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02/15/2007 08:16:33 PM · #151 |
Right. Here's a few thoughts from me about what 'Street Photography' is. I seem to be regarded around here as a 'street photographer', and I think I've made a pretty thorough study over the past five years or so of what this genre is about. So here's a few thoughts and indicators from me as to what this challenge involves. Be warned, this will almost certainly NOT be what Joe Voter considers street photography to be - but then they're wrong, and I'm right.
1. Portraits of the homeless are not Street Photography. In fact, anything that could be considered a 'portrait' is not Street Photography.
2. The interaction between the 'real' world and the world as presented in a photograph is essential to the shot. This is about the difference between the 2-dimensional and the three dimensional, and how that is imprinted on your sensor.
3. It has a sense of wit. The prompting of the impulse to laugh also prompts the impulse to relate, to empathise, to understand. The best of the genre makes the viewer smile in recognition of something they've never noticed before.
4. It works better in black and white. It isn't a prerequisite, but it just works better that way. To quote the bloke referenced in the challenge discription: 'Photography in colour is photographing the obvious'. See point 2.
5. Alongside working with the previous points, to be a great photograph it should also speak of the philosophical and personal histories of people, places, and cultures.
6. The photographer is invisible. This is a trick you can learn, and an essential one for this genre.
7. If you think of it as an attempt through photography to show your audience how it feels to be you, and to see through your eyes as you move about the world you live in, you won't go far wrong. It's personal, and it's meaningful.
8. It's the antithesis of the posed, the set-up, the studio, the lighting-equipped, the expensive SLR, fashion, advertising, glossiness, and the rest of that stuff. You only need a camera - any camera - and your eye.
9. Somewhere out there, at every moment, someone, or some people are forming an image that is timeless and permanent: that speaks volumes about the people's condition, about real life. That's what you're trying to capture.
10. You need an understanding of the history of photography. Without knowing the work of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, or Cartier-Bresson, or Robert Capa, or Tony Ray-Jones, or Marc Riboud, or Joel Meyerowitz, or Brassai, or Matt Stuart, or Andre Kertesz, or Elliot Erwitt, or Martin Parr, how can you hope to understand the line of which you'll be forming a segment.
Enough for now.
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02/15/2007 09:20:15 PM · #152 |
Are you saying that these aren't examples of street photography?:
  
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02/15/2007 09:21:49 PM · #153 |
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02/15/2007 09:28:49 PM · #154 |
Excellent post Ed
Originally posted by e301:
7. If you think of it as an attempt through photography to show your audience how it feels to be you, and to see through your eyes as you move about the world you live in, you won't go far wrong. It's personal, and it's meaningful.
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this is what drives me more than anything.
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02/15/2007 09:29:49 PM · #155 |
Originally posted by tooohip:
1 & 2 = yes
3 = no |
Even though the first is staged?
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02/15/2007 09:46:01 PM · #156 |
Originally posted by option:
Originally posted by tooohip:
1 & 2 = yes
3 = no |
Even though the first is staged? |
I wouldn't know it was staged just by looking at it, so yes, I'd say it is street photography. My lowly humble opinion though and nothing more. ;-) |
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02/15/2007 10:02:24 PM · #157 |
Originally posted by tooohip:
I wouldn't know it was staged just by looking at it, so yes, I'd say it is street photography. My lowly humble opinion though and nothing more. ;-) |
Haha, no worries... My assessment is the same as yours. I'm just trying to get a feel for what will keep the DNMCer's goin in this one...
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02/15/2007 10:53:15 PM · #158 |
What the HECK??!! WHY would you not consider #3 street photography???
Anyways ... I am SO chuffed about the Street Photography challenge! I have finished my Post Processing and my expedition onto the street this late morning yeilded NINE! for my challenge short list to decide from and a few more OTHER keepers for my Street Photography Portfolio (to be created shortly). I am rather happy ... yup ... uh huh ... yup.
Message edited by author 2007-02-15 22:59:26.
