Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => Street Showcase => Topic started by: Michael West on December 15, 2021, 04:04:38 pm

Title: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Michael West on December 15, 2021, 04:04:38 pm: (https://live.staticflickr.com/2619/4049511929_d985151838_o.jpg)
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 15, 2021, 11:26:37 pm: Great shot. Really funny.
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Michael West on December 16, 2021, 12:57:42 am: Quote from: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 15, 2021, 11:26:37 pm
Great shot. Really funny.

I was walking directly towards the place...down a narrow small town alley...and there it was...

a bit shocking while finishing off the first coffee of the morning
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: RSL on December 16, 2021, 09:40:51 am: As Eric said, it's a funny shot. But why do you see this as street photography?
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Michael West on December 16, 2021, 12:36:10 pm: Quote from: RSL on December 16, 2021, 09:40:51 am
As Eric said, it's a funny shot. But why do you see this as street photography?

its quirkiness. and i encountered it having no idea it was there.
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: RSL on December 16, 2021, 03:40:33 pm: Why do you think "quirkiness" makes it street photography? Are you familiar at all with the work of people like Henri Cartier-Bresson, who pretty much defined the genre. You might also want to study the work of Andre Kertesz, David Seymour (Chim), Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Brassai, Walker Evans, Elliott Erwitt, Mark Riboud, Garry Winogrand, Helen Levitt and Robert Frank, to name a few real street photograhers. Have you read this: https://photopxl.com/shooting-street/?

It doesn't really matter, as Keith Laban is fond of pointing out, but genre names do help to point those who look in the right direction.
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 16, 2021, 04:23:46 pm: Russ,
Would you suggest that the Bicycle Windows image should have been posted in "Landscape?"
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: RSL on December 16, 2021, 08:01:09 pm: It would fit in landscape as well as it fits in street. I guess I'd suggest User Critiques.
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 16, 2021, 11:35:12 pm: Or maybe we need yet another new thread: "Miscellaneous Uncategorized Images -- no critiques needed." ;)
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: RSL on December 17, 2021, 11:44:06 am: I couldn’t agree more, Eric. I’m still mourning the fact that I asked for, and got, a Street Showcase. I grossly overestimated the extent to which the LuLa community, and it seems the photographic community in general, have internalized the lessons given us by Cartier-Bresson and the other real street photographers. To me, interactions between people and between people and their environment are what cameras are for – not landscape, which can be done much more effectively with a brush.

On the other hand, a camera is wonderful for the kind of thing Michael has done here. You can’t make this kind of thing really believable by painting it or by drawing it.

I think a new thread with uncategorized images probably would be a good idea, though I doubt you could avoid allowing critiques. We probably could do away with “categories” like Rantorials, which had its last post in March of 2019, or Midnight Rainbows, which had its last post in July of that year. Both have simply been sitting there moving on toward a second year without a post.

Ah well…
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Chris Kern on December 17, 2021, 05:52:38 pm: Quote from: RSL on December 17, 2021, 11:44:06 am
I grossly overestimated the extent to which the LuLa community, and it seems the photographic community in general, have internalized the lessons given us by Cartier-Bresson and the other real street photographers. . . .

I think a new thread with uncategorized images probably would be a good idea . . .

As has previously been discussed in this thread, much of the confusion seems to result from the name of the genre. It actually should be thought of as what in law we refer to as a term of art: a phrase whose meaning is derived from practice and precedent rather than the literal definition of the words that make it up. Most of the pictures posted in this thread that aren't examples of the genre known as "street photography"—some of them excellent images in their own terms—might more accurately be referred to as "things I photographed while walking down a street."

It seems to me that almost all the photographs in this thread could be categorized as members of a hierarchy with self-explanatory headings—perhaps something along these lines:

Urban and suburban images
Architecture, storefronts, vehicles, and artifacts
Informal portraits
People interacting with each other or their environment ("street photography")

Real "street" is about story-telling rather than simply capturing the way things appear. There's plenty of interesting stuff to be seen and photographed on the street, but street photography is a special, ephemeral subset of that stuff.
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: RSL on December 17, 2021, 08:03:35 pm: Well said, Chris. Exactly.
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Michael West on December 18, 2021, 08:42:27 pm: Another iteration of those bicycle windows. January 1, 2010 8PM

The business occupy the space below these windows. is bar and grill that caters to bicyclists ..

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51755643856_14cabe9834_c.jpg)
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: KLaban on December 19, 2021, 06:16:24 am: Quote from: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 16, 2021, 11:35:12 pm
Or maybe we need yet another new thread: "Miscellaneous Uncategorized Images -- no critiques needed." ;)

'The Uncategorisable', perhaps? Problem is it could become a car crash, an invitation to the anally retentive to impose their labels.

(https://www.keithlaban.co.uk/Crash.jpg)

;D
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 19, 2021, 10:49:38 am: Whatever category it is, I like that one!
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: RSL on December 19, 2021, 03:15:11 pm: Good shooting, Keith. I'm not sure LuLa has anybody left who knows how to start a new thread or put the two dead ones to sleep. One advantage to keeping "Street Showcase" is that it demonstrates how few photographers bother to learn anything about photographic genres.
Title: Re: The Bicycle Windows
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 19, 2021, 05:00:43 pm: If we could get someone to start a new category called, say, "Porn," maybe that would leave "Street" alone for Street Photography.