Help me understand street photography

Even street musicians

Even street musicians

Hello:

Street photography IMHO documents a specific time and place, an activity which may be trivial to profound but a least leaves a record. I record buildings and sometimes the people (even an occasional busker) associated with them, often from behind!

Yours
Frank

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Go out "on the street", take a picture of something of interest - to you. "Of interest" fall into two non-mutually exclusive categories: 1. an interesting event, person, or object. 2. Something visually interesting. Print it, keep it as a way of documenting your life, your travels, a "visual diary" of your life and times. Forget about trying to be "the next HCB" or whatever. If you want to "show off" your work, or think it might be "of interest" to a broader audience, post it up here or on Flickr or Deviantart, or Smugmug - where ever.

Voila! "Street photography"... (mostly) "personal" art.

What's all the hub-bub and harshness about?
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NickTrop said:
Go out "on the street", take a picture of something of interest - to you. "Of interest" fall into two non-mutually exclusive categories: 1. an interesting event, person, or object. 2. Something visually interesting. Print it, keep it as a way of documenting your life, your travels, a "visual diary" of your life and times. Forget about trying to be "the next HCB" or whatever. If you want to "show off" your work, or think it might be "of interest" to a broader audience, post it up here or on Flickr or Deviantart, or Smugmug - where ever.

Voila! "Street photography"... (mostly) "personal" art.

What's all the hub-bub and harshness about?
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Well said! My feelings exactly.
 
Pherdinand said:
...But the first "gain" of doing it is, you will start seeing more from our world, and enjoy the simple days more, just by looking around and noticing the interesting people, the funny coincidences, the unbelievable scenes that, one after the other, develop and disappear in front of all of us. What on earth can beat that?
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I agree with this. And it applies to all types of photography. If there's no value in street photography because HCB and Winogrand did it first or better then they might as well confiscate all cameras at the gates of Yosemite too. We all know what half dome looks like.

Paul
 
I don't see harshness in this thread, just some cynicism from the usual suspects 😉

Ducky, good question. And to really appreciate street photography, try to do it. It's *really* hard, at least for me 🙂

Some people here on RFF make it looks so easy, I've been practicing and the best I could get is this:

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😀
 
study winogrand's photos. he thought "street photography" was a meaningless term. most people who do street photography have no idea what they're doing, aside from trying to make "street photos". a couple people on flickr who know what they're doing are malingering and miami fever.
 
aizan said:
study winogrand's photos. he thought "street photography" was a meaningless term. most people who do street photography have no idea what they're doing, aside from trying to make "street photos". a couple people on flickr who know what they're doing are malingering and miami fever.
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We have a terminological dispute here. I have never tried to take 'street photos' but I understood 'street' photography to be taking pictures in a public place.

Quite a lot of my 'street photos' are in other public places and I doubt there are more than half a dozen (generously interpreted) of 'hot chicks', in several decades. Many are of posters, graffiti, etc.

As the song goes, "Ah, but it's life and life only."

Cheers,

R.
 
By the way, and not to overstate the obvious... sweet lord the gal in that pic is (I would be a gentleman and say "lovely" but that would be less accurate than saying...) smokin' friggin hot. I love the pigeon too, but I can stop "scrolling up" to the pic of the loidy. 🙂
 
This one always reminded me of Weegee's shot on Coney Island of the crowd. I like the blonde haired goon directly in center, if I must say so myself:

 
That, my friend, is the reason the Japanese developed fast-shooting cameras.

NickTrop said:
By the way, and not to overstate the obvious... sweet lord the gal in that pic is (I would be a gentleman and say "lovely" but that would be less accurate than saying...) smokin' friggin hot. I love the pigeon too, but I can stop "scrolling up" to the pic of the loidy. 🙂
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M. Valdemar said:
That, my friend, is the reason the Japanese developed fast-shooting cameras.
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Well then, a big ole "domo arrigoto goez imashta" out to the Japanese. And one to you too for posting your "street photography" example 🙂
 
Hi Ducky,

Sorry then if my tone was rather short then. I think street photography is a wonderful genre that more than many other kinds is concerned about serendipity.

mhv, is saying something much like Gary Winogrand said. Along the lines of: there is no "street photography" there's only photography. I don't think semantic arguments really go anywhere. I see where that's coming from in terms of suggesting people not form preconceptions, but there is a street photography aesthetic and approach to making images. The best photographers always define their own.

Wander around flickr groups some, you'll start to see some wonderful stuff. I really love the photos of David Solomon and Tony Marciante (timewitness).

cheers
 
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Pherdinand said:
But the first "gain" of doing it is, you will start seeing more from our world, and enjoy the simple days more, just by looking around and noticing the interesting people, the funny coincidences, the unbelievable scenes that, one after the other, develop and disappear in front of all of us. What on earth can beat that?
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Well put Pherdinand, this is the reason I started taking more photographs, of just about anything. The more I've learned about rock types, geomorphic features, and species, the world looks completely different. I think taking photographs gets me to see more and filter out less. I'm not an artist so the creativity isn't there and my photos don't make people think or whatever, but for me it's still cool noticing more, and that's enough, whether on the "street" or someplace else.
 
To mhv, and all cynics everywhere...

To mhv, and all cynics everywhere...

mhv said:
Street photography is dead. It's a figment in the imagination of rich fourtysomething white men who invested in expensive rangefinder equipment while caressing the hope of being the next HCB or Doisneau, or whatnont.

Sorry for all the bitterness, it's just easier to articulate a point by cranking the amp at 11...
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There are many excellent antidepressants available now. Pick one and give it a try.

They may not cause you to alter your studied opinion that "it's all been done before," but the notion may bother you less.

You know, there are only a handful of working professional astronomers in the world. It's not a large workforce. And then there are lots of amateurs that pursue astronomy for the sheer pleasure of it. And most comets discovered these days are named for the amateur(s) that discovered them.

And really, finding a comet on a dark night, in the exact location where there was nothing visible the night before, is something like making a good street photograph. The odds are against it, but it's thrilling when it happens. And the truth is that most amateur astronomers and street photographers are in it for the process, not the end result. We're having a good time, and we don't believe it's all been done. And even if we did, we would still make photographs.
 
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