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02/16/2007 03:27:17 AM · #159 |
Originally posted by tooohip:
1 & 2 = yes
3 = no |
For my own opinion, none of these are 'Street Photography'. Just because it's taken on the street doesn't make it count, and any way they're just portraits, and there's nothing you wouldn't see every minute on almost any city street. |
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02/16/2007 03:38:11 AM · #160 |
Originally posted by e301:
Originally posted by tooohip:
1 & 2 = yes
3 = no |
For my own opinion, none of these are 'Street Photography'. Just because it's taken on the street doesn't make it count, and any way they're just portraits, and there's nothing you wouldn't see every minute on almost any city street. |
OMG ... There are lots of cities that you see bloody murders on the street almost every day. What does it take to qualify for YOUR elite idea of what "Street Photography" is? ROFLMAO!
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02/16/2007 07:29:29 AM · #161 |
Originally posted by e301:
For my own opinion, none of these are 'Street Photography'. Just because it's taken on the street doesn't make it count, and any way they're just portraits, and there's nothing you wouldn't see every minute on almost any city street. |
That's why we all have opinions. In my opinion 1 & 2 are CLEARLY street photography and no, I'm not one who says there actually needs to be a "Street" to be street. |
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02/16/2007 07:46:02 AM · #162 |
No problem ... I was just trying to say that it can be street photography if it shows people connecting to life or others even if it IS in colour ... even if it IS not so unique that National Geographic will pick it up ... even if it doesn't win a ribbon here (no less if it does not garner international awards).
What is "Street Photography"? ... bleh ... what is SF? What is Fantasy? Some people will try to tell you that "Street Photography" is that which does not fit in a genre ... while (of course) they try to tell you that your street photography is NOT street photography because you don't fit into THEIR idea of what is acceptible for the "genre" or "label". I should conform with someones ideas when they say that true "Street Photography" does not conform but is a unique form in itself that you should copy the emotion of?
I think NOT! I will submit my images and let the masses decide ... in this challenge AND in the entire critical world.
P.S. Even if I disagree with your opinion I will defend, to the death, your right to express it. (unless you are really, really rude and disrespectful of other people's opinions)
Message edited by author 2007-02-16 07:52:27.
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02/16/2007 08:46:34 AM · #163 |
An excellent resource:
iN-PUBLIC
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02/16/2007 08:57:10 AM · #164 |
Originally posted by Giorgio:
The photo must be B&W? |
why must it be black and white.
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02/16/2007 09:19:26 AM · #165 |
Check out Cindi's link above. Notice all the colour images. Not all people who love street photography are so "blinkered".
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02/16/2007 09:19:27 AM · #166 |
Will people be wanting to see an actual street?
Or will any urban location be acceptable?
Parks, arcades, shopping centres, stations?
02/16/2007 03:38:11 AM
Originally posted by e301:
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Originally posted by tooohip:
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Originally posted by option:
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Are you saying that these aren't examples of street photography?:
1 and 2 yes by the way..
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02/16/2007 10:08:12 AM · #167 |
| Personally, I am "enthused" that this is a challenge during the coldest part of year, in the midst of heavy snowfall and extreme low temps in my area... |
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02/16/2007 10:39:20 AM · #168 |
This is probably the best 'street photography' shot I've done I think. Even though it isn't B&W.
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02/16/2007 10:42:18 AM · #169 |
A bit too literal?
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02/16/2007 11:56:24 AM · #170 |
Photographing Homeless Banned
"It's gone far enough," said the President of the Association of Granters and Holders of Nearly Perfectly Useless Degrees, Bob (formerly Barbara) Cady-Stanton, in New York City. "People think it's 'concerned photography' or 'socially relevant.' Actually it's just faux photojournalism of something handy that can't fend for itself. It's harder to take pictures of squirrels."
"faux photojournalism" LOLOL. It's so true.
fwiw...it is harder to take pictures of Squirrels. No people...DNMC? Hmmmm?
I pray that this doesn't turn into some Homeless Portraiture Challenge. Yuck. I'm not certain that I agree with e301 100% here, that Street Portraiture doesn't qualify as Street Photography. It might not rank as great SP in it's purest sense but I think it works fine. That's not to say that a straight headshot taken in the street would work for me. There needs to be a strong environmental element laced into the image.
