A couple of weeks ago, I was guest curator/editor for Mother London's 'Something for the Weekend' section of their web site.

I'm reposting it here a) in case you missed it, b) On Mother's pages, the code wasn't behaving too well, with some embeds over-sizing this over-pixelating and not playing nice at all.

Intro from article:

Mike Coulter has been a friend and lover of Mother since before there was a Mother.

Starting his professional life at a time when you had to take your camera film to Boots in order to get the prints done. And has had a career that's covered everything from security guard to D&AD copy judge. (Both excellent people watching duties.)

As a trainee dogsbody at the Halifax Evening Courier, he soon found the photographers far more interesting to hang out with than the journalists.

When he finally got a job as advertising copywriter, he was dismayed to find most of the art directors could write better than he ever would.

So he retaliated by becoming a copywriter who could draw and take photographs.

One of Mike's first pieces of work to appear in The Book, reflects his interest in photography and features two almost identical shots by war photographer Robert Capa. (Deceased now, as indeed then, when the ad ran.)

(It's an ad of very few words. Something which can't be said about the Mike of course.)

In this week’s issue of SFTW, he takes us on a snappy whistle-stop tour of his favourite street photography.

1. The Nanny who adopted Photography:

Vivian Maier died aged 83 in tragic circumstances in 2009, after being a nanny in Chicago for over 40 years. But she wasn't just a nanny: She was also one of the most wonderfully gifted street photographers who ever lived. Taking shots on her days off, leaving behind what many consider to be one of the best, and most extensive collections of street photography ever seen.

She took over 100,000 photographs of people and cityscapes, shots that remained unknown and largely undeveloped until a 26 year old architect John Maloof, acquired by chance the photographs in 2007 for $400, when he bought them as part of a repossessed storage locker being sold off, when Maier was no longer able to pay the fees.

What he found took his breath away.

Maloof is now making a documentary of her life, and rightly so.

Her shots are fearless, penetrating and beautiful.

She took photographs anonymously and for nobody else but herself.

Who knew?

Nobody then. Everybody now.

2. A teacher who never stopped learning:

Emmy award-winning video and multimedia producer Richard Hernandez worked for 15 years as a photographer on one of the first newspapers to publish to the internet, The San Jose Mercury News.

He now teaches multimedia storytelling at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

With a reputation for inventing techniques on the fly, often teaching himself new software just moments before a completing a project, his experimental methods often lead to some unexpectedly creative outcomes. In this video we see him working both with students and working the streets.

To pick out a favourite piece of work would be difficult, and he does adopt a myriad of styles. But this one, though not strictly street photography, more a street slideshow, is very nice indeed:

3. Watching the watcher:

Yes I know, I know, The Sartorialist has already had huge exposure as street photographer. But in this film, the first in a series funded by Intel as part of the brand’s Visual Life campaign, Scott Schumann himself is the subject on the street.

And as such, may be new to a few people.

4: The Confrontationist:

In this short film of Bruce Gilden’s 'unusual' and blatantly confrontational style, we get an insight into the qualities curiosity, courage, (or should that be craziness).

A childhood in Brooklyn no doubt helped him hone his style, along with an early viewing of Antonioni's Blow Up, which influenced him so much he went out and bought a camera and enrolled in a night school photography course.

He sums up his technique by borrowing and paraphrasing a Roberty Capa quote, in the typically pithy, no-nonsense way in which he takes his shots: "I'm known for taking pictures very close, and the older I get, the closer I get."

He really is a classic, literally in-your-face photographer of the old "I'm walking and working here"! school.

Exemplified again here, in one of my favourite portfolios. A ten year project, or should that be 'attack on'; Coney Island.

5. Saturday night's alright for fighting:

This young Polish snapper looks at a Saturday night out in Cardiff almost with the eyes of a war photographer.

Taken between 2005 and 2011, they document the weekend carnage seen on most British streets.

Described accurately, if not eloquently by the Daily Mail as: 'Welcome to binge Britain: Polish photographer Maciej Dakowicz documents four years of drunken revelry in Cardiff.'