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Author Topic: This 'Street' thing ...  (Read 21043 times)

Chairman Bill

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This 'Street' thing ...
« on: August 26, 2013, 03:38:56 pm »

I think I've posted something that could be considered 'Street', just the once, so thought I might try some more. Bearing in mind something I've picked up from Russ, about the genre needing 'ambiguity' in the images, and maybe some sort of story for people to read into an image, I thought I'd try my hand at a music festival.

Here's the results of my travails, all cropped to a square (I've not yet splashed out on a Hassy). I'm quite happy with some, less so with others, but would be interested in your views, critique & recommendations.

Chairman Bill

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2013, 03:41:21 pm »

.

David Eckels

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2013, 07:41:12 pm »

Oddly compelling. I mean that in a good way, but can't tell you why. Part of it is the low POV, perhaps. Trying to think up a smart "crack" for Couple...

kencameron

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2013, 08:32:04 pm »

I  like them, but mostly as nicely composed documentary shots (as I understand the term). The only one in which I find myself wondering, a little bit, about the story is "Just One", and then the title rather gives it away - might be more street without the title. In all the others, what is going on seems clear.
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Ken Cameron

Iluvmycam

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2013, 09:26:49 pm »

Some better than others...but Nice Work.

Keep blasting away!
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Peter Stacey

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2013, 10:38:32 pm »

I find good street photography to be extremely compelling, but also extremely hard to achieve, with a lot of practice required.

With these series, I agree with Ken that they are nice documentary shots, but they don't pose any particular questions for me.

Nice series and I commend you on trying street (it takes a certain level of courage to really tackle street photography seriously) and hope you stick with it and post more examples.
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Chairman Bill

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2013, 02:26:49 pm »

Thanks for the comments. I can see the 'reportage' rather than 'street' thing though. Worth persevering with though?

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2013, 02:35:00 pm »

The Couple shatters my perception of Brits as pale and skinny ;)

Chairman Bill

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2013, 03:33:05 pm »

The Couple shatters my perception of Brits as pale and skinny ;)

They were USAians on 'vacation'  ;)

Rob C

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2013, 05:38:05 pm »

They were USAians on 'vacation'  ;)


You see how unsettling being abroad can be?

Rob C

RSL

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #10 on: August 27, 2013, 06:20:54 pm »

Bill, It's reasonably interesting stuff, especially the guy in "Indecent Exposure" whose apparatus is banging around upside down. That gal off to the left probably is singing "Straighten up and fly right." To me they all seem to be straight documentary shots. I don't get ambiguity from any of them. But it's not just ambiguity that makes a street shot. To learn what does make a street shot, study the work of HCB, Andre Kertesz, Robert Donsneau, Willy Ronis, Elliott Erwitt, Marc Riboud, Helen Levitt, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Todd Papageorge, and Garry Winogrand, to name just a few people who did very fine street photography. HCB and Kertesz defined the genre, but the others in the list expanded and, in the case of Frank and Winogrand created branches off the original tree. At the risk of seeming to brag, I'm including a picture I think I posted once before that has all the elements of a good street shot. Notice that it's not on the street.

But far be it from me to discourage anybody who wants to pursue street photography. As Peter pointed out, good street is damned difficult. In fact, after having done street, landscape, weddings, wabi sabi, portraits, and just about every kind of photography in the sixty years I've been shooting seriously, I'd say that street easily is the most difficult of all. Landscape is like fishing with a net. Street is like fishing with a flyrod. Street can be maddening, mainly because you miss the vast majority of your shots, but when you win one it's a real joy -- maybe even as good as sex. (Well, in that ballpark anyway.)
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Chairman Bill

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #11 on: August 27, 2013, 06:29:53 pm »

Russ, you're right about the miss-rate. And yes, it's damned difficult. But for my first attempt, I'm happy simply to have got some half/quarter-decent docu-type shots. I'll certainly try again, in different settings/venues. And thanks for the list of 'togs to look up & study their work.

RSL

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #12 on: August 27, 2013, 09:27:38 pm »

Bill, One thing I forgot to mention: for all these folks there was a difference between what they did when they were on assignment and what they did when they were on their own, being amateurs again temporarily, in the real meaning of that word. I think the difference shows especially in Erwitt's work. On assignment he used to ship and carry a ton of equipment, but when the work day was over he'd go out with his really beat up M3, and do the kind of thing you can see in his book: Personal Best. You can see a picture of that M3 at http://blog.ricecracker.net/tag/leica-m4/.

HCB's work is another lesson. He did a lot of his best street shooting in the early days -- the twenties and thirties -- before WW II. Once he started doing photojournalism his work became more formal, but when he was just wandering with his camera he was back into real street. Check his "Lock at Bougival, 1955" to see what I mean. You can see the more formal stuff in books like The People of Moscow. But even in that book there are shots that qualify fully as street.

Glad to hear you're going to do more of it. Wish more people would. Real street reveals things about the human condition that only a photograph can encompass. Street is the real "fine art" branch of photography.
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jjj

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #13 on: August 29, 2013, 06:25:14 am »

The Couple shatters my perception of Brits as pale and skinny ;)
They were USAians on 'vacation'  ;)
The UK is sadly following another US trend as we are the fattest nation in Europe.
Here's Little and Large....



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jjj

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #14 on: August 29, 2013, 06:28:41 am »

Glad to hear you're going to do more of it. Wish more people would. Real street reveals things about the human condition that only a photograph can encompass. Street is the real "fine art" branch of photography.
Apart from Fine Art photography that isn't street of course. Which is most of it.
 
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #15 on: August 29, 2013, 09:39:50 am »

Apart from Fine Art photography that isn't street of course. Which is most of it.
 
+1.   ;D
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jjj

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #16 on: August 29, 2013, 01:55:19 pm »

Sorry, jjj, couldn't resist:
And the chap is biting his tongue, whilst trying to think of acceptable answer.
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Rob C

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #17 on: August 29, 2013, 02:46:18 pm »

No guesses what the gulls are thinking: which head? Maybe both?

I don't mean to start another fruitless argument about ethics, but I can't help feeling sorry for the lass. Nobody (okay, I can't) can really tell why she is as she is; opinion these days swings towards bad diet because of shortage of readies, misdirection of available funds, genetic problems, heaven alone really can tell.

It just seems a shame to snap folks with these difficulties. Yes, I know: because of the photographer being a pro, maybe it's part of a professional assignment - again, I don't know the background, but it still leaves me uncomfortable. And no, my own version of my Mr Universe body tends to the skeletal. Legs to die for. If you have none.

Rob C

jjj

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #18 on: August 29, 2013, 03:16:36 pm »

If people are overweight, it's 99.9% because they eat more than they work off through exercise.

As for the wretched gulls, they aim for your chips in the hope you leave them for the gulls to eat.
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Isaac

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Re: This 'Street' thing ...
« Reply #19 on: August 29, 2013, 03:42:52 pm »

because they eat more than they work off through exercise.

True but useless as an explanation; because you've reduced questions of Biology, Sociology, Economics... to a question of Physics the answer misses the point of the question.
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