MARCH 2024: CHRISTOPHER HERWIG
“A PHOTOGRAPH FEATURING THE OVERLOOKED”
Christopher Herwig is a Canadian photographer and filmmaker primarily known for his photographs of vernacular architecture, particularly the art of Soviet bus stops. This assignment was initially set in episode #422. This year for the monthly 2024 challenges, photographers appearing on the show will set a series of one-word assignments.
THE ASSIGNMENT BRIEF
From Christopher: “I’ve chosen the word, overlooked. I think there are so many times, as photographers, we go out looking for photographs with some sort of idea or preconceived notion/s of what we’re looking to photograph, and we may have done some homework or research as part of that process. There are things though, that we walk past and never photograph. They’re the things that become overlooked. To try and find value and meaning out of some of these objects or even people, for me, has been an incredible experience as a photographer. It not only challenges your creative ability in terms of making these overlooked items exciting but there’s equally a storytelling aspect to it. These overlooked things can become unsung heroes, underdogs, whether it’s a place, a person or an object.”
HOW TO ENTER. IMPORTANT NOTES ON FILE SIZE AND ENTRIES
Send your entries to stories@photowalk.show. Pictures should be 2,500 pixels wide, if possible, for online optimisation. Or send the full-resolution photo, which we will optimise. Feel free to provide text as well, if you think it will help explain the location, context etc.
Entries are shown below, and good luck!
Neale
CHRISTOPHER HERWIG
One of the photographs from Christopher Herwig’s Soviet Bus Stops project.
VICTORIA ROBB - FLASK WINNER FOR MARCH
I've had a thing for the beauty of our street covers for a while (above and below) which have some beautiful designs - certainly the ones that are older and made from iron. And so when the word 'overlooked' was announced I straight away thought of them. Overlooked in the sense we walk over them every day, without often noticing the history under our feet. They often have patterns and grids that are not just functional in design, but have character, I feel when I look at them.
RICK SMITH
A couple of weeks ago, I had driven by this earlier in the day in northern Michigan and did not notice it as it was a bit off the road amongst some brush and trees. When driving back later in the day from the other direction, I glanced over and saw this old abandoned, dilapidated stone house, so I had to apply the brakes, turn around, pull over, and get out to snap the photo. I'm sure at one time it was a nice little home, but now it is totally falling apart and overlooked by most that drive by.
See more of Rick’s work on his website.
MARILYN DAVIES
I've been diligently listening to the shows in the car and I very much like the interviews with an insight into photography and what motivates photographers.
The one-word assignments for this year should be very interesting and I love seeing how people interpret them. The image that I am submitting I made while trying to find unusual compositions in what we normally walk past without seeing.
This is part of a wall in an alley in Brisbane. The alley is often overlooked, itself, and most people don't know of its existence. The building that this wall supports is a very strange looking building and I suppose the architects wanted every part of it to be unusual as well - even the parts that people don't usually see.
WALEED ALZUHAIR
During my quest to find the first municipality building in Riyadh, I came across a very old neighborhood with demolitions going for some of its areas. In one of its alleys, you can almost miss this grocery store with a garage door.
See more of Waleed’s work on his website.
PETER JEHLE
CASEY SISTERSON
On chilly winter mornings, the exquisite and unique frost patterns that appear on old windows frequently go unnoticed. We might complain about the cold or bemoan the scarcity of photographic subjects, yet we overlook the incredible worlds right before our eyes, which can be revealed through the use of a macro lens.
See more of Casey’s work on his website.
MICHAEL MIXON
As a member of the lumbering giant community, I overlook a lot of the world on a fairly regular basis. Add to that the fact that I am a male of advancing years, and it’s a miracle that I notice anything at all. So finding a subject for this month’s assignment wasn’t difficult…even though I am getting it in just under the wire. Besides being freakishly tall and oblivious, I am also prone to bouts of poor time management.
This is a little statue of a sleeping cat that my wife placed in our yard back when we moved here ten years ago. It is a mini monument to the cat she had back in college, a cat that was her constant companion during some very rough years.
Getting up close to it like I did for the photo, it’s pretty obvious what it is, but when walking past it, it just looks like another rock amidst the vegetation. Easily overlooked.
