Considering a change of direction -- Photographing people

[cz23]

I've always shot landscapes -- natural, urban, sea. Over the past two years I've had a rising urge to shoot people. I feel like a river of human drama has passed through my life and I've failed to capture any of it. Kinda sad, really.

I've indulged this desire a little, such as my 2010 SoFoBoMo project. And I've dabbled in some street shooting, where I'm pretty comfortable working.

I'm now considering a deeper commitment to this, but I'm not sure where or how to start. More street is an obvious option. But I'd appreciate thoughts from those of you who shot people regularly on ways to get started.

To give you a sense of what moves me in this genre, Frank's The Americans strikes me as about as good as it gets.

Appreciate your thoughts on possibilities for starting this new adventure. Thanks.

John

 

[GSNfan]

Street photography is very much about ideas. Photographing people randomly on the street and making fancy or gimmicky compositions lose their novelty very fast, its the ideas that endure, just like Frank's The Americans.

The difficulty with ideas are that they are hard to come by and secondly extremely difficult to execute. While in landscape its all about whats there and nature presents itself, with people and street photography you have to force it out by practice, cunning and that extra factor call it luck or talent.

You should only get serious about street photography if you have a specific idea(s) and wish to execute it, otherwise aimless street shooting is the surest way to boredom and burn-out.

I have just finished a street photography project and i feel mentally exhausted. I don't feel like shooting and when i do its very uninspired and lazy. I know it will take some time for the mental energy to come back so i'm just riding it out, because i have been through it before. Had it been someone less experienced they'd most probably quit.

Its very easy to get lost in street photography because of its immense scope, so don't get into it unless you have a clear idea of what you want to do and also a contingency plan of pulling back in case things don't work out.

 

[Thardy]

Street photography is very much about ideas. Photographing people randomly on the street and making fancy or gimmicky compositions lose their novelty very fast, its the ideas that endure, just like Frank's The Americans.

The difficulty with ideas are that they are hard to come by and secondly extremely difficult to execute. While in landscape its all about whats there and nature presents itself, with people and street photography you have to force it out by practice, cunning and that extra factor call it luck or talent.

You should only get serious about street photography if you have a specific idea(s) and wish to execute it, otherwise aimless street shooting is the surest way to boredom and burn-out.

I have just finished a street photography project and i feel mentally exhausted. I don't feel like shooting and when i do its very uninspired and lazy. I know it will take some time for the mental energy to come back so i'm just riding it out, because i have been through it before. Had it been someone less experienced they'd most probably quit.

Its very easy to get lost in street photography because of its immense scope, so don't get into it unless you have a clear idea of what you want to do and also a contingency plan of pulling back in case things don't work out.

Some time ago (before you were a registered member) a conversation about street popped up.

A few of us said themes would make street photography much more interesting, the majority however, said that was NOT street. Street was actually standing around trying to catch little snippets of life, or something like that.

The explanation made it sound much more random, about reactions, compositions etc.

I'm sure it's archived but would not know how to access the thread.

 

[sar-photo]

Street photography can be about themes - I started a project a few years ago inspired by
Andre Kertesz's book 'On Reading'.
One lunchtime I came across this scene...

and the project was begun! (you can see more on my blog).

IMO street photography is basically photographs of people going about their daily lives unaware
that they are being photographed - doesn't have to be on a street!

I have an idea of a new project but it involves stopping people in the street and asking them if I
can take their photo (not proper street photography by any means), but I'm rather shy and haven't
built up the courage to take the first photo yet!

The best place to start is a street festival or similar - no-one will pay you any notice!

Cheers
Simon

 

[GSNfan]

Some time ago (before you were a registered member) a conversation about street popped up.

A few of us said themes would make street photography much more interesting, the majority however, said that was NOT street. Street was actually standing around trying to catch little snippets of life, or something like that.

The explanation made it sound much more random, about reactions, compositions etc.

I'm sure it's archived but would not know how to access the thread.

