The world has changed Street Photography

back alley said:
as much as i love 'street' photography, harpo said it best, in that there is little 'real life' happening on the streets these days. the world of hcb etc is long gone now...kinda sad really.
for me, the idea of shooting people on the street has been losing it's appeal more and more...i have been thinking about what i would like to photograph now so have been thinking about what i like...and people are way down on the list these days.
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I disagree Joe, there is still lots to photograph on the streets.

It just has been made socially more difficult than it was in the past, thats all.
 
daveleo said:
Complex topic, that I have little to zero experience.
But this one case.
Long long ago, I was taking a photo of a 6th grade class where I had just done some "Mr. Engineer" airplane demos. One boy came up and said his mom told him never to let a picture be taken of him "Because her ex-boyfriend said he would kill them if he ever found where they lived".

I agree with the statements above about unfounded paranoia, but once in a very rare while, the fear of photographs is justified.
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Oh man, that is terrible. I guess it's getting harder and harder to disappear...
 
daveleo said:
Complex topic, that I have little to zero experience.
But this one case.
Long long ago, I was taking a photo of a 6th grade class where I had just done some "Mr. Engineer" airplane demos. One boy came up and said his mom told him never to let a picture be taken of him "Because her ex-boyfriend said he would kill them if he ever found where they lived".

I agree with the statements above about unfounded paranoia, but once in a very rare while, the fear of photographs is justified.
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That is one freaky story.:eek:
 
xayraa33 said:
I disagree Joe, there is still lots to photograph on the streets.

It just has been made socially more difficult than it was in the past, thats all.
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i'm not so sure about that...when i was a kid growing up in nyc, we had tons of time outside without parental supervision...as teens we left the house in the morning and came back for supper...roaming the neighborhoods on our bikes...i don't see any of that today...
 
back alley said:
i'm not so sure about that...when i was a kid growing up in nyc, we had tons of time outside without parental supervision...as teens we left the house in the morning and came back for supper...roaming the neighborhoods on our bikes...i don't see any of that today...
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Other than less kids and teens around now on the streets, there is still plenty of other persons and things and happenings to photograph on the streets.

We as photographers have to develop (no pun intended) thicker skin than before and feel out our surroundings a bit more than before and use more tact than before, that is all.
 
Ah, les Anglo-Saxons...

Doesn't happen much outside the USA and the 51st state -- England.

Very occasionally a problem in Paris. But not, as a rule, in the civilized parts of Europe.

Cheers,

R.
 
xayraa33 said:
Other than less kids and teens around now on the streets, there is still plenty of other persons and things and happenings to photograph on the streets.

We as photographers have to develop (no pun intended) thicker skin than before and feel out our surroundings a bit more than before and use more tact than before, that is all.
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my skin is pretty thick as it is...maybe i've just soured on people in general but the streets seem to suffer from stagnation...maybe it's just my city...
 
back alley said:
i'm not so sure about that...when i was a kid growing up in nyc, we had tons of time outside without parental supervision...as teens we left the house in the morning and came back for supper...roaming the neighborhoods on our bikes...i don't see any of that today...
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That's completely true... but there is still adult life on the streets. It's just different.
 
back alley said:
my skin is pretty thick as it is...maybe i've just soured on people in general but the streets seem to suffer from stagnation...maybe it's just my city...
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Souring on people could be just a phase that we all seem to go through, it will most probably pass.

Sure, a large city like Toronto or New York or London will give us more choice and potential for photography as opposed to being in a Hooterville type of town.

I think that doing mostly people-less photography in a city with a large format camera, ala Eugene Atget, despite the technical and logistic difficulties is probably socially easier now than doing the HCB or the Robert Frank thing of 60 years ago.

And even back then Robert Frank was picked up by the police in the American South for being a suspicious swarthy looking foreigner snapping away on the American street with a 35mm RF camera.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Ah, les Anglo-Saxons...

Doesn't happen much outside the USA and the 51st state -- England.

Very occasionally a problem in Paris. But not, as a rule, in the civilized parts of Europe.

Cheers,

R.
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In Spain (Andalucia to be precise) photography is greeted with suspicion but its not that civilised here!
 
