Are street photography images inherently more interesting because of locale?

[kxl]

I like environmental portraiture and I hold the opinion that those taken in 'exotic' locales (e.g., Shanghai, China) are just more interesting ***TO ME*** than those taken where I live (Southern California).

Everything else (exposure, composition, focus, etc...) being equal, do you personally find street photos to be inherently more interesting because of the locale?

Just curious.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Keith,

(1) Exotic locales always interest me more.

(2) There are simply more people on the street almost anywhere than in Southern California, which is another advantage. Admittedly I've never been to Brasilia.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Woody 63]

Keith, I think street photography is a great. Personally, i think you can always find a good subject on any street, wherever you are, whether it be a building, an event, or people in general

 

[jschrader]

agreed

agreed

I think foreign places are easier to photograph. They do not necessarily need to be exotic (in my opinion).

I neven managed to take reasonable pictures in my home town.

I don't know why this is so; I guess one is accustomed to everything. I moved away and I find it somewhat easier, coming back "home", but in my new home town, tourists find interesting things at every corner, but I don't.

I try to learn but it is tough.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

[Everything else (exposure, composition, focus, etc...) being equal, do you personally find street photos to be inherently more interesting because of the locale?/QUOTE]

Yes. Wait! No. Ummm, maybe. 😕

 

[Griffin]

The street photos that I like, I always like because of the humans in them. To me it's not about location.

 

[kxl]

(2) There are simply more people on the street almost anywhere than in Southern California, which is another advantage.
R.

Roger - that is a good point. Since the car culture is so prevalent in SoCal, the opportunities for street photography are a lot less pervasive that NYC or Cairo or Shanghai or indeed many other places in the world.

 

[BlackXList]

You're used to seeing your surroundings, so you take them for granted, it means things don't pop out at you like they might if you weren't so familiar with them.

Happens to pretty much all of us, we look at what's familiar differently, on a surface level. When we're outside of the familiar, we look in a much more in depth way.

 

[bonatto]

When I'm somewhere new I tend to pay a different kind of attention than when I'm in familiar places. Some parts of large cities are very particular, and have a majority of similar looking people (Canary Wharf and business attire for example). It can be an interesting exercise to work from this basis. Very often, locale has very little to do with why the photo is interesting, suggesting that other elements may be more important. I also enjoy looking for different ways to photograph recognisable subjects - a fun challenge.

 

[YYV_146]

The thing is, people in Shanghai will think the exact opposite 😀, that their humid crowded city is boring, and South California is the place for street photographers...

But I agree that some places are simply very interesting for street work, Hong Kong for one for its vibrant night life, and I'd say Paris and Amsterdam for the architecture.

 

[Takkun]

Roger - that is a good point. Since the car culture is so prevalent in SoCal, the opportunities for street photography are a lot less pervasive that NYC or Cairo or Shanghai or indeed many other places in the world.

Despite this, I have a fascination with photographing older (around here, early postwar) suburbs. I guess for me that is an exotic locale--strange architecture and the lack of people. Though certainly more challenging to be unobtrusive.

Good points all around here; a good photo is a good photo, but I'm certainly more attracted to seeing pictures of places I haven't' seen before or in a long time. Sometimes that means that my older photos take on new meaning when the setting has change appreciably—I just found a box of old negatives of the South Lake Union area circa 2006, when it was all boarded up warehouses and parking lots.
When it comes to shooting, poking around somewhere new is always since you're seeing everything, from the people to the sidewalks for the first time. Doesn't always make for good photos since its tempting to photograph EVERYTHING, but it sure is fun.

 

[greyelm]

I find that street photography is like fine wine, it gets better with age. I enjoy seeing how people lived in past times especially when the photos are from my childhood era (from the 40s onwards)

 

[Griffin]

I find that street photography is like fine wine, it gets better with age. I enjoy seeing how people lived in past times especially when the photos are from my childhood era (from the 40s onwards)

Yes, absolutely.

I was browsing through Vivian Maier's photographs and couldn't help thinking that not much has changed since then, except for maybe the hats, the cars and the cell phones.

 

[nckchan]

Having lived in SoCal for many years, I agree that it really isn't the best place for street photography. For the most part, everything is so spread out, and people just don't seem to hangout on the street much, other than at tourist-dense locations. Unlike densely populated cities like NYC or Hong Kong where you can continue walking for miles and everywhere you look will still be occupied by people, I think shooting in SoCal requires a lot of planning in advance, and it's not easy to just switch location impromtu because chances are that other good locations are far away and you'll most like be stuck in traffic. Being in SoCal definitely changed the way I shoot, and I guess it's great to learn how to adapt to different environment.

Having said that though, there were photographers like Gary Winogrand who shot mostly in Los Angeles and still consistently produced amazing images over many many years.

 

[thegman]

For me, photos can certainly be more interesting based on locale, but that locale may not be exotic.

I saw some photos of a friday night in Swansea (UK), drunken revellers etc. I grew up in the UK, and lived for a long time in Wales, so Swansea is not exotic to me. The bleakness of the scenes made the photos quite compelling though.

Some street photos are interesting because they are from 50 years ago or whatever, we're seeing a scene which no longer exists. Similarly photographs from a distant locale might be an insight into something we don't know much about, or may not exist for much longer.

But really it depends what you're trying to do, locale may matter, it may not.

 

[YYV_146]

I find that street photography is like fine wine, it gets better with age. I enjoy seeing how people lived in past times especially when the photos are from my childhood era (from the 40s onwards)

Voltaire once noted that people admire and value things that are physically far away or far away in the past. He also remarked that the latter is generally perceived as even more valuable, since people can travel across physical distances but not through time. 😀

I have ~500 rolls of cheap film I shot as a kid and young student in Beijing and Northern China in the 90s, and looking at the sheets is quite an experience - a flashback to a simpler, less electronic age.

 

[airfrogusmc]

I love the streets and I can't say it any better than Meyerowitz says it in this trailer for a good movie which if you haven't seen you should. Just push play.
http://www.traileraddict.com/everybody-street/trailer

 

[aizan]

not really. the geographical locations of my street photo books are spread out all over the place.

 

[tj01]

There was a thread about pictures from your own street, I thought that was very interesting even though it might be mundane to photographer.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Nope.
NA isn't the same big shopping mall yet, surrounded with dump of high-rise condos, where streets are boring and same.
Frisco is different from Big Apple. Montreal and Toronto are different in good street photography.

Yes.
Different countries are different due to the obvious difference in cultures. Street is reflection of it. It just more obvious, I guess.

I'm as interested in those faraway places street life pictures as in close to my town Toronto streets photos.
But I wasn't same place boy for long time, before we settled in the GTA burb. 🙂