Street Photography

em, yes but Garry Winogrand is an american ... so if it is an american idiom one would expect him to use it don't you think?
 
I found this on more then one source - "The term "Street Photography" was coined by Henri Cartier-Bresson, the renowned French photographer, as he cultivated his decisive moment concept."

Take it for what it is worth. I'll have mine with a whiskey please.
 
Sparrow said:
em, yes but Garry Winogrand is an american ... so if it is an american idiom one would expect him to use it don't you think?
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Actually I think Bresson responded early to it in a similar fashion as Winogrand so it's not American or European it's photography..... Good work is good work no matter where it was created and terms like this cross all borders.
 
kbg32 said:
I found this on more then one source - "The term "Street Photography" was coined by Henri Cartier-Bresson, the renowned French photographer, as he cultivated his decisive moment concept."

Take it for what it is worth. I'll have mine with a whiskey please.
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... well the thing is Henri didn't even coin the 'Decisive Moment', it was his English publisher who altered the translator's version ... Cartier-Bresson like Atget spoke french, so while he, or hey, may have coined something similar 'La Street Photographer' would be a anglicism just like 'Le Big Mac'
 
Sparrow said:
... how so?
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Dear Stewart,

John Thomson predates Atget and his work. Thomson was a "documentarian" pretty much from the beginning of his photographic career in the early 1860s. "Street photography" has long been associated with beginning with Atget. But there was Thomson, who was working at least a decade or two before Atget, photographing the streets of London after returning from his travels to the Far East.
 
kbg32 said:
Dear Stewart,

John Thomson predates Atget and his work. Thomson was a "documentarian" pretty much from the beginning of his photographic career in the early 1860s. "Street photography" has long been associated with beginning with Atget. But there was Thomson, who was working at least a decade or two before Atget, photographing the streets of London after returning from his travels to the Far East.
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The point I was making is that 'street photographer' isn't a contemporary term, that is it wasn't in use at the time or by the people in question ... the fact that wikipedia has applied the epitaph today doesn't mean the 1860s was the origin of the term ... well, unless you have source documents that use it?
 
Hill & Adamson? About as candid as was possible within the confines of photographic technology as existed then.

As to early references, here is a book on google books from 1911 which refers to street photography: https://books.google.com/books?id=A...EwCQ#v=onepage&q="street photography"&f=false

"First, the camera should be ready for making the exposure at any moment, so that a view can be recorded the instant it is recognized and before it disappears."

Sound like what we talk about here today.
 
Some didn't get that the question is about the origin of the term. Not the practice or definition.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
I don't have that book, but it sounds interesting!
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I'll have to photograph a few pages, I can't imagine copyright will be a problem after 100+ years. I only have the circa 1910 edition, I'd love to know how many there were... in fact, reading what Google throws up suggests that Kodak would like to know too!

https://sites.google.com/site/kodakhtmgp/

Also suggests that mine is 1912.

Adrian
 
gns said:
Some didn't get that the question is about the origin of the term. Not the practice or definition.
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Well, we've established it was in use in the US at least as far back as 1910, although its definition may have shifted over the years.

However in Europe it doesn't seem to be in use until the interweb became popular at the end of the century ... although many internet sources are now applying the term retrospectively to early european photographers
 
Sparrow said:
Well, we've established it was in use in the US at least as far back as 1910, although its definition may have shifted over the years.

However in Europe it doesn't seem to be in use until the interweb became popular at the end of the century ... although many internet sources are now applying the term retrospectively to early european photographers
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As I am surveying books available on the internet it seems the term was in use in England by 1910 as well.

In 1900 the term seems generally applied to photographers on the street taking portraits (ie. tintype photographers) but by 1910 the term is generally used in the modern sense, for "instantaneous" photographs of street scenes. But so far I am coming up with a gap between 1900 and 1908, so how early this change occurs I cannot figure. Amusingly a reference to street photography from 1877 is about how to get people out of the scene so one can take a clear picture of the street.

Oldest reference to "Street photography" as we understand it today as I can find, 1902: https://books.google.com/books?id=5...iqAQ#v=onepage&q="street photography"&f=false

There is a rather comprehensive write up on "street photography" from 1901 in The Photo-Miniature but this is mostly concerned with architectural scenes, although it does also talk about "human interest" in such shots and avoiding pictures where people are looking at the camera. There are a number of example shots of people on the streets though which look remarkably like those posted online even today. The edition ends with "There are no books published dealing exclusively with street photography, but the following contain useful information on the subject, dealing with it in an indirect rather than direct way..." Which says all there needs to be said about useage of the term before 1901.

Generally though the term is not used in the way we use it today until about 1908, despite its use in the above articles from 1902 and 1901.
 
This is by far the most interesting thread about Street-photography I've read in a while.

Not some navel-gazing definition-war, but how it actually came about.

Thanks, Stewart!
 
Finding the origin of the term is like trying to find out who ate oysters for the first time. Though, according to a news report today, they are closer to finding the latter.
 
It is actually not too difficult to figure out the "when" of the matter. All available written materials would seem to show that the term "street photography" as refers to candid street scenes comes into use between 1900 and 1910. The genre was more or less established by the end of the first decade of the 20th century. This makes sense following available technology as it would have been nearly impossible for the genre to exist before 1900, and by 1910 the genre is discussed in a way almost exactly the same as it is today with recommendations for unobtrusive cameras, watching scenes for decisive moments, etc.
 
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