Roger Hicks said:
Ah, les Anglo-Saxons...

Doesn't happen much outside the USA and the 51st state -- England.

Very occasionally a problem in Paris. But not, as a rule, in the civilized parts of Europe.

Cheers,

R.
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That is good to know Roger, even Ringo Starr was given a difficult time parading with a Pentax SLR in the Notting Hill district of London 51 years ago :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIvEc4yhdpM
 
It could be nostalgia or maybe rose colored glasses, but it did seem easier to photograph on the streets twenty years ago when I lived in NYC. I think the easiest place to photograph people, and I regret that I didn't do more of it, was when you're at University. At least when I was there in the 1970's and in grad school in the early 1980's. It was all great fun.

I miss that. Trying to photograph now days at University, I would just be seen as a creepy old man.

Best,
-Tim
 
Shooting on the streets of New York for the last 10+ years I haven't noticed any changes.

Everyone is so caught up in their own worlds or has their face stuck in a cell phone that nobody really cares what anyone else is doing for the most part.

I find that as long as I'm relaxed when I'm shooting and feel like I have every right to be doing it, nobody hassles me.

If I'm feeling a little reticent or am being sneaky, people pick up on that vibe and get defensive.

As to things being somehow different now on the street, less happening, I think that just sounds like grumpy old man talk.
 
Timmyjoe said:
It could be nostalgia or maybe rose colored glasses, but it did seem easier to photograph on the streets twenty years ago when I lived in NYC. I think the easiest place to photograph people, and I regret that I didn't do more of it, was when you're at University. At least when I was there in the 1970's and in grad school in the early 1980's. It was all great fun.

I miss that. Trying to photograph now days at University, I would just be seen as a creepy old man.

Best,
-Tim
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Daido Moriyama is 77 and he looks very dignified and yet hip.

8074147923_b3a9876a6f_b.jpg
 
I feel for f16sunshine (Andy). I am extremely offended by people who assume me a creep. I've had the over-reacting parent thing happen to me too. More than once. Odd too because I often had my own child with me when it happened. Now, when I have the presence of mind to do so, I react to them similarly with a look of utter digust and mistrust and sometimes a gesture of shielding my child from them. Rarely do these clueless people get it. Luckily, my wife would agree; over-reaction based on sensationalist fear spread by fear-mongers. We desperately need more critical thinkers in society.

I also find it odd (posted above) that photographing with a camera (Leica, TLR, SLR, Speed Graphic, whatever) is viewed a much more suspicious activity than photographing with my phone, which is met with little if any notice. Now, the newspaper question comes up from time to time and I've learned to exploit the situation: Sometimes I'm photographing for the local visual arts society, sometimes its for an institution (such as the university I work for, and not necessarily untrue), or even "I'm a freelance photographer" has left my lips, but that was years ago.

Perhaps its my profession (scientist/statistician), but the true risk to our children, and even ourselves (in the U.S.) is much more often things that people are ignorant of and....ignore. Pedophiles, kidnappers, and mass murderers are the least of their concerns. Listeria, Salmonella, and Tetanus; bleach under your sink, pills in your cupboard, the stove, and dogs. Those are genuine risks to our kids. I don't know the actual ratio, but the odds of being photographed by a pedophile relative to being attacked by the neighbor's dog has to be something like 1:950,000 or so.
 
It's human nature: I don't think it's changed alot. A stranger you do not know is pointing a camera at you. It's unusual and for many it's threatening, for a gamut of reasons: personal shyness, to defense of space instinct. A CTV or even cell phone is less so, but many don't like those either. In Japan the Cell phones must click loud when shooting to warn people. That rule is not created in a vacuum, it reflects the way many feel. Today I had a photographer give me a hard time taking her picture, and I know her 30 years!

HCB delt with it enough to go on about his tactics.

It may be our right to take a picture (USA anyway), but it's their right to tell us how they feel about it. Get over it, or limit your shooting, or just wring your hands :) I don't think it's worse but I promise it won't get better LOL

For those who don't want any confrontation, but are dying to shoot some live people, public events are pretty good:


Ready for the Parade by unoh7, on Flickr
 
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