Angus R. Shamal: on Flickr, and in his Bag.

Angus R. Shamal is one of my most prized flickr friends. A photographer in Amsterdam, he’s a member of YPU and is an energetic flickr poster and commenter. I felt a little put off by the negative energy in Virginia Heffernan’s Times Magazine article about flickr this weekend (not to mention the blogger diss), an excerpt:

“Guoleifsdottir and Merkley might have amounted to nothing in analog
times, when elaborate deference to institutions, hard-won group shows
and expensive years spent in unnoticed toil were the only way to
success. But just as certain ne’er-do-well writers have found
themselves in blogging, and failed filmmakers have taken to online
video, these seemingly out-of-step artists have both invented and
mastered the Flickr photograph.”

So I thought it might be nice to post some good work that’s gotten a lot of notice in the same forum.

These three images are from the Rejected series:

From Angus’ description of the project:

“We’ve reached the point where almost
everyone owns a camera of some sort, and
we are basically ‘free’ to take
photos of everything or anyone we see,
at any time. Some asked for, others
candid. We just do it and in most cases,
don’t give it a second thought. It’s
fun, it’s excessive, it’s there!

The photos show people at touristic
attractions, in their neighborhood or public places, while they obviously
don’t want to be taken photos of! Each
in their own way hiding themselves from
the invading camera.

Many of these people are tourists
themselves!”

And, for fun: a look inside Angus’ bag: