I've got it! A new, better name for "Street"!

tomalophicon said:
You could actually be out on the street right now taking pictures.
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:D hahahaha....

Like a few others, I have no beef with the term "street" (although a few photographers I respect do, such as the one behind the terrific "Tokyo Camera Style" blog, but I digress)

"Reportage" as a term is already taken, BTW.
 
sdotkling said:
I consider this a personal mission to rid the world of the dreadful term "street photography." My feeling has always been that it's just "out in the real world" photography, and should not be denigrated with such a crappy name. "Street" sounds to me like "gutter photography," somehow unworthy and different from r-e-a-l photography.

How about "Reportage"? Whether you are a journalist or not, I think it works.

Who's with me? Show of hands?
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REALLY?


.
 
"street", while pretty descriptive, just sounds awful. in a self-congratulatory, cred-arrogative way. sort of a cross between the athlete who goes on tv and says "yeah, they call me the big kahuna" and well-off suburban youths dressing up like tupac. problem is, i dont have a better term. "reportage" implies to me that you're getting paid by a magazine or news paper, plus it's kind of a mouthful when said with a french accent. "urban landscape" is worse than "street" - too long and somewhat contrived. maybe "candid"? i dunno. i usually just say that i like taking pictures of people (which is not a logically complete set of what i shoot, but it's directionally correct).
 
Would this qualify as "gutter photography"?

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I've long maintained that we each have a personal dictionary evolved/developed from our unique personal life experiences (aka baggage), which is responsible for much of the discussions/arguments here.
 
sdotkling said:
I consider this a personal mission to rid the world of the dreadful term "street photography." My feeling has always been that it's just "out in the real world" photography, and should not be denigrated with such a crappy name. "Street" sounds to me like "gutter photography," somehow unworthy and different from r-e-a-l photography.

How about "Reportage"? Whether you are a journalist or not, I think it works.

Who's with me? Show of hands?
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I mean, I think it's one of those terms that's defined by usage and as it applies to a very variable body of work naturally there's always going to be some disagreement about where the boundaries are and more at the center of gravity (maybe ;) ).

I personally don't have an issue with the term --street, studio, portrait, landscape photography, photojournalism, nude, still life, etc etc all serve certain rough-and-ready descriptive purposes. Where the terms become problematic is when you try to pigeonhole a photographer as certain type of photographer --I don't think most really good ones necessarily fit any one mold very well.

J.
 
I'm a little surprised that the forum started recently and dedicated to street photography hasn't really taken off.

It's pretty quiet over at 'Decisive Moment' from what I perceive.
 
" I'm a photographer, a still photographer. That's it."

Wait...someone already said that ;).

Todd
 
A still photographer? Isn't that a bit limiting? I really don't like being pigeon-holed like that.



;)
 
Juxtaposition: I'm with Rob-F on that one. My daughter has synesthesia: she cannot stand 'gorgeous' or 'luscious'. Street described as cred-arrogance. That's good too.
 
I agree that it's a bad term for a genre, the term itself implies that it is limiting your subject matter. And limiting you artistic vision is silly. Funnily enough, street photographer's contemporaries are not known as street photographers but photojournalists/reportage photographers. But, the term is already accepted, nothing you can do anymore.
 
I don't have a problem with street, it's a tag recognised by photographers and galleries. But to non-photographers in this era of suspicion, maybe it isn't specific enough to dispel unsubstantiated fears. Perhaps "urban documentary" or "social documentary" might be more helpful labels to use in such circumstances. For the rest of the time, street will do fine.
 
i am an urban social observer documenting the seemingly unstructured movements of city denizens, in black and white mostly.
 
I too can't stand "street photography". It just sounds incredibly pretentious to me. Also when people ask me questions like "what sort of photography do you do?" I feel like a complete idiot when I say "Street Photography". They usually reply with a very strange kind of gawk.
I was so fed up of the term, that I was considering posting a thread here to rid the world of this evil, but apparently not as many people agree with me as I expected.
Still, "reportage" would probably be met with a question like "what newspaper do you work for?" :eek:
 
back alley said:
i think that disliking the term 'street' is pretentious.

what's next? saying that i paint in pastels is too 'gay'?
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Surely you gest?

Not about the pastels I mean but suggesting that disliking the term 'street' is pretentious in itself!
 
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