Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => Street Showcase => Topic started by: GreggP on May 27, 2018, 10:06:34 pm
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After reading all the comments from the 'Street Art' post, I'm hesitant to post anything in this 'Street Showcase', but I'm here to learn and since I might be under the misconception that this is a street photo, I'd like to learn why some people think it is not. In addition, even if you think it may qualify, let me know what you don't like about it but try to be constructive, instead of dismissive. Like I said, I'm here to learn.
I liked the juxtaposition of my daughter reflected in the window and the bondage mannequin. I also like that the real people are fragmented by the glass, a post, and the reflections and the clearest subject is artificial.
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1749/40590389950_20e1cca574.jpg)
(https://flic.kr/p/24QQmMu)Reflections on a Bondage Club (https://flic.kr/p/24QQmMu) by Gregg Plummer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/72875222@N00/), on Flickr
For people who don't know my daughter they probably wouldn't get this. So the value of this photo may be limited to its personal appeal.
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Reflection shots are among my favorite, but to be candid this one is just too busy for me. Keep trying though! :D
Kent in SD
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After reading all the comments from the 'Street Art' post, I'm hesitant to post anything in this 'Street Showcase', but I'm here to learn and since I might be under the misconception that this is a street photo, I'd like to learn why some people think it is not. In addition, even if you think it may qualify, let me know what you don't like about it but try to be constructive, instead of dismissive. Like I said, I'm here to learn.
I liked the juxtaposition of my daughter reflected in the window and the bondage mannequin. I also like that the real people are fragmented by the glass, a post, and the reflections and the clearest subject is artificial.
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1749/40590389950_20e1cca574.jpg)
(https://flic.kr/p/24QQmMu)Reflections on a Bondage Club (https://flic.kr/p/24QQmMu) by Gregg Plummer (https://www.flickr.com/photos/72875222@N00/), on Flickr
For people who don't know my daughter they probably wouldn't get this. So the value of this photo may be limited to its personal appeal.
Store window photography can indeed be street. In fact, Eugene Atget, who is considered the starter of street photography by many, made some great window reflection pictures using a dry plate camera, no less.
But it can be a cheap trick. I’ve done dozens that are no more than the equivalent of cotton candy. Apparently your photo has a secret that only you can decipher, meaning it is a family picture I guess. Albeit a creative one.
But when it works, it can be transportive.
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Omer, Atget's work was magnificent, and it's been a source of inspiration to the photographers who followed him, including Cartier-Bresson who bought a couple of Atget's prints, and for a short time used a view camera. But he didn't do street photography. You simply can't do it with a view camera. He posed some people in some of his shots. That's all.
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Omer, Atget's work was magnificent, and it's been a source of inspiration to the photographers who followed him, including Cartier-Bresson who bought a couple of Atget's prints, and for a short time used a view camera. But he didn't do street photography. You simply can't do it with a view camera. He posed some people in some of his shots. That's all.
Russ, for the record I disagree with you. Let’s leave it at that and not hijack this thread. I won’t reply again.
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How about an example of a street shot by Atget, Omer? You can post the link here if you can find one you think is street.
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And Gregg, I didn't mean to pass over your picture. It's good shooting, though I agree with Kent that it's too busy.
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Street photography began in 1839.
Russ, why not broaden your horizons and re-read your copy of Colin Westerbeck's 'Bystander: A History of Street Photography' (the seminal book on the subject). It is replete with examples of street photography from the nineteenth century.
Here is a street photograph from New York in 1898 – Joseph and Percy Byron's, 'Broadway North from Thirty-eighth Street'. It features unposed people going about their everyday business. It's photographed on the street, it's in black and white, and there's a visual gag (the striped dress/striped awnings). What more do you want?! (There are also a couple of Atget's images in the slideshow.):
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/street-photography-through-the-ages/index.html?gallery=%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F171109112112-broadway-north-from-thirty-eighth-street-1898-by-joseph-and-percy-byron.jpg&inlineGallery=%2Fstyle%2Fgallery%2Fstreet-photography-through-the-ages%2Findex.html
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Here's a shot I did two months ago using a window reflection. Location is the downtown of my small city--a restaurant window. It's a self portrait I took during an April blizzard. Note that there aren't a lot of extraneous reflections to confuse the eye. The entire image is a reflection. Camera was a Nikon F3T, Nikon 28mm f2 AiS, HP5.
