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Author Topic: How's This for Street?  (Read 7422 times)

kencameron

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #20 on: November 18, 2012, 07:37:35 pm »

I have to say, I felt like there was probably a *little* ambiguity and story here, but it was so unclear that I couldn't really give the photo credit for it.
I felt there is lots of ambiguity and lots of story. My own reading is very close to Slobodan's but someone coming from a different place could well see the photo as being a simple moral tale about pioneer uprightness versus the wages of 21st century fecklessness. The  point of ambiguity is that things aren't immediately clear and that you have to so some work to get it, so the "credit" is always to some degree divided between the viewer and the image. In this case the image was full of potential elements of meaning but for the potential to be realised the viewer had to know a couple of specifics about the history of american culture and the economy. Nothing wrong with that, and nothing wrong with not getting it, in this case. In the house of photography there are many mansions.
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Ken Cameron

kencameron

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #21 on: November 18, 2012, 07:49:38 pm »

If you want to see some good street look at Seoonmie's "Open Beaver," or Seamus's "Waiting." There's a story in each of them, but a story that's left unfinished on the basis of what's presented....
The nomenclature doesn't really matter. But a good street photograph grabs your attention and hangs on to it. Simple documentation may grab you, but it usually turns you loose right away.
Interesting distinction, in relation to your identifying street photography as characterised by ambiguity. "Waiting" (which I loved) seemed to me resistant to a narrative reading - no immediately obvious story emerged, and that was the point, at least for me. Ambiguity in the conventional sense, based on the etymology of the term, is more about more than one possible and intelligible story with the mind suspended between them. It seems to me that both can grab the mind and both can hang on to it.
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Ken Cameron

stamper

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #22 on: November 19, 2012, 04:01:46 am »

Bystander: A History of Street Photography by Colin Westerbrook and Joel Meyerowitz?

Russ you must be rich? Amazon price. £889.24. If it was £8.89 I might have been tempted. ;D

RSL

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #23 on: November 19, 2012, 06:14:04 am »

Hi Stamper, It was closer to $25 when I bought it. Actually I have two copies: the original one in Colorado that I bought new for about $25 from Amazon, and a used copy I bought in a bookstore in Florida for about $15. I've been buying books on photography since the mid sixties.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #24 on: November 19, 2012, 12:45:16 pm »

Bystander: A History of Street Photography by Colin Westerbrook and Joel Meyerowitz?

Russ you must be rich? Amazon price. £889.24. If it was £8.89 I might have been tempted. ;D

One here for less than a 20th of that price and available in the UK - Also lots more here also for sale in the UK  :)

Alternatively there is always the free option if you are interested in Joel Meyerowitz's work from Youtube and here and also here.

Joel Meyerowitz also featured heavily in the BBC series called 'The Genius of Photography' which you can pick up on e-bay for less than a tenner.

Dave
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RSL

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #25 on: November 19, 2012, 12:55:55 pm »

Alternatively there is always the free option if you are interested in Joel Meyerowitz's work from Youtube and here and also here.

Joel Meyerowitz also featured heavily in the BBC series called 'The Genius of Photography' which you can pick up on e-bay for less than a tenner.

All true, Dave, but I'd guess Westerbrook did the bulk of the writing and Joel probably was central to the photo picks for the book. In any case, for anyone interested in street photography it's required reading.
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #26 on: November 19, 2012, 03:00:07 pm »

All true, Dave, but I'd guess Westerbrook did the bulk of the writing and Joel probably was central to the photo picks for the book. In any case, for anyone interested in street photography it's required reading.

Hi Russ, I am sure it is a good read, but 'street' is really not my thing, so I don't suppose I will be trying to buy a copy any day soon, although in saying that, I am sure I would very much enjoy reading it if ever I did get my hands on a copy.

I have tried street in the past and enjoyed it very much, even though I now realise it is not my thing, but what I do find a problem with street photography currently, is the same as can be said of all photo genres that become fashionable (as surely street now is), is that the good stuff is still as rare to find as hens teeth, but the dross produced (because it must be street if I shot it on the street - right?) goes up exponentially.

And I am afraid I have to say that Joel's work goes into that category for me, because just shoving your old Leica into someone’s face and half way up their nose, does not make art as far as I am concerned - he also has to spend a lot of time explaining his work, which again gets a thumbs down from me.

But hey, whatever floats your boat as the saying goes..  :)

However your girl in the chalk circle you posted here some time ago, is still as good a street shot as I have ever seen and right up there with the best in my opinion.

Dave  :)
« Last Edit: November 19, 2012, 03:43:30 pm by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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RSL

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #27 on: November 19, 2012, 03:26:51 pm »

. . .the good stuff is still as rare to find as hens teeth, but the dross produced . . . goes up exponentially.

I'm with you on that one, Dave, but it seems to me it applies across the board. As you imply, the moniker "street" has become fashionable, but as is the case with a whole lot of fashionable things, many, maybe most of the people who rush to be fashionable haven't taken the time to learn anything about the fashion they pursue.

Quote
And I am afraid I have to say that Joel's work goes into that category for me, because just shoving your old Leica into someone’s face and half way up their nose, does not make art as far as I am concerned - he also has to spend a lot of time explaining his work, which again gets a thumbs down from me.

Again, we agree. I've never been a fan of Joel's work. A lot of it seems forced to me.

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However your girl in the chalk circle you posted here some time ago, is still as good a street shot as I have ever seen and right up there with the best in my opinion.

Thanks, my friend. That's an ego booster, and I always can use an ego booster. I've always loved that picture. A copy of it hangs in my studio.

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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #28 on: November 19, 2012, 03:49:48 pm »

... However your girl in the chalk circle you posted here some time ago, is still as good a street shot as I have ever seen and right up there with the best in my opinion...

+1

RSL

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Re: How's This for Street?
« Reply #29 on: November 19, 2012, 04:34:43 pm »

Thanks to you too Slobodan. I'd buy a round for all three of us if we were in a bar.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.
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