When street photographer Steve Madden was pitched to me, I immediately fell in love with his work. Our team worked on the news of his book while I personally reviewed his new photo book, The Grind. Steve’s images majorly appeal to me as my visual condition (known as keratoconus) sort of resembles what I see at certain moments. Shot in London over a period of a few years, his images are insanely painterly. I was also shocked to know that Steve apparently mostly shoots JPEG images. And most importantly, I wasn’t aware that Steve Madden would cause such a stir to become arguably the most controversial street photographer of 2024.
All images by Steve Madden. Used with permission. If you like this project, please consider purchasing the Grind by Gost books.
Table of Contents
Why Steve Madden is the Most Controversial Street Photographer of 2024
A bit earlier this year, photographer-turned-internet-troll Nick Turpin accused Mr. Madden of plagiarism. When he did this on social media, his cultists started to come for us — most of whom we convinced otherwise. Nick wrote to me personally and called our journalism “appalling,” which I think he does only because it’s not in praise of him or because our former staffer, Dan Ginn, was allegedly controlled by him. The latter is a statement that I only heard about this in the past few weeks, and that I have actively been investigating.
Well, consider this: If Steve’s work is plagiarism of Nick’s photographs, then Nick’s photographs are plagiarism of Saul Lieter’s — and we’d fully expect Mr. Lieter’s estate to go after Nick with a cease and desist, DMCA takedown, and a court order. Many of you probably aren’t aware of how legal issues like this work, so let me explain further. That means that Nick’s On The Night Bus will need to be removed from the web immediately, proof of the deletion will need to be stated in transparent email communications that both sides will be able to see and have on their servers, further communications will need to be made to ensure that it never goes up again, etc.
I know this because I’ve fought many accusations related to copyrights and plagiarism, and the Phoblographer has won all of them.
What’s more, photographer Olga Karlovac has been doing a variation of this method for years as well in black and white. I’d expect Olga to go after Nick as well. Therefore, the truth is that this is all preposterous.
With this said, Nick Turpin’s work can surely be considered plagiarism of Saul Lieter’s and many others. Can other photographers really not take photos of people in public with blur and behind windows? Haven’t all of us street photographers done this before?
So I ask you this: why do we give so much prominence to photographers who only try to bring attention to themselves by calling out others instead of consistently making good work? And why wasn’t this a matter that was settled privately? Was Nick afraid that he wouldn’t win the issue if it were made public and that’s why he sent a cult after Steven?
The Phoblographer, for the past few years, has worked with photographers to ensure that their work isn’t made by Generative AI and that we only showcase human photography. That sometimes means that photographers have to get really weird and emotional about their work. The truth is that both Turpin and Lieter’s photographs can be made with Generative AI prompts — but Madden’s probably won’t be able to because he embraces a very painterly aesthetic.
Steve Madden’s photographs aren’t plagiarism of Turpin’s idea because ideas need to be copyrighted or patented. Trust me, if that were the case in a similar way then I’d have gone after several other photography blogs many times over. Several other blogs that came after us would also not exist if that were the case. Steve Huff and I were some of the first to really make testing cameras and photography gear outside of the lab a big thing — but we never accused other sites of doing the exact same thing that we did because they’re not. Huff reviews only gear that he likes whereas Phoblographer is known for ripping gear apart to the annoyance of many a cult-camera follower.
However, I refuse to waste more words on this because the Phoblographer is a place for us to celebrate the work of human photographers. We’ve been doing this for 15 years, and we will always continue to do so.
The Love Story of Photography
Steve doesn’t remember what drew him to photography, but he remembers that it has something to do with his dad. Steve’s father was an amateur photographer. “I believe that photographers are born, not made, and I was born to do this,” he tells the Phoblographer in an interview. “I’m a bit lost without a camera in my hand.”
The love sparked in Edinburgh in August 1962 when Steve was only 9 years old. After annoying his mother enough into buying him a plastic camera, he started photographing the streets. He described the camera as a monstrosity made in Hong Kong.
S
“…the results were ruined by the fact that the back leaked light, so most of my first pictures were fogged by light ingress,” Steve tells us. “The pictures weren’t masterpieces anyway, but I’d made a start. I recovered from the disappointment, and Dad gave me an old camera of his the following year.” From there, he was hooked.
But these days, Steve uses a Nikon z6 II and two Nikon Z50s. He pairs these with a 24-70 f4, 24-200mm f4-6.3 — when using the Z50 he uses the 12-28 PZ. Sometimes, he reaches for Fujifilm mirrorless cameras, too. “Both the Z6 II and Z50 feel perfectly designed to sit in my hand. It’s an incredible feeling. They are a joy to use.”
Steve does as little tinkering as possible with his photos. In fact, in his proofs to us that he made the work, we saw that he shoots JPEGs. This, to Steve, is the real joy of it all. Occasionally, he’ll crop photos, but that’s all he does. Like so many photographers during the pandemic, he can’t imagine spending hours in front of a computer screen.
“…I’d rather be standing in the rain and the dark getting pictures than spend even 10 minutes in front of my computer,” Steve tells us. “Life is way too short.”
The Grind
Steve’s project is called the Grind — and it features the every day commute of someone in London. He describes the project much better than we do:
This project goes right back to October 2005. I was standing in Shaftesbury Avenue, in London’s theatreland, photographing buses (no, really). There was a woman on the lower deck of a no.38, who was trying not to fall asleep. We all know that feeling, right? I got one decent shot of her. Decent, not great. I knew there was something in this, but I put it to the back of my mind, though it surfaced sporadically over the years. Then on the 9th January 2017, the project began in earnest. I’d gone into town to congratulate our crew and make some photographs – I’m a co-owner of a Routemaster bus, and our crew had had a long day. It was a soggy Tube Strike day, and we were helping out on route 205. So, I found myself at Euston Station in the pouring rain. The buses were full of bedraggled passengers. Through the condensation, they looked so beautiful. Stunning. I was so excited. I remember thinking “Why isn’t everybody doing this? Look at these amazing shapes! Why can’t anybody else see this? Look, everybody!” and I knew I was onto something special. I walked to Waterloo, photographing as I went, and headed home with the beginning of the project. My shoes took 5 days to dry out.I just carried on, whenever it was wet and/ or cold. I travelled all over London, trying to illustrate the variations in demographics – Whitechapel isn’t Westminster, and Islington isn’t Hounslow. I’ve stood in some awful places in appalling conditions – I won’t elaborate.The best picures are the ones that get away, of course.The body of work just grew and grew over a few years, but the Covid lockdown came and I had to stop. By then, I knew I had more than enough for the book, so the timing was probably meant to be…..
Steve Madden
To Steve, the joy of the project comes from the beauty of the scenes that play out in front of him — which he describes as beauty in the ordinary. He narrowed down the images after showing it off at portfolio reviews and workshops the way that real career photographers often do. Folks were attracted to the more abstract photos that show off the chaos of the world around him. From 720 photos, the publisher cut it down to 79 images.
In fact, most of Steve’s personal favorites aren’t in the book — and maybe we can all wish for a gallery exhibit of some sort.
Steve’s work is all about people. He adores the people of London for making such gorgeous shapes in his images — and he wouldn’t imagine making these works with AI. In fact, he tells us that he’s horrified of it.
“With AI, you can falsify anything,” he explains. “But who gains? Why would you do that? I know everything moves on, but, really? This is just so empty.”
AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT BY STEVE MADDEN
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.
