Invited guest: Joni Karanka

I find it hard to create topics under which to bin or classify my shooting. I just do it all the time, maybe more at night than during the day (I’m not the early bird kind of person) and the only way I can sort it out is by the place where it has been taken or the times at which I’d been dwelling there. I think it must be a bit of that Tom Wood approach. You shoot all the time and at one point go, hey, don’t I have quite a bunch of pictures of Italy at the end of the day? I wish I had those fifteen years of continuous shooting that Wood has, but anyhow, I’ll gather them in, well, a decade or so.

I guess I’m a bit influenced by anybody that looks like disrespecting composition a bit. I sometimes think that I must look as an absolute dumbass myself shooting, at least at night. I’m so clueless at what will end up working in a picture that I sort of throw it all in, but I think that’s the best way not to repeat oneself also. Ha, I’m being too cruel with myself there.

I tried to choose pictures that roughly fall into three sets for accompanying this text. I think they look better than any gibberish I can try to write with this hangover (I haven’t had coffee yet). The first couple are from my nights shooting in Cardiff, where I live. The night shot was recently selected finalist for the first David Alan Harvey fund for emerging photographers (didn’t “win”, though). The second couple are images of Milano. I called the set Milano on the Surface, as it was a fair five day hit-and-run approach to the city. It’s, I think, very true to the appearance of the place. Maybe it’s one of my pranks on people that are really committed into knowing their subject matter… And, well, the last couple of shots are from a local park here in Cardiff. It’s surprisingly shot in medium format, and really hard to shoot handheld with a can of beer in the other hand. It’s fun to hang around with the kids really, some remind me of myself ten years ago. Plus I usually have good tips on bands and photography homework.
Everything is work in progress. And I’m off for coffee.

photos & text by Joni Karanka

Joni Karanka: born in Helsinki, 1981; is now living in Cardiff;

take a long trip through his excellent blog And then came the shot

and his pictures on flickr

take a look at flickr to the "hardcore street photography group"

When i'm inviting a photographer here i rarely try to write something by myself. But this time i need to. I asked Joni to join, he've made a selection. And... i may say this selection is not enough, but... any other as well. Joni catches the moments of people's unawarness, nature or how could you call this in other words. He've already catched like a million of these moments... So, everyone now is going to visit his blog and flickr flow, into a fantastic world of human behaviour....and then you'll know what i mean. :)

(invited by Joanna Kinowska)