Street Photography

[Jamie Pillers]

Originally Posted by Colin Corneau

-- finding deeper meaning and commonality from the flow of daily existence...

I've been somewhat curious about this kind of idea for some time now. I love making images of street scenes. However I know full well that I'm most often creating a fiction when I frame a scene, leaving out what I choose, cropping backgrounds and foregrounds that may or may not be a 'truthful' representation of the moment. And I might even use black and white film to add even more drama. Thus I may have created my own "deeper meaning" that has little to do with what was actually happening at that moment.

So I suspect that much of the street photography we see presented on the web is really more about the meanings created in the photographer's mind, rather than the objective reality of the moment. But then maybe this is obvious, and I'm just blathering.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Marks

Bill: I like your definition. The best of the breed either gives you the sense that you understand something of the subjects and their time/place that you did not before or poses an interesting juxtaposition.

Personally, I do not particularly like photos of tourists. Although in a place like New York or London every street light will bring together a random collection of individuals who are highly unlikely to be in the same place again.

... like a snapshot?

[Chuck Albertson]

Your definition works for me. My favorite place is the Seattle Public Library, the Rem Koolhaas design that went up a few years ago. Even in the lousiest weather, there are a ton of people taking pictures of it, with cameras ranging from cell phones to the odd view camera. So I collect pictures of the people shooting the library. I work next door to it--it's like fishing with dynamite.

[Benjamin Marks]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

... like a snapshot?

Hmm. No (although I may not have my irony detector finely tuned enough . . .). My definition of a snapshot is a casually framed photograph primarily intended to memorialize a person or place. With a random collection of strangers on a street corner, no one in that group intends to juxtipose himself with any other. Folks are just going to work, or heading back from lunch or what have you. A good photographer can take that random assemblage of people and present them to a viewer in a way to suggest that there is meaning (irony, social commentary, pathos etc.) in the random collection of individuals. The pedestrians are making the moment, but the photographer is giving it meaning. The very best photographers tell us something about ourselves in how they present this slice of life.

[Sparrow]

... I always call my own stuff snapshots (without any irony in this instance) ... but then our Henri wanted to title his book that ... it was the publisher who came with that Decisive Moment guff ... I'll stick with Snapshot, it avoids all that pretentious artiste statement twaddle

[jsrockit]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

... I'll stick with Snapshot, it avoids all that pretentious artiste statement twaddle

You'd rather it be associated with Hunting or shooting guns?

[paulfish4570]

i generally am too deliberate to call my photos snapshots. now, once i have deliberated, i frame and shoot quickly.
in any case, i don't shoot much "street" simply because i live so far away from any decent-sized cities. birmingham is only 24 miles away, but it is not much of a walking city except around the university/medical center. even there, the sidewalks are never crowded as in manhattan.

also, because the subject has come up, i personally don't mind at all being associated with firearms and/or hunting ...

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by jsrockit

You'd rather it be associated with Hunting or shooting guns?

... only if I were participating in a firearms forum, which I am not

[jsrockit]

Originally Posted by paulfish4570

i generally am too deliberate to call my photos snapshots. now, once i have deliberated, i frame and shoot quickly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapshot_aesthetic

[paulfish4570]

thanks, jsr. interesting reading.
i am deliberate because i like control. frenetic activity usually puts me off the creative beam.
i like to think sometimes that i compose as if i'm using a large format cam, but use a 35mm cam/x100 for convenience. i do like to travel light ...

[jsrockit]

Originally Posted by paulfish4570

i like to think sometimes that i compose as if i'm using a large format cam, but use a 35mm cam/x100 for convenience. i do like to travel light ...

Yes, me too...