Is Street Photography Dead?

Is Street Photography Dead?

  • Yes

    Votes: 82 20.6%

  • No

    Votes: 317 79.4%
  • Total voters
    399
Keith said:
True ... but I think as an art form it is heavily diluted by very ordinary work that I don't really regard as worth while or significant. A lot of it has as much impact as google earth for me.

The good though is very good and I can discuss that any time! :)
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This is pretty much true for all types of photography. More and more photos that years ago used to reside in a shoebox in the hall closet are now publically exhibited as a result of the proliferation of digital cameras and the internet. The world has turned into one big "1 Hour" photo kiosk.

Now, is street photography dead? NO! IMHO it is a living and vibrant art. The people who are good at it produce excellent images of the human condition. I am in the middle of a class on people photography. Most of the assignments have been street photography. I have been involved with photography for nearly 60 years, but am definitely a novice when it comes to photographing people on the street. I have felt the sense of exhilaration and satisfaction of street photography. I have also gained a deeper respect of the skill and artistry of the accomplished street photographer.

Mike
 
Society changes. Photogs and everybody else need to develop new techniques. Vivian Meier's subject, in large part, did not know they were being photographed. Society is more "hip" to photography now, and cameras are everywhere. The old style street photography is probably dead but cars with tail fins and running boards are gone, too. Sooner or later somebody will reinvent it. One can, of course, obtain cameras that are hidden in your hat or whatever. Did you know the first Kodak cameras were designed to take photos without people knowing it?
 
I terms of how many people are taking pictures of other people it is opposite from to be dead.
As art, I'm not so much into it, but here is no another HCB, IMHO, I'm just street photography amateur, one from many.
 
Hi, asking if street photography is dead is a modern thinking....there are some more like is art dead or is history dead???

Well, today we inhabit postmodern times and you don´t need an answer like yes or no anymore...

Well going back to the question itself...NO...and aesthetic idea such as SP is not dead...

Perhaps in a very modern thinker it won´t be avantgarde anymore then it could end in a "dead" box stored somewhere inside his mind.

:)
 
Vince Lupo said:
I don't know if it's dead, but I think the editing of those photos is dead (or at least makes it a bit tougher to sort out the good ones from the not-so-good ones, at least from a viewer's perspective). A lot of what I see now are photos of people talking on their cell phones or staring at their smartphones. Not very interesting, at least to me.
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I was going to say something like this - you said it better.

Editing is what has died !
.
.
 
jsrockit said:
Additionally, not everyone is going to be good... even if they put a lot of time into their work. I don't think it is fair to go on flickr and compare the average joe to the masters of the past. People don't magically get good. It takes time.
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Flickr and other such means of sharing are like being on a high school basketball team. Odds are slim that Michael Jordan will be on your team, though he was on a high school team in the beginning. Not everyone will have the combination of talent and determination to become great, but by playing with others in the beginning we can start to differentiate ourselves from the pack.

So I don't find it helpful to denigrate Flickr or other online photo sharing - that's like saying we would have better basketball players if we did away with high school basketball teams. If you really do care about becoming better, surround yourself with others who share your passion. Share with them, coach them, and accept their criticism.

Street photography isn't dead. It's just adapting to the technology. I hope people become more honest with their criticism and more willing to receive the criticism of others. Maybe SP isn't for them, in which case it's beneficial for them to know earlier rather than later. And if someone really will be the next great street photographer, it's better to tell them that their work is lazy when it really is. Help them get where they're going faster.
 
furbs said:
Flickr and other such means of sharing are like being on a high school basketball team. Odds are slim that Michael Jordan will be on your team, though he was on a high school team in the beginning. Not everyone will have the combination of talent and determination to become great, but by playing with others in the beginning we can start to differentiate ourselves from the pack.

So I don't find it helpful to denigrate Flickr or other online photo sharing - that's like saying we would have better basketball players if we did away with high school basketball teams. If you really do care about becoming better, surround yourself with others who share your passion. Share with them, coach them, and accept their criticism.

