What is classic street photography? My take on the topicStreet photography, when boiled down to its essence, is simply candid photos of people in a public space. There is plenty of historical precedence for this definition, and anyone who is considered a famous street photographer will have all of their famous street photographs fit this description. Linking FACE OFF
Over the last few decades, the phrase ‘Street Photography’ has come to mean a great deal more than simply making exposures in a public place. Photographers like Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander and Joel Meyerowitz have forced a redefinition of the phrase that has many new implications. Primarily Street Photography is not reportage, it is not a series of images displaying, together, the different facets of a subject or issue. For the Street Photographer there is no specific subject matter and only the issue of ‘life’ in general, he does not leave the house in the morning with an agenda, and he doesn’t visualise his photographs in advance of taking them. Street Photography is about seeing and reacting, almost by-passing thought altogether.
For many Street Photographers the process does not need ‘unpacking’, It is, for them, a simple ‘Zen’ like experience, they know what it feels like to take a great shot in the same way that the archer knows he has hit the bullseye before the arrow has fully left the bow. As an archer and Street Photographer myself, I can testify that, in either discipline, if I think about the shot too hard, it is gone.
If I were pushed to analyse further the characteristics of contemporary Street Photography it would have to include the following: Firstly, a massive emphasis on the careful selection of those elements to include and exclude from the composition and an overwhelming obsession with the moment selected to make the exposure. These two decisions may at first seem obvious and universal to all kinds of photography, but it is with these two tools alone that the Street Photographer finds or creates the meaning in his images. He has no props or lighting, no time for selecting and changing lenses or filters, he has a split second to recognise and react to a happening.
Secondly, a high degree of empathy with the subject matter, Street Photographers often report a loss of ‘self’ when carefully watching the behaviour of others, such is their emotional involvement.
Thirdly, many Street Photographers seem to be preoccupied with scenes that trigger an immediate emotional response, especially humour or a fascination with ambiguous or surreal happenings. A series of street photographs may show a ‘crazy’ world, perhaps ‘dreamlike’. This is, for me, the most fascinating aspect of Street Photography, the fact that these ‘crazy’, ‘unreal’ images were all made in the most ‘everyday’ and ‘real’ location, the street. It was this paradox that fascinated me and kept me shooting in the ‘everyday’ streets of London when many of my colleagues were traveling to the world's famines and war zones in search of exciting subject matter. Friends that I met for lunch would, just be back from the ‘war in Bosnia’ and I would declare proudly that I was just back from the ‘sales on Oxford Street’.
What Makes a Good Street Photograph? The same things that make any photograph good. Light, composition, subject. What makes street so incredibly challenging is how little control of these things you have in the moment. And moment is the key word, whether you want to append ‘decisive’ or not (I personally think it is a nonsensical distinction, as if one moment is somehow better than others”). The moment you see something interesting you have two choices; take the photo from where you are as quickly as you can or start scanning to see if you can move to change the background, wait until the subject enters better lighting, or simply reposition yourself or wait for the composition to come together. The sheer number of almost good images you will get from not being able to control these elements is one of the two most difficult aspects of street photography.
Is Street Photography Art? Street photography comes from the lineage of documentary photography and photojournalism. Street photos are not generally planned, concepted or executed in the same way a portrait or still life might be. However, there are many, many beautiful, arresting, incredible street photos. And if you can tear a urinal off a wall, tape a banana next to it and print off someone’s Instagram post and change the art world forever, I don’t see why a street photo wouldn’t be in the conversation. Personally, I have tried to move my street photography further and further into a style and aesthetic that I want to convey, but obviously much of the work remains serendipitous.
Therefore, I feel that street photography needs an element of spontaneity and uncertainty rather than the predictable/manipulative nature of studio photography. Traditionally, street was antithesis to the early days of photography when photography was taking direction from the painting world and its principles. The idea was to create order out of chaos. Put a frame around a moment as it unfolded. That chaos only existed in that moment (the decisive moment) and could not be recreated.
The juxtaposition of people and their expressions, set against an unscripted backdrop of forms and signage, that sometimes balanced or counterbalanced the overall scene made each frame unique. Good street photography is quite hard to achieve and without a deep understanding of how to analyse an image the complexity of it is often lost on people. Those that say it's just a snapshot are missing what is really happening and need to look deeper.
Most of what is considered street today is not street in the traditional sense. Long lenses, set up shots, heavy postproduction, etc. Isn't what street being ever about. However, because street broke all the rules originally, I guess you could make an argument that what passes for street today is the evolution of that early revolt....
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