That is exactly the difficult part of actually finding a ground to work on in street photography. Everyone has their ideas, but my conclusion which I posted for the OP is basically from my own experience and observations. Its also an admission of one's own limitations. I cannot just stand around and shoot randomly, well i can, but i don't feel any sense of connection with what i'm doing. Its going through the motions and street photography is dangerous in that sense because one gets habituated to go through the motions and then you suddenly realize you dislike most of your work and they're sub par because your heart wasn't in it.

When you consider Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand, in one hand you have Frank who pretty much give it all and after The Americans stopped doing street photography altogether, i guess he knew he could not top what he did and no one has, yet. Winogrand on the other hand just lost control and street photography, the act of it, took control of his life. He ended up shooting like crazy, piling huge undeveloped film load and eventually dying leaving behind a few decent books but nothing seminal like The Americans.

Photography like any other creative act is psychologically dangerous, one can easily lose touch with reality and float in a sort of delusional nether land of misunderstood artists. On the other hand, if you ground yourself with ideas and solid concepts to work with, you're less likely to fly into abstractions and you remain grounded.

Most of what i'm writing here was told to me by someone else so i feel indebted to that person; however, the more i gain experience the more i realize he was right.

 

[Vilk]

...unaware that they are being photographed...

where did that come from?

I'm rather shy...

see a connection? work on the "shy" and you'll avoid double trouble: confrontation and aggravating your fear thereof

please don't take it personally; your honesty helped me formulate the idea, but i am not singling you out by any means. i see this pattern in the majority of "street photography," glorified voyeurism plain and simple. keep making good photographs and you'll grow out of it (yes, i've been there, perhaps 😉)

 

[Vilk]

...Frank's The Americans strikes me as about as good as it gets.

Frank is about as lyrical as it gets. Like a poet, he speaks of archetypes, symbols, abstractions, not real, physical persons. On a higer level, he does assemble an epic portrait of a nation, but it's the epic of Ovid, not of Virgil. If he moves you, you will find little help in "street photography" discussions. Try Whitman, Kerouac, Márquez...

 

[berlincontemporary]

I've always shot landscapes -- natural, urban, sea. Over the past two years I've had a rising urge to shoot people. I feel like a river of human drama has passed through my life and I've failed to capture any of it. Kinda sad, really.

(...)

Appreciate your thoughts on possibilities for starting this new adventure. Thanks.

Forcing me to do something different that did not came natural to me in the first place never worked. Of course, things may be different for you...

 

[aad]

Be careful where you confess "a rising need to shoot people".

 

[tbarker13]

It's that shy part that's always kept me from doing a lot of street photography. (Which is always sort of amusing to me - considering that my real life job as a reporter forces me to interact with total strangers on a routine basis.)

I just have a hard time finding a comfort zone when shooting total strangers - particularly at a time when photographers seem to be viewed with so much suspicion.

It's sort of like nude photography - it's very easy to do badly.
To me, it's usually obvious when a photographer is simply sneaking shots of people around them. They don't feel like they are part of the scene. They're often poorly composed. They are too far away from the action.

 

[Thardy]

That is exactly the difficult part of actually finding a ground to work on in street photography. Everyone has their ideas, but my conclusion which I posted for the OP is basically from my own experience and observations. Its also an admission of one's own limitations. I cannot just stand around and shoot randomly, well i can, but i don't feel any sense of connection with what i'm doing. Its going through the motions and street photography is dangerous in that sense because one gets habituated to go through the motions and then you suddenly realize you dislike most of your work and they're sub par because your heart wasn't in it.

When you consider Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand, in one hand you have Frank who pretty much give it all and after The Americans stopped doing street photography altogether, i guess he knew he could not top what he did and no one has, yet. Winogrand on the other hand just lost control and street photography, the act of it, took control of his life. He ended up shooting like crazy, piling huge undeveloped film load and eventually dying leaving behind a few decent books but nothing seminal like The Americans.

Photography like any other creative act is psychologically dangerous, one can easily lose touch with reality and float in a sort of delusional nether land of misunderstood artists. On the other hand, if you ground yourself with ideas and solid concepts to work with, you're less likely to fly into abstractions and you remain grounded.

Most of what i'm writing here was told to me by someone else so i feel indebted to that person; however, the more i gain experience the more i realize he was right.

One fellow mentioned that street to him just looked like the photographer was snapping pics of people going to work, and of course coming home from work.

