞人心的摄影作品之后，再加上在此期间的大量辛勤工作，凯文现在所做的所有编码都是为了他自己的f16网站，并且有利于他自己的业务，而不是强大的企业客户。 当我们在布里斯托尔赛马场外会合并走到海港边时 在灿烂的阳光下，我问凯文是什么吸引他去摄影。 "在街头，我不仅可以了解街头摄影的技术细节，还可以了解人的特征，"他回答说。"人们的行为方式，他们如何移动，光线如何落在他们身上......当我在街头摄影的无压力情况下时，我可以更好地理解这一切。然后，我可以利用这些体验 - 光线，构图和当下的想法，当我专注于街道时，我会不断思考 - 当我拍摄婚礼时。 在凯文（Kevin）拍摄了几帧以在水面上捕捉一些阳光斑点之后，我们走回城市，前往布罗德米德购物中心。每个街头摄影从业者都有自己的方法，在拍摄时保持低调，但凯文有能力隐藏在众目睽睽之下。 部分原因是他喜欢的相机设置：你不能比打包Fujifilm X100V紧凑型和X-Pro 3测距仪更微妙，特别是当它看起来你所做的只是有条不紊地构图你面前的地面照片时。Kevin 部署了他为相机量身定制的预测光和预对焦技术，然后等待拍摄对象进入画面。他感兴趣的是捕捉给定场景中的光与影之间的差异，对他来说，这通常是图像中最有趣的部分。

我们让凯文呆了一会儿，挂回去，让他在工作中看到宽银幕。他不显眼地走来走去，慢慢地走来走去，在几个地点工作，然后将相机放在卡博特马戏团购物中心入口对面的迷你三脚架上。现在，他可以放慢快门速度，捕捉一些购物者在该地区漫步的抽象画面。安保人员正在四处寻找，我们半信半疑地期待 街頭攝影幫助我了解人們的特徵：他們如何移動，光如何落在他們身上 他们的干预，但幸运的是什么都没有实现。凭借他悠闲，不显眼的风格，凯文看起来不像一个专业摄影师，而更像是一个为家庭相册拍摄一些假日快照的游客。这对凯文来说没关系，因为对他来说，怀旧没有错。 "重要的是，我们有照片让我们想起一些东西 - 这就是为什么我们购买1950年代，60年代和70年代的街景照片书，"他说。"我确实有点担心对街头摄影的压制以及围绕它的消极情绪。我觉得我们的孩子和他们的孩子可能会错过对过去的怀旧视觉提醒，因为我们被人们束缚住了，他们说，'你不能拍这张照片，因为我...... 我确实担心街头摄影的消极情绪 - 我们可能会失去它-隐私。我们可能会因此失去街头摄影 - 在欧洲部分地区，在公共场合拍照已经非常困难。那么，子孙后代将从中学到什么呢？

凯文对摄影谈得很好，并且对摄影充满热情。虽然我们今天没有报名参加与他一起参加研讨会，但感觉我们学到了很多关于坦率摄影的知识，甚至不必尝试 - 这不仅仅是凯文传授的技术知识，而是他关于经验丰富且成功的射手如何走近街道的整个哲学。 我们继续前往下一个地点，布里斯托尔熊峰。Bearpit是一个露天马戏团，一系列行人地铁在繁忙的交通环形交叉路口下汇聚，拥有各种街道设施，记录了各种试图找到空间用途的尝试;街头摄影师感兴趣的是将行人进出Bearpit的地铁。凯文将自己靠在一个地铁入口的墙壁上，捕捉人们在进入强烈阳光之前穿过光影区域的场景。向我们展示他相机后部的最终捕获 之后，光线中的强烈对比创造了一个吸引人的层次组合：图像后部的白色墙壁条纹，中间的深阴影让位于前景中的中间调。 随着我们继续前进，这感觉就像一个很好的机会来问凯文为什么他采用黑白作为他的标志性外观。 "有几个原因，"他解释道。"我买的第一批摄影书之一是纪实摄影师詹姆斯·拉维利乌斯（James Ravilious）写的，他记录了他住在德文郡的村庄。 "我记得买了那本书，觉得他的照片很棒。这就像一种顿悟，意识到你不需要颜色来理解你所看到的。我也知道一个事实，好的，诚实的黑白照片将经得起时间的考验。 不幸的是，在我们的下一个地点圣诞台阶上无法拍摄任何照片，因为它的一些历史建筑都在脚手架下。因此，我们继续步行前往布罗德码头，凯文通过找到一片充满希望的光线并拍摄骑自行车的人穿过它来结束我们在一起的时间。 "这不是最有趣的场景，"凯文指出。"但是，当看似无趣的事情发生时，光明最终会帮助你。就像我们今天听到的很多事情一样，这是非常好的建议。 发现詹姆斯·拉维利乌斯（James Ravilious）的照片对我来说就像是顿悟：你不需要颜色来理解你所看到的是什么。