The street photographer in his elements

Ned Bojic said:
Be serious and shoot a subject, compose it.
Be there. Or just don't.

Just sneaking a shot for the sake of catching something is as valid as a blindman's shot. Shots from the hip, quicky lucky ones, etc, aren't valid.
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Not valid? Only to you.

I have 'hip, quicky lucky ones' in many museums collection.

Bresson shot sneak shots as well.

Pretension is the worst enemy to a photog. Stops him cold from getting anywhere.

'The only thing that matters is the finished photograph' - Stieglitz
 
"Sneaking" is a value judgement and I don't think anyone can say that -- only the photographer in question.

There IS such a thing as being subtle and unobtrusive.
 
It is in his hometown, Zurich. Maybe more easy for him to blend in being half a native and half a tourist after living many years in the US.
 
I don't shoot from the hip either. I remember reading that Winogrand got so good at seeing what his lens was seeing because he shot with the same camera and same lens all the time that he didn't need to always use the viewfinder to know what lens was seeing.
 
I'm curious which one he intended to shoot in the first place.. man with briefcase, girl on phone or one who take the video..
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It is true that you can master the angle of view of certain focal lengths. Been doing it a lot.

Winogrand is a special case. The tons of rolls he left were exposed during his last years, while he made frequent trips to the South. John Szarkowski took up the chore of going through them and to his dismay, found mostly junks. Or meaningless images, to put it more precisely.

Two topics emerges here: the first is, whether those images were "junks", or meaningless to Winogrand himself as they were to Szarkowski. We may never know. We do know that, the man had always maintained an insatiable hunger toward image making, or just pressing the shutter, and his appetite grew as he got older.

The second topic can be summarized as, could a photographer who produces crap pictures be considered a good one? An argument is, since no one guarantees 100% "good" (what's a "good" picture again?) shots in every frame he exposes, it doesn't matter how many junks he makes. It is not your rolls you show, but the prints you selected. The process in between, as many of us know, is called EDITING, the other half of photography's inherent strength other than capturing the photons with a piece of plastic.

Looking at Winogrands' (and any great photographer's) contact prints is a lot of fun. The decision to burn or dodge, the reason a "fine" image being discarded in preference to a "not so good" one, the choice of one particular blurry shot from a sequence of blurry ones he made, all good dose of enlightenment. These are knowledges you could only learn when letting go the grip of your camera.
 
Hsg said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axHqPLIhCwE

After watching this video I feel challenged... I'd never dare to photograph inside a bus, but he has no fear...
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Then do it. I bet you'll be surprised how everybody either just ignores you, simply wonders what you were photographing but are too polite to ask or maybe starts up a conversation with you. A negative experience is usually exceptionally rare in my experience, even on the Saturday Night Bus services or the last train home on a Friday night with all the boozers.

Obviously the biggest problem about photographing on a bus (or similar) is the fact that it is derivative;)
 
Archlich said:
The second topic can be summarized as, could a photographer who produces crap pictures be considered a good one? An argument is, since no one guarantees 100% "good" (what's a "good" picture again?) shots in every frame he exposes, it doesn't matter how many junks he makes. It is not your rolls you show, but the prints you selected. The process in between, as many of us know, is called EDITING, the other half of photography's inherent strength other than capturing the photons on a piece of plastic.
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An excellent point. If you want to sound smarter, edit what you say, if you want to look like a better photographer, edit what you show. I think if any photographer got even close to 50% "keepers" from their output the world would have a new (photography) King.
 
arteryal said:
You've got some nerve slamming the giants whose shoulders you stand upon.
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... he's right, many of then have overblown reputations, and If you can't put the camera to your eye and take a shot openly in public you've picked the wrong art-form anyway
 
Winogrand was dying of cancer, the last few years..
Maybe his "focus of view" was much changed.
Saying "it was all junk" is more hokey.
Only Winogrand should have made his own selections..
I also shoot lots of junk, thankfully digital, to seek new ideas..
 
OurManInTangier said:
An excellent point. If you want to sound smarter, edit what you say, if you want to look like a better photographer, edit what you show. I think if any photographer got even close to 50% "keepers" from their output the world would have a new (photography) King.
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... less than that I would have thought. Editing is the hard bit, maybe it doesn't matter who takes or how it only matters if its well edited I've always wondered about that ... then of course there's the technique that dare not speak its name cropping ... folk have some daft ideas about cropping
 
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