I'm guessing (hoping) that what you mean by themes you mean telling a story?

 

[daninjc]

I do not necessarily agree that good street photography requires coming up with specific ideas beforehand - the way i see it is more wandering around and finding good photographic situations - stimulating from an aesthetic, human or emotional point of view.
I agree though that that photographing people randomly on the street usually makes for very boring images. Most of my planning goes into deciding were to wander. I might be biased though living in a big city that offers nearly unlimited chances for street photography. I usually end up interacting with a lot of people and constantly changing my plans.
That said, I find street photography very challenging, with an extremely low success rate. I might end up walking for a day, shooting several rolls and perhaps being happy with one-two images if I'm lucky. When it happens though, I find it rewarding - in a way the counterbalances the effort and energy spent in it.
That said, no one needs to be Frank or Winograd - it's not like going to war - the point to me is enjoying the process and some of the results.

Street photography is very much about ideas. Photographing people randomly on the street and making fancy or gimmicky compositions lose their novelty very fast, its the ideas that endure, just like Frank's The Americans.

The difficulty with ideas are that they are hard to come by and secondly extremely difficult to execute. While in landscape its all about whats there and nature presents itself, with people and street photography you have to force it out by practice, cunning and that extra factor call it luck or talent.

You should only get serious about street photography if you have a specific idea(s) and wish to execute it, otherwise aimless street shooting is the surest way to boredom and burn-out.

I have just finished a street photography project and i feel mentally exhausted. I don't feel like shooting and when i do its very uninspired and lazy. I know it will take some time for the mental energy to come back so i'm just riding it out, because i have been through it before. Had it been someone less experienced they'd most probably quit.

Its very easy to get lost in street photography because of its immense scope, so don't get into it unless you have a clear idea of what you want to do and also a contingency plan of pulling back in case things don't work out.

 

[steve kessel]

John

Stay with your impulse/idea however hard it gets. It's not just "street", it's what you take in from the seemingly random, utterly overwhelming flux. You get more connected to where you and your others/subjects, willing or oblivious, live together. Enriching. You find you have something to say. The best moments are totally unplanned (except you've let them happen).

Best wishes

Steve

 

[taskoni]

Steve is right, we made it very complicated. Just go outside and give it a try!
What I do is I never leave my house without theme - it saves me a lot of wandering around. Have a theme and you'll never miss a great shot out there, I promise you 😉
Regards,
b.

 

[x-ray]

I love good street photography but I don't do it well and don't see much done well. Most shots catch people in awkward positions and the meaning seems to me to only be in the photographers mind and not conveyed in the photo.

I get my greatest enjoyment photographing people in their environment face to face. No candid shooting, just straight forward images conveying what they are about. This style isn't for everyone but it works best for me.

You can see some in my gallery.

 

[lawnpotter]

X-Ray,You would call your stuff enviromental portraits No? Any how I really like this approach. It gives you creative room and it allows people to be photographed on their terms. I agree with you about a lot of street photography. A lot of it is meaningless. your work might inspire me.

 

[x-ray]

X-Ray,You would call your stuff enviromental portraits No? Any how I really like this approach. It gives you creative room and it allows people to be photographed on their terms. I agree with you about a lot of street photography. A lot of it is meaningless. your work might inspire me.

I do consider it mostly environmental portraiture. Everyone has their own style and this works best for me and yes it slows for greater creative direction. I don't ask my subjects to do anything out of character but I do take the oportunity to refine the moment.

 

[Contarama]

It doesn't have to be just street photography...there is a country genre too if you just look hard enough! Heck you may even get in some bird photography while you're at it! 🙂

 

[Contarama]

Sir I don't know what to tell you other than I think my favorite thing to take pictures of is people and just remember two old clique sayings...

A picture is worth a thousand words and I never met a man I didn't like...

 

[Bogotron]

In my opinion, what's so great about "street photography" is that you when you set out with your camera you don't need an agenda beyond looking for interesting photographs. The world provides endless possibilities for great pictures, you just need your camera in hand, an open mind, keen senses and quick reflexes. That said, having a particular idea can give your shooting some structure and focus, if that is something that you require.