I have been running a facebook group for over a year now and, with 620 members and over 300 SHOTS OF THE DAY, it has been successful as a showcase for my work. However, the time has now come to move on. Facebook groups have serious limitations for businesses and, specifically, photographers – organisation of the work, analytics, SEO etc;

Pages are the way to go. That is why I am using the occasion of the relaunch of my website as the moment to also relaunch Benjamin Arthur Photography's presence on facebook. This is why I now have a brand new facebook page which you can find here. On it you can find re-organised galleries with all the latest work. There's even an embedded flickr slideshow which I'm excited about. The posts from this Punctum blog will be linked onto there as well and I hope some robust discussions started. Please take a moment to become my fan and stay connected. If you are so inclined I'd also be happy if you could use the power of social media and invite all your friends to become my fan…incidentally facebook recently told the world that they are changing the nomenclature for pages from "becoming a fan of" x, y or z product/ service to "liking". A sensible move in my view. For the moment though, you'll have to become my fan and, just so you know, I love each and every one of you.

Recently I was directed to the website of the Prague Daily Monitor and, specifically, their Photo Galleries segment. I was impressed with the quality of the work on display and, most particularly, the work of a Prague-based Canadian Photographer, Paul Pacey. I liked Paul's impressionistic style so much I looked him up on facebook – as one does – and be-friended him. I then sent him a note telling him I absolutely had to meet with him to talk about his work and life as a foreign photographer in Prague.

And so it was that last week we had the chance to spend an hour together just round the corner from Paul's studio in the centre of town. I discovered that Paul is the same age as me but has been a professional photographer for most of his career and, after a successful first life as a fashion photographer in Canada he decided that he was becoming exactly the kind of photographer he hated, so he upped sticks to Prague to reinvent himself.

I was particularly interested in Paul's idea that he come here and would, metaphorically, go back to photography school. Learning everything again from scratch. This reminded me of the idea that Picasso took to late in his life when he started to paint in an increasingly child-like way. I was specifically thinking of Picasso's famous quote that; "at 15 I painted like Velazquez, and it took me 80 years to learn to paint like a child". Whilst Paul's Prague Impressions are far away from being child-like – the craft in them is evident on any viewing – I love the way they are so very far away from the kind of fashion work that he did in his past. It was a delight to meet Paul; he was engaging, enthusiastic and really is living the dream. Like most of us he came to Prague by design but stayed by accident and I hope that, so long as he is here, we can meet up regularly and talk about photography, art and life as a snapper in a foreign city.  

 When I launched benjaminarthur.com in early 2009 I was just starting to feel my way into the world of professional photography. The old site was a stake in the ground but, from a business generation point of view, no more than that. This new site is completely revamped from top to bottom. There are 4 main objectives that I set myself for the new site. First, I want it to be a place that showcases the best of my work and so would attract new clients. Secondly, I want it to be a place where people can simply and easily purchase any of my prints that are for sale. Thirdly, I want it to be an engaging, fully interactive place where people spend time and want to keep coming back to. Finally, I wanted to be in control of the content and now I am!  

With the relaunch of the site I am simultaneously launching a brand new photography blog which I call PUNCTUM.

Why the funny name? My good Czech friend, Jan Joska introduced me to the concept of punctum which was first elucidated by French cultural critic, Roland Barthes in his famous book on photography, Camera Lucida. The book investigates the impact of photography on the viewer – versus the photographer or indeed the subject itself which Barthes called the spectrum. I am hopeless at defining philosophical concepts accurately – even though I may understand them viscerally – so, with the help of that miracle of the modern age, wikipedia, I will explain the twin concepts of studium and punctum which are discussed at length in Camera Lucida. "Studium" is the cultural, linguistic and political interpretation of a photograph. "Punctum" is the highly personal touching detail which establishes a direct relationship with the object or person within it. This makes perfect sense to me. My work is all about emotional engagement. I want people to look at my photographs and feel something inside themselves… perhaps it is hidden deep and touches them to the core of their being or perhaps the feeling is negative in some way but either way I'd rather elicit something rather than the worst thing of all… indifference… a shrug of the shoulders. I learnt in my 13 years in the advertising industry that producing polarizing work which generates either strongly positive or negative responses almost always works best for a client. Now clearly my photographic work does NOT have anything in the way of shock value in it but I have had literally hundreds of people responding positively to it over the past 2 years. It is in part thanks to the encouragement of these people that I am a photographer today and hope to remain so until the day I draw my last breath.  

So what will Punctum be all about? This is something I will write about at length in another post but, very briefly it will be about the following; 1) It will be about my daily life as a snapper. 2) It will have updates on my most recent jobs including links to where to find those albums on the website. 3) I will try to initiate discussions about the world of contemporary photography; hot artists, issues facing the industry, new kit, trends that are out there and so on and 4) there will be a historical edge to it and I will write a lot about photographers from the past who move me in some way. I spent most of my life between the ages of 15 and 22 studying the history of art, architecture and sculpture. I feel qualified!

So all I would say is thank you for visiting the site! Please come back often, stay in touch with me (new email address; benjamin@benjaminarthur.com), contribute your comments to the blog posts and flag up any issues you may be having with the e-commerce functionality. I hope you enjoy all that benjaminarthur.com has to offer and look forward to garnering your feedback.

Blessings to you all, Benjie XX    

"The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street." Robert Doisneau 1912-1994

As a schoolboy I became used to being the subject of fascination for tourists who were visiting our small college beside the river Thames. The reason for this was simple; we had to wear a uniform of black tail coat, pin-striped trousers, black waistcoat every single day of our lives. I have often subsequently wondered how many photo albums lying in dusty attics in far flung corners of the world my mugshot appears in. Which is an inelegant way of saying how fascinating I find it the give and take of street photography.

Take this monk who I photographed in Cambodia near the wondrous temple of Banteay Srei about an hour's drive away from the main temple complexes of Angkor. He was not aware of the