Something else that struck me while photographing it is that there are actually two ways this could be overlooked - simply not seeing it and also not “seeing” it, by which I mean knowing what it actually signifies. A person can see with their eyes that it is a sleeping cat but have no idea that it is a totem to an important aspect of someone’s life. And that realization made me appreciate just how rich with overlooked things the world really is. I have definitely used photography as a way to notice the little visual details around me, but I often remain ignorant of what story may be associated with those details simply because I don’t “look” deep enough. The objects may be seen but their significance remains overlooked.
JOHN KENNY
I have a 'Rubbish Picture' for this months assignment. Inspired in part by a previous guest Russell Shakespeare and his mini personal project 'Splat', and part of the exhibition at Photo North last year, 'Rubbish Pictures'. I decided to pick up some litter when taking the dog for a walk. I simply thought to try and find the most worthless thing, then see what it looked like photographed I suppose (thank you Garry Winogrand!)
See more of John’s work on his website.
KAMIL DANEELS
Meet Oligostomis reticulata....
A little creature that can hide behind a 2 Euro coin.
A little creature that most people refer too as, "Just a bug".
A little creature that is only seen a handful of times each year in Belgiumland because it’s ‘extremely rare’.
A little creature that makes me wonder; are you this rare or just... overlooked?
See more of Kamil’s work on his Instagram.
MARTIN PENDRY
This month's theme of "overlooked" led me to explore the bustling streets of London, a city teeming with familiar and hidden sights. Whether you're a tourist or a local, London offers endless discoveries, ensuring each outing yields something new. Amidst the vibrant chaos, there's a tendency to overlook the quieter moments, the subtle details that enrich our urban landscape. This includes the noses of Soho; you either need to know they are there or be very observant.
In the heart of this vibrant cityscape, I captured a poignant scene: influencers capturing each other's poses, a gentleman savouring a slice of pizza, and a tourist engrossed in his phone. Yet, amidst this modern tableau stands a solemn reminder of the past - a monument honouring those who sacrificed their lives in World War One. It prompts reflection on our tendency to overlook the profound amidst the mundane, especially in a world fraught with conflicts and challenges.
See more of Martin’s work on his Instagram.
TINA CAMPBELL
Every year, here in my state, the Iowa Barn Foundation puts on a spring and fall barn tour. The foundation raises money to help owners repair or rehab their barns in the hopes of retaining as much of our historic heritage as possible.
Barns were my first love when I began looking at photography seriously, so I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to get inside some of these amazing structures and hear the stories of their past and how they have been rehabbed so they will have a future.
It's an expensive undertaking and for many farmers it's simply not practical. They are either pulled apart piece by piece and their parts sold off to be used for other projects or knocked down and burned. I've built a bedside table with barn wood taken from my husband's family farm before it was torn down and burned.
I've been going on these tours for six years now and I have found that in my travels to the barns on the tour, I tend to photograph more of those that will never be saved. The ones that are falling down, being swallowed by the nature around them. The ones that are more often than not...overlooked.
See more Tina’s work on her website.
ASIM KHAN
Thanks for all the hard work that you put into the podcast(s). I can appreciate just how much commitment must be required to stay on a schedule with the quality that you've gotten us all used to.
Please accept my humble submission for the "overlooked" theme.
I took this picture during a photowalk a couple of weeks ago. A few blocks up from my house I happened upon this fallen glove, making this very pose, as if complaining to the line about being lost. I stopped and wondered how it ever got separated from its twin. Perhaps it fell out of someone's bag or an overstuffed coat pocket? Everyone walked right by it without even sparing the briefest of glances but I felt like someone had to acknowledge its predicament, even if simply to say, 'I see you, and I will remember you."
Camera: Sony RX 100 MV
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
See more of Asim’s work on his website.
MAURICE WEBSTER
The assignment this month reminded me of one of my favourite photos of 2023 and one that links to the overlooked assignment in terms of both location and subject.
Although I do visit the tourist hotspots in the locations I travel to, I much prefer wandering off the beaten track and seeing the “real” city away from the tick box sites. The places often overlooked by the majority of tourists invariably provide a perfect canvas for capturing the essence of a place.