I think most of my stuff is probably too over-processed to really be considered SP.
Message edited by author 2007-02-16 13:07:16. |
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02/16/2007 11:57:18 AM · #171 |
Originally posted by Greetmir:
Originally posted by e301:
Originally posted by tooohip:
1 & 2 = yes
3 = no |
For my own opinion, none of these are 'Street Photography'. Just because it's taken on the street doesn't make it count, and any way they're just portraits, and there's nothing you wouldn't see every minute on almost any city street. |
OMG ... There are lots of cities that you see bloody murders on the street almost every day. What does it take to qualify for YOUR elite idea of what "Street Photography" is? ROFLMAO! |
Maybe if you'd read my previous post you'd have an answer to that question. |
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02/16/2007 01:54:41 PM · #172 |
Originally posted by Gordon:
This is probably the best 'street photography' shot I've done I think. Even though it isn't B&W.
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With regard to what e301 has stressed, I believe most scenes have the potential for this genre, it just depends on how the photographer interprets them. Place the man at the other end, leaving the frame and title it "Blow it out your @"...and for me it attains an almost zen like level of enlightenment. |
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02/16/2007 02:50:53 PM · #173 |
Question - how would this fair in a Street Photography challenge. Not sure if it presents the "drama" that some people have discussed, but there is a LOT going on in this picture, with all kinds of stories presenting themselves - from the guy with the baby and the dog, to the drunkard with the beer bottle, to the MIB (Men In Black) wannabe's in the middle of the shot.
Thoughts?
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02/16/2007 03:09:18 PM · #174 |
| Personally I like that picture. It shows exactly what goes on, on most streets, busy-ness. Yes you dont have to photograph an extremely busy street to get the point across but with photography, its all in what you percieve and what the viewer percieves. So who really knows because each person truely sees something different. |
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02/16/2007 03:16:08 PM · #175 |
great post!
Originally posted by e301:
Right. Here's a few thoughts from me about what 'Street Photography' is. I seem to be regarded around here as a 'street photographer', and I think I've made a pretty thorough study over the past five years or so of what this genre is about. So here's a few thoughts and indicators from me as to what this challenge involves. Be warned, this will almost certainly NOT be what Joe Voter considers street photography to be - but then they're wrong, and I'm right.
1. Portraits of the homeless are not Street Photography. In fact, anything that could be considered a 'portrait' is not Street Photography.
2. The interaction between the 'real' world and the world as presented in a photograph is essential to the shot. This is about the difference between the 2-dimensional and the three dimensional, and how that is imprinted on your sensor.
3. It has a sense of wit. The prompting of the impulse to laugh also prompts the impulse to relate, to empathise, to understand. The best of the genre makes the viewer smile in recognition of something they've never noticed before.
4. It works better in black and white. It isn't a prerequisite, but it just works better that way. To quote the bloke referenced in the challenge discription: 'Photography in colour is photographing the obvious'. See point 2.
5. Alongside working with the previous points, to be a great photograph it should also speak of the philosophical and personal histories of people, places, and cultures.
6. The photographer is invisible. This is a trick you can learn, and an essential one for this genre.
7. If you think of it as an attempt through photography to show your audience how it feels to be you, and to see through your eyes as you move about the world you live in, you won't go far wrong. It's personal, and it's meaningful.
8. It's the antithesis of the posed, the set-up, the studio, the lighting-equipped, the expensive SLR, fashion, advertising, glossiness, and the rest of that stuff. You only need a camera - any camera - and your eye.
9. Somewhere out there, at every moment, someone, or some people are forming an image that is timeless and permanent: that speaks volumes about the people's condition, about real life. That's what you're trying to capture.
10. You need an understanding of the history of photography. Without knowing the work of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, or Cartier-Bresson, or Robert Capa, or Tony Ray-Jones, or Marc Riboud, or Joel Meyerowitz, or Brassai, or Matt Stuart, or Andre Kertesz, or Elliot Erwitt, or Martin Parr, how can you hope to understand the line of which you'll be forming a segment.
Enough for now. |
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