Street Photography

[barnwulf]

When I was taking a few photography courses in the 1960's we used the term Street Photography as a way of describing the particular genera of photography that were candid photographs made in the street and mostly with people as subjects. I never questioned it since it made sense. - jim

 

[kbg32]

I'm kind of in the Jay Maisel camp - "It is, whatever the **** it is."

 

[gb hill]

Street photography seems to make more sense to me than the term "Outdoor Photography" Try googling that. 😀

 

[fireblade]

English is english is english...you have put two english words together. "street" and "photography".

street
striːt
noun
....a public road in a city, town, or village, typically with houses and buildings on one or both sides.

photography
fəˈtɒɡrəfi/
noun
....the art or practice of taking and processing photographs.


Now put the two definitions together. 🙂

????????

 

[gns]

From the 1981 (I think that's pre-internet) interview with Winogrand by Barbaralee Diamondstein...

"D: I hope that what I'm going to bring up won't be tiresome for you, tooà The term "street photography" and your name have been synonymous for quite some time. But the streets are not the only place where you've worked over the last twenty-five years or so. You've worked in zoos and aquaria, Metropolitan Museum of Art openings, Texas rodeos. There must be some common thread that runs through all of your work. How would you describe it?

W: Well, I'm not going to get into that. I think that those kind of distinctions and lists of titles like "street photographer" are so stupid."

The term was commonly used in the seventies in reference to Winogrand, as wells as several other American photographers associated with him like Todd Papageorge, Joel Meyerowitz, Henry Wessel, Bill Dane and others. It may have been used earlier (it obviously has been used with reference to many photographers from earlier generations). I don't know.

I think terms like street photography, landscape, etc. have some limited usefulness, but
really just tend to distinguish subject categories more than aesthetic differences.

 

[lynnb]

I remember Allan Funt's popular TV programme Candid Camera, which was motion film (later, video?), first episode in 1948. Prior to that he had a radio programme Candid Microphone in 1947. My early recollections of what we now call street photography was that it was called candid photography. However that was just the popular usage.

It seems from posts above that the term "street photography" was in usage for the subset of people who were active in it from much earlier. The transition into common usage would have happened at different times in different parts of the world, pre-internet.

 

[Keith]

I'd never heard of it until I joined RFF ... but I also didn't know what a rangefinder was.

 

[CMur12]

I think I first heard the term "street photography" associated with Gary Winogrand around the time he died. At least I have known for many years - long before the Internet - that I am not a "street photographer." 😀

Stewart, I think your brother-in-law just used the term in error when he applied it to you at a wedding.

- Murray

 

[Sparrow]

I think I first heard the term "street photography" associated with Gary Winogrand around the time he died. At least I have known for many years - long before the Internet - that I am not a "street photographer." 😀

Stewart, I think your brother-in-law just used the term in error when he applied it to you at a wedding.

- Murray

... sadly, just one of his many failings

 

[lukitas]

I remember Allan Funt's popular TV programme Candid Camera, which was motion film (later, video?), first episode in 1948. Prior to that he had a radio programme Candid Microphone in 1947. My early recollections of what we now call street photography was that it was called candid photography. However that was just the popular usage.

It seems from posts above that the term "street photography" was in usage for the subset of people who were active in it from much earlier. The transition into common usage would have happened at different times in different parts of the world, pre-internet.

Candid. That's how I remember it. An invitingly smiling young lady on the cover of 'Candid photography', a few phunny photos of kids and people on vacation, a helpful article on 'How to use flash lighting for candid photography', using a nubile girl as a subject, and most of its' pages were filled with images of prurient interest. Apparently the aesthetic was about the forbidden photograph taken from the unwitting subject by a hidden photographer slyly smiling in his coat lapels, which he also used to cover his telescope lens, nudge nudge, wink wink.

I don't remember hearing about street photography before the nineties. War photography, fashion, studio photography, still life and portraiture; and then candid, which covered anything from HCB and Eisenstaedt to the pervert hunting undies with an f11 telescope attached to a cheap zenit or something.

Ah, the good old days...

 

[Sparrow]

... well I think its looking like it could have been an American idiom up to the advent of the interweb ... would you say?

 

[Muggins]

My 1936 Edition of Kodak's How to Make Good Picture has a complete section on Street Photography and Architectural Studies starting on page 66. A lot of the pictures show typical street scenes with people, and many of the hints are directly related to taking pictures of people on the street without influencing or alerting them.

So far this is the earliest reference I have to the term.

Just curious - how up-to-date for the period do the cameras and clothes depicted look? I'm curious as to how often Kodak had to update them.

Adrian

 

[gns]

... well I think its looking like it could have been an American idiom up to the advent of the interweb ... would you say?

I think it's likely it could have started here and been more commonly used here at the time (seventies), but I doubt it was unique to the US. It hardly seems plausible that a Cartier-Bresson, a Parr or a Moriyama (or anyone doing or closely following that kind of work) would not have come across the term.

Obviously, the internet had a lot to do with popularizing both the term and the practice, though.

I'm mildly interested in the origin, but not enough to research it myself.

 

[Pioneer]

Just curious - how up-to-date for the period do the cameras and clothes depicted look? I'm curious as to how often Kodak had to update them.

Adrian

I know that Kodak published a new edition of these books every year or two for what seems a couple decades. It was one of their "advertising" avenues.

Since the introductory chapters of these books always provided information on the latest equipment and film I would suspect that updates were made to these chapter frequently. The rest of the book would have been updated only when things began to look very dated.

I am no expert but a lot of the pictures in my book look to be from the late 20s based on clothing style and automobiles visible in the street.

 

[fotographz]

"Street Photography" is still a relatively new term to me, I never once over the years woke up grabbed a camera and proclaimed "I'M GOING OUT TODAY AND SHOOT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY". I do know that I never tire of watching humans unaware of themselves being human.
(maybe the documentation of the human condition sounds to much like a medical research project)

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Having dug out my copy of "How to make Good Pictures"*, I see a section on p41 simply called "Street Photography", beginning "The successful picturing of street scenes requires both thought and dexterity on the part of the amateur". It's quite obvious that it's referring to something very much like what we call "street photography" these days and, judging by the Wright Flyer-type aircraft depicted, the fashions, and the cameras depicted, I think it's probably published in 1910 at the latest. So it's been about a looooooong time.

Adrian

*I wonder whether Chris Crawford has one of these? The phrase reminds me of his "I made this picture..."

I don't have that book, but it sounds interesting!

 

[airfrogusmc]

Ive seen an intervue with Winogrand, had to be late 70's, they ask him about street photography. He says in the book animals, was that zoo photography.? He calls the term street photography absurd...

Not 100% accurate, but it went something like that..

About 46 seconds in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RM9KcYEYXs

 

[airfrogusmc]

... when would that be would you think? ... my brother in law used it in 2005 at a wedding, so it must have been in common parlance then (he hasn't a creative bone in his body)

Atget would have had to have said it before Aug 1927.

 

[Sparrow]

Atget would have had to have said it before Aug 1927.

at-il utilisé l'expression?

 

[airfrogusmc]

at-il utilisé l'expression?

He may indeed have maybe not but it has been around since at least the late 1970s, early 1980s when Winogrand made those statements though I believe it was around long before that.