Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => Street Showcase => Topic started by: Slobodan Blagojevic on June 29, 2025, 10:41:24 am
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I rarely shoot street.
However, I recently attended a workshop in Lisbon, devoted to street photography. I did it for two reasons: 1. to broaden my horizons and learn something new and 2. annoy my good friend Russ, who will, no doubt, exclaim that this is not real street (I love you, Russ) :D
Perhaps it isn't the "real" street, but it is the one I find appealing: strong graphics, light and shadow interplay, and human touch.
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I the next two, I used a bit of toning, to underscore the otherworldly feeling:
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Four more:
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And finally, the workshop leader, Mark Fearnley, goofing around:
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Very Slobodan, very clean.
Slobodan the Street Cleaner!
;)
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Very Slobodan...
Well, well, well... I'll take it as a compliment, as it appears that I have a recognizable style, for better or worse ;)
Perhaps the next two might be more to your (and Russ') liking?
P.S. I didn't clean cigarette butts from the street... for authenticity ;)
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Well, well, well... I'll take it as a compliment, as it appears that I have a recognizable style, for better or worse ;)
Please do, as it was certainly meant as a compliment.
Very nice, indeed!
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Slobodan,
For impact - brilliant
For different to many 'street' images, excellent.
For adding extra appeal - the people make all the difference.
All the black is not my personal scene as it contains no info, but I do applaud you for this series.
Jonathan
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Street Clean Images I loved Lisbon great job on your images love them...the first four using Super Wide are great! My preference would be to crop them so the Images have less negative vertical space
People don't realize how much time it takes to get six great images.
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Outstanding set. Some very striking images there, whatever genre you want to assign to them. And, yes, I suspect even Russ would agree that those last two are real "Street."
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How about a candid street portrait?
Luca Brasi? ;)
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Excellent pictures!
Rob
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Good stuff, Slobodan. I'm particularly attracted to 5 and 7.
Jeremy
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Outstanding set. Some very striking images there, whatever genre you want to assign to them. And, yes, I suspect even Russ would agree that those last two are real "Street."
Careful, Chris: street photography is going through a little crisis of identity, with distinctions being drawn between street as scene, and street as portrait shot in the street. If you look at much of the late Peter Lindbergh’s fashion editorial work, you discover that, unusually perhaps, he was one of those who was active long enough to get better and better at his craft; I put that down to getting out of the studio and onto the streets, where there is life, both beautiful and as ugly as it comes. I’d say he used the street as scene, even though some crops/close-ups (unless you see the files you never know for real) look like “portraits” in the sense of this chat. Another thing I noticed quite some time ago, is that he sometimes used a middle-aged woman, short, sturdy, plainly clad, as recurring, passing foil to various models; in particular do I recall a set with Linda Evangelists and, if memory serves, Christy Turlington. Faking street when already in the street?
There is a minefield to be cleansed in that genre; who is and who is not a street photographer? Was Arbus really street? Was Ernst Haas? Are any of the current people on youtube really street, or simply frauds pointing and shooting because they dare, and have already invested resources into the platform? Are St Daido and St Suzuki really street, when they admit to sometimes employing models? The latter chap got dropped by Fuji for being too fierce, but was given a book of his own by Steidl.
In the case if both Haas and Leiter I think that street isn’t how they should most accurately be classified; if anything, they were both visual artists capable of extracting colourful sense out of chaos. You could say that for Jay Meisel, too, who claims to have carried a Nikon even when just going to the grocery store, but I don’t recall anyone calling him a street photographer.
This would, imo, make an interesting essay for somebody with the background to know more about the subject than I do, to research and to write. Especially so, if that’s possible to do clinically, leaving personal opinion out of the matter.
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Careful, Chris: street photography is going through a little crisis of identity, with distinctions being drawn between street as scene, and street as portrait shot in the street. . . .
There is a minefield to be cleansed in that genre; who is and who is not a street photographer? Was Arbus really street? Was Ernst Haas? Are any of the current people on youtube really street, or simply frauds pointing and shooting because they dare, and have already invested resources into the platform? Are St Daido and St Suzuki really street, when they admit to sometimes employing models?
