Help me understand street photography

Amateur astronomes are learning about the sky. Like most scientists, they retrace the steps of their forebears. Most artists also need to retrace the steps of their forebears, and it takes one usually a few years before one comes up with something really original.

But there is a difference between imitating to learn, and imitating while pretending one is fresh, original, and vanguard. As I said, I'm cranking my opinion to 11 (and it's been fun to see a few raised eyebrows), but my point is simply that too many people believe they are The Sh!t because they do street.

crawdiddy said:
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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Pitxu said:
To me, thats documentary work for which I was well paid.

If you see nothing in it you don't know how to look.
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Well, i am glad for you. Thanks for the explanation.
As to your last comment or whatever it was, well, i probably am blind indeed, since i can only see a straight street with some power lines, two lines of trees and a few barely visible and not too special house fronts.
Documenting? yes, certainly.
Interesting? sorry, not to me.
Without your text, it could be a street in my hometown as well, e.g. in autumn, or in england, in april, or even in texas, yes, in a less sunny day.

Your previous example with the boy, that's an interesting shot, it is loaded with people, things happening, emotions.
 
sitemistic said:
Pitxu, I can tell you that school is not like that in Texas. Drugs and sex are big problems.
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Dude, those are problems? Those were the only good things about school.
 
Pherdinand said:
Dear Ducky.

Your question is very valid. Valid they are the harsh answers of M.Valdemar as well. Although not fully covering the truth. In fact, he is talking about street photographer wannabes only. Like himself, or myself, or many others.
I was in very much the same doubts some 3-4 years ago. I have not understood what's the point, beyond that "wasting time" idea.

But the fact is, street photography is not about bums, hot girls, street musicians, and not about streets. In my current understanding, street photography is about things happening with people on the street, lasting only for seconds, or fractions of seconds, that can be funny, moving, thought-provoking, thus interesting on a higher level than "just a hot chick from behind". The beauty of the gender is, you have to be at the right place in the right time, you have to NOTICE the things, and you have to be awake enough to quickly compose and snap a photo of it.
If all clicks together you can get images like the ones here:
http://www2.in-public.com/
My favourites there are Nick Turpin's and Nils Jorgensens' galleries, but the others are also quite interesting.

What is it good for?
Well, you certainly won't get rich of it. Maybe good for fame, if you manage to get good ones and enough people clap on the Net. Maybe good for ego if you manage to get some that please you so you can say Yes, i snapped it, yes, this is how it happened.
And when you reach a really high level you can display them in public :) and change the world a bit.

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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So far the abovequoted is for me the best said in this difficult thread, made problematic by good amounts of cynism, prived dialogues of absolute no value beyond the writers, and other miscellaneous.

So in order to support Pherdinand and other good posts I will add my best efforts.

I have been inspired to street photography not by HCB, nor other well known photographers, but by one RFF member: Beniliam. What I have seen in his work is a dimension not found everywhere, beyond the formalistic side - the human dimension.

Partly it reminds me the genre called "The Human Condition", although I am aware of the dramatic differences between the Human Condition and Street Photography.

Personally I don't give a damn if for Mister X or Mister Y, living today or resting in his tomb, street photography exists, or is profitable, or is in vogue. But I will comment that Beniliam's pictures showed me the genre is alive and kicking at these very days.

When I read much of the comments made to my pics at the Gallery, I notice most of the comments enhance the compositional-technical side of the image, while what drove me to make that photo was first of all The Human Dimension.
So within such environment I am not so much surprised if the day comes when a member asks "what's the value?"

Because if we look first of all at the human side of the contents of an image with human contents, then the value is so great that becomes un-measurable.

What is the value in helping a blind man to cross a street ? What is the value of a true human smile? What is the value of a circumstancial visual irony ? How much ? How many dollars or euros ? - This is not life for me, this is not my language nor my approach.

But if on the contrary, you accept these sort of human behaviours are so precious as to become beyond value, then recording them with a camera becomes beyond "value" too.

Every person has its own innertia for living. Mine requires a kind of emotional exchange with my surroundings, i, e, with the humans living with me and the urban, cultural, hystorical and social heritage. Since I started to deal with Street Photography I am discovering more and more the richness of life, that through each making of an image becomes my own richness too.

So in response to the o.p. former question, my answer is that it is not about the value of street photography, but about what each of us consider of value in life.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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ruben said:
So in response to the o.p. former question, my answer is that it is not about the value of street photography, but about what each of us consider of value in life.

Cheers,
Ruben
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I'm really beginning to like you, Ruben, a sane voice in what sometimes seems like a wilderness. Thanks.
 
the value in good street photography is like the value in good blow. how do you know it's good? because it doesn't taste like shoe polish, because it can make you instantly happy just like it can bring quick sadness. it has value because all of a sudden you feel like your front two teeth are about to fall out and you notice you're sucking on your tounge cuz you can't feel it and your best friend says he thinks his front teeth are falling out too. you don't care, because the tingle in your eye makes you notice something that you haven't noticed before and the moment even though it's just a snap gets burned deep into your head for a damn long time after wards. it's good not just because it's 10pm and you're getting ready to go out and this is the best that a guy named poky managed to pick up tonight, it's good when it's good and without seeing it good you won't know its good.


yeah... just like that.

:D


Ducky said:
I'm serious, where is the value?:bang:
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We have threads about blacking out cameras. There was a thread aboout a hip-holster for stealth shooting. There has been a lot of advice about such things and it's lost on me. Why??
I see, here and on street photog sites, shots of butts, boobs, old men on benches etc. All done with sneaky cameras.
I don't understand the value here, what do you do with these photos except post them so others can comment.
I'm serious, where is the value?