Street photography isn't dead. It's just adapting to the technology. I hope people become more honest with their criticism and more willing to receive the criticism of others. Maybe SP isn't for them, in which case it's beneficial for them to know earlier rather than later. And if someone really will be the next great street photographer, it's better to tell them that their work is lazy when it really is. Help them get where they're going faster.
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Great analogy and well put. I like your outlook, Anthony.
 
sjones said:
If street is not dead, the simplicity and redundancy of the genre (open ended as it might be), has increasingly whittled away whatever remaining new ground there may be to explore.
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So, documenting one small time frame was enough... photography is all about redundancy. However, times change as does everything around us and those changes are worth documenting.

You can never photograph the same thing as someone else.
 
jsrockit said:
So, documenting one small time frame was enough... photography is all about redundancy. However, times change as does everything around us and those changes are worth documenting.

You can never photograph the same thing as someone else.
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I couldn't agree more with this.

The similarities we share as humans, the cultural differences that we strive to understand and the ever changing times are, for me, three of the cornerstones of so called street photography. The line, form, timing and rhythms are simply the language that we use to talk about these issues.

My earlier post, grumpiness affected as it was, doesn't mean that I think everyone should be of a certain ability to do it, just that as with everything a little thought and direction will make a noticeable improvement.
 
Re. redundancy, part of the difficulty is the increasing homogenization of the commercial and consumer worlds. Increasingly all cities look the same, all suburbs are indistinguishable, and people everywhere dress alike. It's not a hopeless situation, but it does increase the photographic difficulty incrementally.
 
semilog said:
Re. redundancy, part of the difficulty is the increasing homogenization of the commercial and consumer worlds. Increasingly all cities look the same, all suburbs are indistinguishable, and people everywhere dress alike. It's not a hopeless situation, but it does increase the photographic difficulty incrementally.
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This isn't meant to sound glib but isn't this something to photograph too. How to do it successfully may be the hardest part. Perhaps, at some point in the future, there will be a shift away from this globalized and homogenized world we've created and future generations will look at photographs of this world with the same fascination we do when viewing those small, insular communities that used to exist throughout the world.

Whether they do so digitally or on film is another matter. :angel: I'm stopping before we even start ok :eek: :D
 
semilog said:
Re. redundancy, part of the difficulty is the increasing homogenization of the commercial and consumer worlds. Increasingly all cities look the same, all suburbs are indistinguishable, and people everywhere dress alike. It's not a hopeless situation, but it does increase the photographic difficulty incrementally.
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There is still enough of the old vs. new around to view things as changing. As far as clothes, those change every few years and are never exactly the same. All suburbs have secrets too... you just have to find them, dig deeper. If there is one thing you can bank on in photography is that the past always looks strange to those in the present.

You can either choose to view photography as something that has had its day or you can view it as something that still has meaning for you. I'll choose the later and at least try to make some good photos in today's world.

(PS: I've quoted semilog, but this isn't directed at him)
 
street photography is not dead but its useless, which is worst.

however walking is always useful, seeing the world is always useful and if street photography is your excuse to that than continue doing it... just don't accumulate debt financing GAS.
 
jsrockit said:
It's only useless to those who don't care about it... like Jazz.
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comparing music where extensive training and talent is required to play some basic stuff to an activity where anyone can pick a camera and point at stuff on the street, or copy the photos they have seen of others is not really a good comparison.

comparing music like jazz to street photography is like comparing a NASA scientist to a worker in mcdonalds.
 
Margu said:
comparing music where extensive training and talent is required to play some basic stuff to an activity where anyone can pick a camera and point at stuff on the street, or copy the photos they have seen of others is not really a good comparison.

comparing music like jazz to street photography is like comparing a NASA scientist to a worker in mcdonalds.
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Jack Kerouac, who knew more than a little about modern jazz, had a reply to that sort of codswallop.
 
I'm rocket scientist by diploma and my first job. MCdonalds seems to be more useful for general public :)

Street photography these days seems to be not so much useful as art, compare to HCB days, but it is still documentary.
Twenty years from now, people would be amused to see street pictures where is nothing but gals on their mobile phones. Same as the people in phone booth pictures now...
 
Ko.Fe. said:
I
Street photography these days seems to be not so much useful as art, compare to HCB days, but it is still documentary.
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here i would disagree. video is the premium medium for documentary today and the only one. your location says canada and i like millions of people around the world happen to see the video of the teenage boy shot in a streetcar in toronto. in fact if it was not for that video the whole thing would have been just another police shooting but now there seem to be a big backlash.


in other words people should stop thinking that random photos on the street has some documentary value, it does not.
 
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