What is street photography?

back alley said:
what do you think is cool about street photography?

joe
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I don't think anything is cool about "street" photography. I think it is a pretentious term that has no meaning in a visual context.

But here is a dictionary definition of "street":

• [as adj. ] of or relating to the outlook, values, or lifestyle of those young people who are perceived as composing a fashionable urban subculture : New York City street culture.

Or how about this:

street-smart

adjective informal having the skills and knowledge necessary for dealing with modern urban life, esp. the difficult or criminal aspects of it : a street-smart hustler on a motorcycle.

But as pointed out by a number of folks here, "street photography" is a subjective term that has no meaning beyond a personal one. So why use it to define something?
 
mfunnell said:
For all these reasons, I find it usually suits me to avoid the claim that anything I do is street photography.
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Mike,
I've gotten to labelling my photos as snapshots - mainly due to ease & simplicity and to the fact that it's what I feel I do. It's there - I'm there - Snap... (unless I'm too much of a coward to shoot) 😱
 
jky said:
Mike,
I've gotten to labelling my photos as snapshots
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Yet isn't the "snapshot aesthetic", that had some currency in "art" circles, supposed to have had an influence on "street photography". You don't escape that easily, it seems...

...Mike
 
Finder,
I'm an amateur photographer who takes photographs outside, more often than not on the streets, and most of the time of people in candid situations, in an attempt to tell stories. I don't work for a newspaper, magazine or press agency, and thus don't consider myself to be a photojournalist. So for the lack of a better term I refer to my images as "Street Photography, which tends to give some idea of my favorite genre, when I'm asked. If you find that term to be meaningless and pretentious, then come up with something better which adequately describes what I shoot, and I'll gladly use it.
 
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i've started to call what i do 'urban black and white'.
it fits as i shoot mostly in the city i live and only in black & white.

although i don't think 'street photography' is a pretentious term in the least. it's been called that for longer than i have been doing it.

joe
 
My stuff is all on colour slide, but I think the term "Local Colour" is misleading because it implies pleasant scenes, and some of my stuff isn't pleasant.
Unless someone comes up with something really brilliant, I'll just bow to the inevitable and continue to use the term "Street Photography".
Finder, whatcha think?
 
I like too shoot too many different subjects to call myself a street photographer even though I like to walk the streets when I shoot.

But someone like Winogrand is different, that was and is pure "street photography." Not pretentious in the least, just what it is by strict definition.
 
 
dazedgonebye said:
Regarding the Wiki entry:
How can the VJ Day Kiss be ultimate street photography? Wasn't that staged? That seems a disqualifier to me.

(Considering the volitility of this sort of subject, I may have to slip on the flame proof underwear.)
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I think you're confusing one kiss photograph with another kiss photograph. I believe the VJ Day Kiss was spontaneous, while Doisneau's "The Kiss" in front of L'Hôtel de Ville in Paris was kind of "staged"; he asked the couple to walk by and kiss each other (not much direction, but not very spontaneous either)
 
 
Gabriel M.A. said:
I wasn't "putting you in your place". You're welcome.
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OH, my mistake, I thought you were trying to say that maybe my first post should be how to use the search function, rather than about street photography. Thanks for the links.🙂
 
Well, maybe someone can post the definition of "street photography." And perhaps an example that clearly shows it is not something like journalism or docummentary or portraiture or landscape, etc. Then we can see how clear it is. Or does "street" mean "like the work of Winogrand," which means "street" is a very narrow form of expression which simply copies the style of one photographer.

I like Joe's idea of using "urban" as an adjective - urban candids, urban portraits, urban landscapes, etc. It seems clear enough.

If you are just using the term to get out of a bind when someone askes you what kind of photos you take, I don't see how "street photography" is going to clear that up? I don't understand the term, I doubt a civilian is going to cope better. I get out of that problem by telling people what I take photographs of which seems more straight forward than throwing jargon at them. For example, what is wrong with, "I like taking candid photographs of people in my neighborhood." Is saying "street photography" any clearer??
 
I think you're confusing one kiss photograph with another kiss photograph. I believe the VJ Day Kiss was spontaneous, while Doisneau's "The Kiss" in front of L'Hôtel de Ville in Paris was kind of "staged"; he asked the couple to walk by and kiss each other (not much direction, but not very spontaneous either)

I believe they were models that Robert Doisneau's hired for the photo. I seem to remember that Eisenstadt's photo was some how set up as well.
 
saying street photography has never seemed to confuse anyone that i have replied to. maybe they were being polite.

i see street shooting as a style that could be more defined, more specifically defined, by using the terms you added to my urban reference.
i know that i have used that term forever and not trying to be cool. it was what i learned to call it from endless photo magazine reading when i was young and just getting interested in photography.
joe
 
to further confuse the matter (and since Winogrand's name has been tossed about) here a snippet of an interview with Gary Winogrand concerning the term:

("D" represents the interviewer, "W" is Winogrand)

D: I hope that what I'm going to bring up won't be tiresome for you, too 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.

D: How would you prefer to describe yourself?

W: I'm a photographer, a still photographer. That's it.

D: If you don't like "street photographer," how do you respond to that other ætiresome phrase', "snapshot aesthetic"?

W: I knew that was coming. That's another stupidity. The people who use the term don't even know the meaning. They use it to refer to photographs they believe are loosely organized, or casually made, whatever you want to call it. Whatever terms you like. The fact is, when they're talking about snapshots they're talking about the family album picture, which is one of the most precisely made photographs. Everybody's fifteen feet away and smiling. The sun is over the viewer's shoulder. That's when the picture is taken, always. It's one of the most carefully made photographs that ever happened. People are just dumb. They misunderstand.

The whole interview is here: http://www.jnevins.com/garywinograndreading.htm

People seem to need labels, and if "street photographer" fits you then cool...whatever creams your twinkie 😉

Todd
 
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