Help me understand street photography

[ClaremontPhoto]

You just need to get the kid to stand there, and meter, and get his hands in zone three.

Simple stuff.

 

[Pherdinand]

LOL
ok finally the thread does get funny

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

What's so funny?

We're serious.

 

[furcafe]

He did do some documentary work, e.g., Japanese-American internment camps:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/anseladams/aamabout.html

Gear content: in 35mm, he used the Zeiss Ikon Contax RFs.

Nah...AA didn't do street.

 

[rogue_designer]

That's the one Jon, HCB or Doisneau ???

HCB - in Paris, 1954

 

[rogue_designer]

No - thats a serious answer.

I don't do funny very well.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Pitxu:


You have been told twice now.

'Rue Mouffetard, Paris 1954'

and

HCB - in Paris, 1954

(Robert Doisneau did the one of a kiss in a street, but it may have been posed)

 

[furcafe]

"Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville" was definitely staged, like Ruth Orkin's "American Girl in Italy."

Pitxu:


(Robert Doisneau did the one of a kiss in a street, but it may have been posed)

 

[MickH]

If a photograph taken on the street is staged does that invalidate it as an example of "street" photography?

 

[Pherdinand]

depends, if it is a credible street scene, i would say.
If three men are having sex in front of the Capitolium while heart-shaped red balloons are blown up in the wind and the background is filled with army tanks, and Milla Jovovich is taking a bubble bath in the bottom right corner, well that has to be staged, and it is not a street photograph since it is not a credible street scene.
But two people kissing, that's credible enough to me to make the category.

 

[Larky]

Shooting on the street is fun, challenging, enables you to get technically more competent, allows you to try various techniques, allows you to interact or ignore what is going on, allows you to shoot a huge variety of things (streets are all very different for example), and it focusses on the thing that the vast majority of people find interesting in a picture, other people.

Personally I find landscapes very dull, but I understand why other people like them and also appreciate what goes in to making a good one. I don't argue the toss about it though. I like shooting on the street, I find people interesting, and I love the challenge of shooting somebody whilst they and I are both walking in opposing directions, giving me almost no time to get it right. When I do, I am a very happy bunny.

That's my simple argument for why I like street.

 

[BigSteveG]

I think yes, it does.....

I think yes, it does.....

If a photograph taken on the street is staged does that invalidate it as an example of "street" photography?

The whole concept of Steet shooting is to catch the un-rehearsed poetry of life.

 

[MickH]

I guess there's a subtle difference between "street photography" and photographs taken in the street.

There's alot of discussion on this Forum about what constitutes street photography. A broad definition seems to have evolved which can be summarised as: Photographs taken in public places. These can be candid shots of people; or snaps of animals; or inanimate objects, according to taste.

I don't care really as long as the results are either aesthetically pleasing, or tell a story of some kind.

Cheers.

 

[MickH]

Thanks Mick,

I like snapping animals..

What, like croc.....

No, I can't do it!