Kent in SD
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Street photography began in 1839.
Russ, why not broaden your horizons and re-read your copy of Colin Westerbeck's 'Bystander: A History of Street Photography' (the seminal book on the subject). It is replete with examples of street photography from the nineteenth century.
Here is a street photograph from New York in 1898 – Joseph and Percy Byron's, 'Broadway North from Thirty-eighth Street'. It features unposed people going about their everyday business. It's photographed on the street, it's in black and white, and there's a visual gag (the striped dress/striped awnings). What more do you want?! (There are also a couple of Atget's images in the slideshow.):
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/street-photography-through-the-ages/index.html?gallery=%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F171109112112-broadway-north-from-thirty-eighth-street-1898-by-joseph-and-percy-byron.jpg&inlineGallery=%2Fstyle%2Fgallery%2Fstreet-photography-through-the-ages%2Findex.html
Hi Elliot, Clearly you haven't looked at the bibliography I've had on my web for a decade or more at http://www.pkinfo.com//Bib/Bib.html. Had you looked you'd know Bystander is the first book I posted in that bibliography with the comment that it's my all-time favorite photography book. But as I recall, Westerbrook isn't calling pictures of New York streets in 1898 "street photography" any more than he's calling Fox Talbot's pictures of people street photography. He laid down a pretty thorough background on the development of photography before he got into actual street photographers. You probably ought to reread the book.
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He calls all his nineteenth century examples 'street photography'. His history of street photography is a catholic one. He doesn't set out rules and regulations.
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I'm seriously concerned about the direction LuLa is taking: Bondage Stores? Whatever next! This used to be a safe, reliable family
programme website - what could I tell my twelve-year-old if asked about buying a bondage? Would I have to lie, and say I know nothing about bonds?
Rob
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He calls all his nineteenth century examples 'street photography'.
Page reference, please.
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There are many pages! Here's one example (page 73 of the 2001 paperback edition – first page of chapter 3):
'Typical of this period would be Scottish photographer John Thompson, who published several travel books as well as, in 1877, 'Street Life in London', the first book ever devoted exclusively to street photography.'
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I'm seriously concerned about the direction LuLa is taking: Bondage Stores? Whatever next! This used to be a safe, reliable family programme website - what could I tell my twelve-year-old if asked about buying a bondage? Would I have to lie, and say I know nothing about bonds?
Rob
??? Didn’t realize typing in question marks would become an emoji.
Well, this is funny, but unfortunately in the US there is a real threat from religious fanatics on freedom of... you name it.
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He calls all his nineteenth century examples 'street photography'. His history of street photography is a catholic one. He doesn't set out rules and regulations.
Probably “street” in the sense most people understand it, i.e., related to the street, all things street. Early examples shown are mostly documentary photography done on the street.
Btw, you lost me with “Catholic history.” Care to explain?
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There are many pages! Here's one example (page 73 of the 2001 paperback edition – first page of chapter 3):
'Typical of this period would be Scottish photographer John Thompson, who published several travel books as well as, in 1877, 'Street Life in London', the first book ever devoted exclusively to street photography.'
I looked it up, and you're right, Elliot. And Thomson did his "street photography" with wet plates! But I think it would have been better if Westerbeck had used the term, "photography on the street" rather than "street photography." Meyerowitz certainly knew the difference because he did street photography. Interestingly, the picture "Temperance Sweep" is exactly the one I had in mind when we started this discussion. That poor chimney sweep being posed stiffly, uncomfortably and unmoving by Thomson. You probably ought to get out your view camera and wet plates and do some "street photography."
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Btw, you lost me with “Catholic history.” Care to explain?
catholic. adjective. including a wide variety of things; all-embracing. "her tastes are pretty catholic"
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It seems to me that ‘street photography’, as a term, is relatively new.
Searching Google Books reveals that the term ‘street photography’ wasn’t really used until the late 1970s. Usage then plateaued in the 80s, before getting a major boost in the mid 90s (no doubt after the publication of Westerbeck’s book).
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=street+photography&year_start=1839&year_end=2018&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cstreet%20photography%3B%2Cc0
‘Street photography’, as currently conceived, is a modern, post-internet phenomenon. 15 years ago, according to Google Trends, ’photojournalism’ had twice as many Google searches as ‘street photography’. Today our interests have flipped and the search term ‘street photography’ is three times more popular than ‘photojournalism’.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=street%20photography,photojournalism
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Here's a "young gun" street photographer (Eric Kim) talking about Weegee (Arthur Fellig) and his 4 x 5 Speed Graphic. 10 Lessons Weegee has taught me about street photography (http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/05/22/10-lessons-weegee-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/)
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Back on topic:
Reflections are interesting.