On a trip to Murano, Venice last year, my wanderings, with camera in hand, led me to a beautiful residential square away from the tourist crowds. I noticed the gentleman heading home and as I raised my camera to my eye the lady appeared in the window completing the composition for me. Got to love serendipity!
KELVIN BROWN
While considering the theme, trying to present a shot that represented the subject and not coming up with something that I was happy with, this shot said everything that I needed, but I had OVERLOOKED it. I will always say that the fens are a non-existent landscape location, and I still stand by that in general, but on odd occasions, weather conditions can help out a great deal. The fens is a vast area of East Anglia and Southern Lincolnshire reclaimed from the sea, that apparently covers 15,500 square miles. This location, taken from the bridge across the New Bedford river at Welney, is one of few elevated positions that can bring home the flatness and vastness of this, the bread basket of the UK.
FRED ASH
Hello Neale!
Fred here from foggy Finland today; hows your walky weather eh?
I'm in a good spirits too because of you; you and Chris Herwig actually. Episode #422 (The Secretes of Soviet Bus Stops) has worked it's way into the remaining useable cramped and crooked spaces in my psyche such that it can't be ignored. Chris's dedication to his project was inspiring and the "OVERLOOKED" assignment he set for us is so compelling I've decided to step outside my creative comfort zone (which is making street portraits in Helsinki) and start noticing the extraordinary in the ordinary.
It was not at all natural or easy for me at first. I was flummoxed how to activate visual muscles for noticing the ordinary until I managed to trick myself into it. I'm writing to share a photo schedule & rule I set-up that opened my awareness. Hopefully it can be helpful for my fellow listeners.
I created twenty daily alarms 72 minutes apart that prompt me to stop and make a photograph. I also made myself a rule that I must complete the photo during that 72nd minute. The combo actually works! It forces the overlooked to reveal itself right quick ...and sometimes the extraordinary too.
Illustration of my daily schedule above.
Why every 72nd minute you ask? It's my favorite number. (I can explain why it deserves that distinction another time.)
I've include two photographs I enjoyed making yesterday during one of these overlooked 72nd minutes:
Normally my eyes would be on the lookout for faces to make into portraits but luckily, in the spirit of the project, an empty ghost train arrived on my local platform right on schedule at 16:48. It sat there silently beckoning to an invisible man (wearing only his sneakers) to come for a ride.
P.S. The nightime alarms? Well I've muted the ones outside my waking hours of course but I promise to spend some nights out collecting things overlooked at 01:12, 02:24, 03:36, 04:48 and so on until I have a whole day's worth of 72nd minutes photographed. (A side benefit will be a collection of images that desscribes how light shows up throughput the day in Finland in March.)
DAVID HORNE
Here is my photograph for the March assignment “overlooked”. This image of a common weed, the dandelion, after a rain storm had laid the seed stems down and around the entire circle of the plant. I shot this with my Fujifilm X-T5 and the Fujinon 30mm f/2.8 Macro lens.
See more of David’s work on Vero.
PETER GORDON
This is a shot for ‘The Overlooked’ assignment. Japan has an obsession with cones. They are everywhere, and exist in a multitude of sizes, colours and situations. Used, abused, arranged, ignored, destroyed, forgotten. Standing proud, they are unsung heroes of the modern age.
See more of Peter’s work on his Instagram and Flickr accounts.
EDMUND ZUBER
From mid-January this year, we spent five weeks in wonderful Malaysia. One of our intentions has been hunting for murals and street art, which is quite popular in Malaysia. After a couple of days we still were somehow overwhelmed and unable to cope with the beauty and the intensity of the impressions. We travelled to the Ipoh, a beautiful 650,000 inhabitants city with a great past as formerly being the tin capital of the world.
Ipoh, one of the most underrated places we ever visited, has a wonderful old town. Few tourists were browsing the narrow roads. One of those called the “mural arts street” has been a deserted and not really well-tended place until local artists painted wonderful, imaginative and story telling murals to the walls. We walked the street a couple of times, shot some images. One day we detected a man standing on an unfirm scaffold painting figures to a wall. Below stood a young lad, who introduced himself as the student of the painter.
“Aha, interesting”.
Watching the artist who behaved very humbly, I dared to approach him if he would allow to shoot some frames. The focussed artist agreed silently and continued his painting. We talked some words about his piece which will be a dragon. Facing the year of the dragon in a couple of days. “Aha”, we thanked him and moved on.
