Lessons from Helen Levitt

[RSL]

Ran across this this morning. Thought those on LuLa interested in street photography might appreciate her insights:

https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2014/06/06/7-lessons-helen-levitt-has-taught-me-about-street-photography

Insight #7 is: "Only show photographs worth showing." It's an insight all of us should take to heart.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Thanks for sharing that, Russ.

A few of her insights apply only to Street photography, but most, such as #7, apply to any type of photography.
Helen Levitt was a giant. I first learned of her work from Minor White (whose work is nothing like Helen's.)

[John R]

I hope you also checked out this link which I posted in the "Styles" section. Perhaps an error on my part as I should have posted the link in this section.

A new guy with his own YouTube channel. Brian Lloyd Duckett. One featuring Saul Leiter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXwI4FsjFTI


JR

[RSL]

Thanks, John. But my beef is that the clip seems to be about Duckett and his interpretations rather than about the pictures themselves.

I'm in the process of writing what I hope will be a successful article entitled "On Meaning in Street Photography." Here's a short excerpt from it. The "so it is" refers to Archibald MacLeish's point that the meaning in effective poetry is in the interstices between images:

"And so it is with effective street photography. In order for a street photograph to be effective the images in the picture must dance with each other and speak to each other. If that happens, there will be meaning in the interstices between the images that the viewer takes with him, not necessarily as a memory but as an addition to the significance and value of his own life."

The problem with what Duckett's doing is that you can't effectively take apart a good street photograph to explain its effect any more than you can effectively do that with something like Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."