I have a tip:
Try to move the Clarity slider in LR, PS or whatever post processing program you use, and see how you can manipulate the dept of your shot.
Kind regards
Ivo
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Yes. Sorry to stray off topic.
Reflections are interesting - I think because the camera sees them more clearly than we do.
It can be fun to get tangled up in a reflection picture, but I find this one a bit too confusing – there's the daughter in the reflection (?) and then there's also an older woman approaching from behind the glass (?). We can see a slither of the daughter behind the lampost (?), and she's talking to her friend in a red t-shirt (?)
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A tip: reflections in shop windows are a good place to use wide open apertures.
That way, you settle on a principal motif and give it the chance to be more or less visible as desired. Confusion is seldom pleasing but can be interesting as in the recently shown kaleidoscope method...
Unfortunately, in the first option, the Leica M3 street warrior is deprived of a useful tool. Maybe not: as most will tell you, they develop a special relationship with space.
:-)
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You probably ought to get out your view camera and wet plates and do some "street photography."
I bought a new box of dry plates (ISO 2!) for my 1905 Century Camera Co. Model 41 4x5. Is that close enough? :) I've taken some candid people shots with it.
Lens was a 1905 6 inch Velostigmat in fancy Volute shutter.
Kent in SD
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That's a great comment: sit in front of the real thing, but look at it on a cellphone!
Life get's better by the day. Soon, we will become accustomed to living in a cave again, and scratching memory promts on the wall to remind ourselves of the horrors we left behind in Outerworld...
;-)
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That's a great comment: sit in front of the real thing, but look at it on a cellphone!...
Apropos...
“10 Instagram-Worthy Travel Destinations”
It ain’t worthy unless it is Instagram-worthy :-\
https://www.vacation.com/destinations-culture/10-Instagram-Worthy-Travel-Destinations
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Apropos...
“10 Instagram-Worthy Travel Destinations”
It ain’t worthy unless it is Instagram-worthy :-\
https://www.vacation.com/destinations-culture/10-Instagram-Worthy-Travel-Destinations
Does it list this place?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FXTi_9lgC0
Rob
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That's a great comment: sit in front of the real thing, but look at it on a cellphone!
Hey now, don't knock it. The cell phone has come along just in time to allow candid photography with a view camera! I have plenty of time to focus, set exposure, insert film holder, and get a shot when people are hypnotized by their phones. ;D
Kent in SD
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Hey now, don't knock it. The cell phone has come along just in time to allow candid photography with a view camera! I have plenty of time to focus, set exposure, insert film holder, and get a shot when people are hypnotized by their phones. ;D
Kent in SD
Indeed, not only are they in a trance, they are also trying to work out what the hell the camera 'phone is seeing!
Yesterday afternoon, as I was doing my obligatory walk along the marina, I was stopped by this twenty-something child who asked me to make a snap of her with her 'phone. I thought this was very funny, in an ironical kind of way, and so I smiled to myself. I stopped smiling when I realised I could hardly see where she was! Playing for time and praying for my eyes to adapt to the thing, I asked her if she wanted a full-height or a closer shot. She said that just as long as it showed the bay, with her standing there, she was cool with it. Well, in Spanish, in words to that effect.
To my delight as much as surprise, I bumped into her again not long after as I was walking the opposite way out of the boat place. She smiled first - I am very careful as an old man - and we had a chat of sorts. Turned out that, just like Manuel, she hails from Barcelona. Apparently, she's staying with a friend who has to work during working hours. So retirement does have benefits after all: apart from other quasi-wrecks, you get to meet not only the unemployed, but the occasional attractive tourist.
Look forward to it, forget forty: life begins when it no longer matters very much! It's called liberation. Can one do liberation street? I'm sure Google can.
;-)
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I bought a new box of dry plates (ISO 2!) for my 1905 Century Camera Co. Model 41 4x5. Is that close enough? :) I've taken some candid people shots with it.
Lens was a 1905 6 inch Velostigmat in fancy Volute shutter.
Kent in SD
Pretty good tourist picture.