After some excursions to other places, now with more understanding and feeling of the city, we returned to the mural arts street and looked closer to the pieces we found. Nearly all of them have been painted by Eric Lai. Studying more about Eric Lai and the street art back in the hotel, I learned that this wonderful artist decided some years ago to enrich that street on his own, which has been fully accomplished. Returning another time to the street and looking at the new piece with the dragon, we found that it has been finished and signed – Eric Lai. I have overlooked a wonderful painter, artist and someone who takes care of his hometown during the first visit.
GILBERT SHIH
I think this picture quite suit the assignment title “overlooked”. It’s a looking up shot under a roof that’s covered in foliage. I didn’t think much when I took this, but when I put it in Lightroom I was quite amazed by the result!\
See more of Gilbert’s work on his Instagram.
COLIN MAYER
You’d be forgiven for thinking this was just another fire exit leading into an otherwise quite Sydney back lane. Wrong! This is the entrance to one of Sydney’s finest steak houses, Bistecca. Book your table, arrive at the “fire escape” give the secret knock and you will descend two stories down to fine Italian restaurant where you can get medium rare steak cooked over an open fire. Mobile phones are confiscated on arrival and securely stowed until you’re ready to leave. Definitely helps with conversation. You even get an edible candle made from beef dripping to nibble on while you wait.
RICHARD OLDROYD
Please find my entry to this month's assignment, Overlooked.
I find this poor phone box overlooked in many ways
1) As they used to be on nearly every street corner people often pass them by almost without noticing.
2) As these are now obsolete and most have been removed from our streets this one has been overlooked and has not yet been removed.
3) As it's obsolete it is no longer maintained and cleaned as it would have been before everyone had a phone in their pocket.
MICHAEL TENBRINK
Ciao Neale,
Greetings from Milan! For the March “Overlooked” assignment, I’m submitting a photo I took during a winter’s hike above the eastern short of Lake Como here in northern Italy. This was shot on one of my favorite routes, which traces an old mule path with incredible views of the water and its surrounding mountains. But while I walked along on this particular day, I stopped to look up and noticed how interesting and unusual the power poles seemed to me. I’d never seen anything like it in my homeland of the U.S.A. I love how the focus is on something so mundane and ordinary, but lurking just below on the “horizon” are spectacular mountains towering over one of the world’s most famous lakes.
See more of Michael’s work on his Instagram grid.
DAVID HIGTON
Here is an overlooked image for this month's assignment. I must admit it was taken in December, I'm on the lookout for a fresh image. However I felt this fitted the brief so well I had to send it.
My sister-in-law runs a family-owned plant nursery in Nottinghamshire. It was originally run by Jack, my father-in-law and his brother. Jack worked full time prior to Covid he is now 93 and doesn't take an active part on the nursery anymore aside from his daily walk around. I made this image when we visited over the last Christmas period. I always take my camera as the nursery is full of potential for photography especially the many overlooked items that people in the agricultural field seem to accumulate. After we'd had a meal and a chat, I ventured out for a wander leaving my wife and Jack to reminisce about old times, which Jack understandably loves to do since his wife passed away last August.
As well as growing plants, the nursery also grow tomatoes which they used to sell at their stall in the Victoria Market in Nottingham. They gave up the stall during Covid and now sell directly to the public. As I wandered around, I was delighted to find that the job of clearing the tomato greenhouse has been overlooked and I spent a happy hour making this and other images.
ANDRÉ GROTE
This is a fence post near my house surrounding a pasture. The old insulator reminded me of a Star Wars storm trooper helmet. I think we go past many everyday objects that have an overlooked beauty. I have taken this photo on a Canon EOS 50e film camera on Kodak Gold 200.
MIKE VENABLE
Stairway in Stockholm, Sweden hotel. See more of Mike’s work on his Instagram grid.
JON DORSETT
I’m old enough (just) to remember when Telephone Boxes like this one were the only place one could make and receive a call. A single Telephone Box would service a whole community. I guess it’s debatable whether modern, instant, hyper-connectivity is a blessing or a curse.
NEALE JAMES
Though the grass was cut, and the stones strimmed around the bases, many of them no longer bore names, taken by time.