Personally, I'm emphatically genre neutral. Pose a model in an urban public setting? Doesn't bother me in the least if it results in an image I like. Is a particular photograph journalism or "Street? I'm not inclined to quibble about a little genre-bending. In my own (mostly unsuccessful) stabs at street photography, I've not been above eliminating distracting elements in post while ignoring the momentary Cartier-Bresson in my head decisively exclaiming, "sacre bleu!"
But I don't begrudge the purists their argument that boundaries must be respected. Because as the old maps remind us, there be monsters lurking in terra incognita. Specifically, in this context, the terra nova inhabited by the generative AI image-spitting monsters that seem lately to be multiplying like rabbits ... er ... robots. The purists may not be able to slay them all, but perhaps they can keep their population under control.
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Yes, the truth of the matter may well be that AI will kill off whatever the real deal might once have been. I think street was always granted some kind of credit for being at least a genuine
interpretation recording of what was in front of the camera. HC-B lost his cred when the little matter of his contact sheets was made public: how could he claim a definitive, decisive moment when he actually shot in series? Were they all decisive moments and he just chose the best “decision”? Revelation destroys illusion; that’s why fashion photography was nicer to do than nudes. The latter’s not a hundred decisive moments removed from looking at steak on the supermarket shelf. I sincerely believe that all women always knew that. The rest of us was usually confused and not thinking straight.
Once the world is completely aware of how AI can put together images, I think even war reporting will become devalued. Already, the public has become fairly immune to pictures and newsreel sequences from Gaza or Ukraine. Shock value has flown the nest, and I guess many stop believing any of it. Murderous regimes must be beside themselves with joy at the way evil is becoming invisible in plain sight.
All of this said, accepted or rejected, my interest in street seems to be an uncertain quantity. Big Joel M also seems (perhaps only to me ) to have lost interest in street, and prefers the older ideas of classical art… this, I am sure, could simply be age: it becomes difficult to set out to repeat the same rituals every day, year after year. Who over sixty-five has the energy to walk around, pounding the pavement, for what must eventually come to strike one as a pretty futile endeavour in the first place?
I kind of believe that the older one gets, the more honest one becomes with oneself, the less likely is one to keep on truckin’ for no apparent reason. I can understand that spending pleasant afternoons at long lunches in Tuscany, followed by a few gentle snaps of gardens, walls, poplars etc. is a lifestyle far more conducive to satisfaction than those same afternoons if dedicated to concrete and tourists. Let’s face it: even Garry Winogrand ended up not bothering to process what he’d photographed. Kinda tells a lot about the mental place in which habit can put you - if you’re not careful.
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All of this said, accepted or rejected, my interest in street seems to be an uncertain quantity. . . . Let’s face it: even Garry Winogrand ended up not bothering to process what he’d photographed.
Winogrand's classic epigram—that he made pictures to see what the world looked like in photographs—always resonated for me. Since I was nine or ten years old, I've enjoyed wandering around with a camera hanging on my shoulder and shooting whatever happened to capture my eye. When someone asks me what I photograph, my answer is "light and shape and color." The subject is of secondary importance. And once I've examined them, the images are mostly consigned to the purgatory of my Lightroom catalog.
Of course, my perspective is that of a confirmed amateur. The last time I worked on commission was when I picked up pocket money as a teenager by photographing the children of my family's neighbors. I suspect my lack of a particular purpose is what has sustained my interest for nigh on seven decades, my cavalier attitude toward my pictures, and my agnosticism regarding photographic genres. I don't envy you pros who had to become experts in order to make a living.
With respect to AI, it's interesting that young people who are exposed constantly to generative deepfakes on their Instagram feeds have cornered the market for Fuji X100s. I don't know whether that's because they are getting tired of snapping "selfies" with their cellphones, have too much disposable income, or just want to jump on the fadwagon. Some of them have actually started making pictures on film. Praise the Lord and pass the D-76!
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Two more...
When Life Throws you a Curve:
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Strong, really strong statement. Well done !
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The images put me in mind of titles, graphic novels and storyboards.
All the stronger from being B&W.
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In the footsteps of giants:
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In the footsteps of giants:
Ha! Well-caught, Slobodan.
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Our friend, serendipity!
Excellent.