I agree to a certain extent. Too many street shots (mine included) are poor quality and the subject matter is "iffy" i.e. boring and worst of all does not tell a story.

But what I strive for (and often do not achieve) is a shot that captures in its detail something that depicts a bigger story about the city - maybe people rushing to work, a mother and her child, commuters on a bus, someone sitting on a park bench, looking pensive - or whatever.

I try to do the same when I travel. Rather than taking a picture of the famous landmark (whatever it happens to be) how much more interesting is it to take a shot of a detail that suggests a bigger story? The former is just recording, a technical process - the latter, at its best is poetry. Isn't this why Cartier Bresson was so good?

But you need an artists eye to get these shots as its not just the ability to get the shot in focus and exposed correctly (although too often such photos do not get this right either) or even the ability to compose the photo properly. You have to first recognize a picture that is going to suggest a story to the viewer.
 
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Pitxu said:
I thought I'd check out your gallery to see if I could learn something, but oh, you don't have a gallery.

Don't critizise anyones photos if you don't post any yourself.
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:)) well, i'm glad you checked out MINE as well, thanks for your most valuable and well-written - although totally out of its place - comment!
U r welcome to check the rest of my shots as well, especially the other ones which might classify as relevant for this messed-up thread.
 
.[/QUOTE]I agree to a certain extent. Too many street shots (mine included) are poor quality and the subject matter is "iffy" i.e. boring and worst of all does not tell a story.

But what I strive for (and often do not achieve) is a shot that captures in its detail something that depicts a bigger story about the city - maybe people rushing to work, a mother and her child, commuters on a bus, someone sitting on a park bench, looking pensive - or whatever.

I try to do the same when I travel. Rather than taking a picture of the famous landmark (whatever it happens to be) how much more interesting is it to take a shot of a detail that suggests a bigger story? The former is just recording, a technical process - the latter, at its best is poetry. Isn't this why Cartier Bresson was so good?

But you need an artists eye to get these shots as its not just the ability to get the shot in focus and exposed correctly (although too often such photos do not get this right either) or even the ability to compose the photo properly. You have to first recognize a picture that is going to suggest a story to the viewer.[/QUOTE]

Hi Peter,

Kindly let me express my all embracing view of life, according to which Life is not a commodity for Kings, Presidents, wealthy aristocrats or Successfull Photographers.

Life is about each of us. Every one of us.

Accordingly what matters is not the end result. The End Result is the measure of those who enjoy the privilege of Advantage.

For the rest of us, 99,99% of Humanity, what matters is the path, the effort, the target we dare to put before us.

Our privilege, the privilege of the 99,99%, is our freedom from the lonelyness of power, wealth and superiority.

It is precisely this potential brotherhood among us what may enable our warm engagement at the streets.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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ruben said:
Kindly let me express my all embracing view of life....
Life is about each of us. Every one of us.

For the rest of us, 99,99% of Humanity, what matters is the path, the effort, the target we dare to put before us.

Cheers,
Ruben
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Ruben, shouldn't it say:

Life is about me.

For me, what matters is the path, the effort, the target I dare to put before me.
 
For the rest of us, 99,99% of Humanity, what matters is the path, the effort, the target we dare to put before us.

Our privilege, the privilege of the 99,99%, is our freedom from the loneliness of power, wealth and superiority.

Very true. Although I know plenty of people who still subscribe to the belief that the "winner" is the one who has most toys when he dies. C'est la vie!
 
:) i know you used them, Pitxu. That's why i said, it was very well written "comment" but "out of its place".
And commenting on that image is totally irrelevant since this thread is about THE VALUE OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY, that shot of mine has nothing to do with street photography, i did not post it here to show How Good A Street Photographer I Am, it is a piece of a "documenting series" - and i have the feeling you are full of anger, frustration, and it's a pity because this was a thread with a quite nice idea but too many people and posts getting out of whack . . .

Bake
 
MikeL said:
Ruben, shouldn't it say:

Life is about me.

For me, what matters is the path, the effort, the target I dare to put before me.
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Hi Mike,

As you yourself quoted me, I started my post by stating:

Kindly let me express my all embracing view of life....



Now, if you need me to repeat for me at each sentence I write, it will be a kind of extra work.

On the other hand it may be more productive for all of us that whenever you disagree you state it, and fundament it if time is available.

I am a strong believer in team thinking. Team thinking for me is not chorus harmony, but reaching higher understanding via contraposing different views. It can be done in very civilized ways, and it is very much used by governments, commercial companies, etc.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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Partially in response to the original post:

I reject the concept of genre as useless, as I reject the idea of value in art. One can never garauntee a universal appeal in a photograph, never create an immutable meaning, never have an intrinsic value. Too much depends on the viewer.
In the same way, why bother defining genres when we must argue about their parameters all the time?

In the end, all that matters is that you create something that you enjoy. If you wish to share it to hear another's perspective, so be it.
 
peterm1 said:
For the rest of us, 99,99% of Humanity, what matters is the path, the effort, the target we dare to put before us.

Our privilege, the privilege of the 99,99%, is our freedom from the loneliness of power, wealth and superiority.

Very true. Although I know plenty of people who still subscribe to the belief that the "winner" is the one who has most toys when he dies. C'est la vie!
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As an Uruguay song goes, all the richness of Earth will never bring a dead back to life. Mortality is very much the source of all human equality, including the 00,01%

Cheers,
Ruben
 
Morca007 said:
In the end, all that matters is that you create something that you enjoy. If you wish to share it to hear another's perspective, so be it.
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I agree very much.
But i would add this: If you wish to share it to hear another's perspective, so be it, however, be prepared that some people might have different view, might not like what you show or might not see what yo seem to clearly see in your own work.
 
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