Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => Street Showcase => Topic started by: seanjkanderson on February 23, 2021, 08:18:13 pm

Title: Tibet or China?
Post by: seanjkanderson on February 23, 2021, 08:18:13 pm

I read an article in the NYTimes yesterday about the Kazakh golden eagle hunters and nostalgically had to look through my photos from when I went to edge of the Tibetan Plateau to bikepack in 2018. Originally, I had planned to ride the Pamir Highway through Kyrgystan and Tajikistan but my loved ones weren't having it. Here are a few shots from my time in western Sichuan. Not sure if it's street...will move it upon request.

Title: Re: Tibet or China?
Post by: degrub on February 24, 2021, 09:17:02 am

In my mind, #2 and 3 are getting close to street, but not enough tension or connection in the scene.
#1 is a nice image, imo, but not "street". More documentary.

Title: Re: Tibet or China?
Post by: Dale Villeponteaux on February 24, 2021, 10:49:13 am

I think only #2 is documentary. #3 shows a man with the "thousand-yard stare", the reason for which is ambiguous.
#1 shows a pair of antimated children approaching a sitting man who is anything but antimated. Why does he appear
sad? Will the children become sad when they reach him? Are they in danger of becoming like him when they reach his
age? Again, an ambiguous situation.

Perhaps Russ Lewis will give us a definitive opinion as to whether #'s 1 & 3 are street.
I always have an opinion but am often wrong.

Regards,
Dale

Title: Re: Tibet or China?
Post by: RSL on February 24, 2021, 12:13:11 pm

Hi Dale, I haven't been posting on LuLa lately. I've pretty much moved over to PhotoPXL now that Jeremy's been dumped from the job he was doing so well and doing for nothing as a volunteer. But I can't resist answering your question. Here's my answer:

http://www.russ-lewis.com/essays/OnMeaning.pdf.

It may not be what you're looking for.

-Russell

Title: Re: Tibet or China?
Post by: Dale Villeponteaux on February 25, 2021, 08:36:59 am

Ah, I see I am not going to be relieved
of the burden of thinking and feeling
for myself.

I see you have posted this essay before;
don't know how I missed it. I also read
the Helen Levitt reference.

I do appreciate your help.

Regards,
Dale

Title: Re: Tibet or China?
Post by: seanjkanderson on February 25, 2021, 12:14:18 pm

Thanks for these thoughts everyone. An interesting discourse. I think my interest lies more in documentary photography now that I understand the difference a bit more...

My understanding of street is much better having read your essay, Russell. It could perhaps be set as the guidelines for posting in this section:)

Title: Re: Tibet or China?
Post by: RSL on February 25, 2021, 02:54:30 pm

Thanks, Dale and Sean. There's more here: http://www.russ-lewis.com/essays/index.html if you're interested. There are a lot of different subjects in this list of essays, so pick the ones that have to do with photography. I'm certainly not the greatest authority on street photography, but I've been doing it as a hobby most of my life, beginning after the Korean war came to an end and I could go downtown in Taegu and shoot pictures. Turns out that what I was most interested in was pictures of people. I didn't learn that what I was doing was street photography until, by chance in the mid sixties, I picked up a copy of The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson in a used bookstore and suddenly was able to fit what I was doing into a frame of reference.