• Welcome to Photrio!
    Registration is fast and free. Join today to unlock search, see fewer ads, and access all forum features.
    Click here to sign up

Street photography

Actually, I think the appeal is that it's "easy" to do. Composition, precise focus, and precise exposure don't "matter" as much as they do in other forms. Even holding the camera level isn't required - think Dutch Angle and Garry Winogrand.

However easy it is to do BAD street photography, the learning curve to GOOD street photography is steep. Most amateur photographers are unwilling or unable to directly approach and even confront their subjects. You have to directly see into the person or persons to make a meaningful street photograph that actually shows insight. From HCB to Arbus to Maier, the photographers who see something others don't notice about their subjects are the special ones.

Easy to do bad street photography under the guise of "artsy", but difficult to do great photos without courage and insight. That's why there are so many street photographers and so few good ones. Just my opinion; others may differ.

Andy
 
NB23 said:
I’m weird. Or too demanding. That book, to me, is not interesting at all.
Click to expand...
Whether you like that book or not, or even like street photography, the point is one needs to be able to edit one's work. Back in art school, we would call it overcoming mother hen syndrome. Not all your creations
First, I have to admit I don't like most of Winogrand's output.

Second, good street photography doesn't always engage the subject (example: HCB's high-angle photo of the cyclist passing the stairs, the man jumping the puddle; Frank's photo of the African-American nanny and the white child) or even have a human subject (example: Elliott Erwin's photo of Great Dane legs, woman's boots and Chihuahua dog). Good street photography is good, engaging (to the viewer), maybe implies a story. Lack of sharpness or tilted horizons can add to the mood and energy of a street photo.
 

I agree entirely. Two observations: First, that shots like the HCB and Erwin shots you mention, are not "street" in the sense most people think of street photography - I guess I'd call it "Abstract Urban Photography, for want of a better term. The "street" images I think of are almost always people-based, whether the focus is on the face, the body language, or even the surroundings. Second, I might be in a distinct minority (or not) but I am not a fan of Winogrand. Others seem to like his body of work a lot more than I do. I think he lowered the bar for what is considered a great street image and I've never really been able to understand why.

I think we get into a fix when we try to define any genre too specifically. But I stand by my original main point - that it's an easy genre to attempt if you don't attempt insight into human subjects and that the bar for traditionally good photography has been lowered considerably by shooters like Winogrand. In my opinion, that's the reason both for why so many try and so few succeed.

Andy
 
On the subject of editing one’s work; i’m presently contact printing 700 sheets. 350 done, 350 more to go.

700 films from 2018 to today. And then go through all my stuff from 1993 and printing the best.

I’m not sure how I’m going to pull this off.
 


Worldwide most people do not know the difference between a snapshot and a photograph.
 
This makes me confused ,,
What kind of readers pay cash for 83 pictures of people walking on the street, a traffic light, a fire hydrant, or the like?
This makes me very confused and amazed.
 
mohmad khatab said:
This makes me confused ,,
What kind of readers pay cash for 83 pictures of people walking on the street, a traffic light, a fire hydrant, or the like?
This makes me very confused and amazed.
Click to expand...

I cannot say that I disagree with you. [An artful proper use of a double negative in English, for non native English speakers]
 
logan2z said:
+1

The OP's first post in this thread reeks of arrogance.
Click to expand...

Yes, it could be translated that way.

But I am not arrogant. I am naive.
 
Sirius Glass said:
I cannot say that I disagree with you. [An artful proper use of a double negative in English, for non native English speakers]
Click to expand...
What is the double negative you are talking about?
Do you mean x-ray film?
Or do you mean another meaning?
Yes, maybe you speak English.
But I don't think you know much about that language.
 
mohmad khatab said:
What is the double negative you are talking about?
Do you mean x-ray film?
Or do you mean another meaning?
Yes, maybe you speak English.
But I don't think you know much about that language.
Click to expand...

I cannot say that I disagree with you. [An artful proper use of a double negative in English, for non native English speakers]
===> I agree with you.
In English for multiple negatives: Even number of negatives change the sentence to positive; odd number of negatives makes a negative sentence.
In Russian for multiple negatives: Intensify the negativity.
The first translation of Anna Karenina was done under English grammar rules which not only made the translation very wrong, it was very confusing. When using a non native language, one must understand, among other things, the grammar rules relating to multiple negative in a sentence.

Stick around Photrio a few years and you will learn all sorts of things about the English language that they rarely teach in school. Such as we are separated by a common language.
 
Last edited:
mohmad khatab said:
What is the double negative you are talking about?
Do you mean x-ray film?
Or do you mean another meaning?
Yes, maybe you speak English.
But I don't think you know much about that language.
Click to expand...

I think he meant this...

"I cannot say that I disagree with you. "

In other words, I "can say that I agree with you".

And if the poster who said this was going by the dictionary or symbolic definition, he did not mean "Palestinians", he meant this:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Philistine

I don't think there was any offense intended by either comment.

Andy
 
AndyH said:
I think he meant this...

"I cannot say that I disagree with you. "

In other words, I "can say that I agree with you".

...
Andy
Click to expand...

Its actually more subtle than that. Note that "I do not disagree" does not necessarily imply that I agree....and, "I cannot say that I disagree" is even more subtle...it does not, for example, rule out the possibility that the speaker is very diplomatically saying, "I think you're full of shit but, I either do not know enough or don't really think its important enough to upset you about it."
 
Last edited:

Ah, but I did and do.
 
Well, Mr. Glass,
Don't get excited so you won't get cracks. It might shatter.
- (Anna Karenina) I listened to it at the Egyptian Opera House in German for 30 years, no one ever dared translate it, even though its meanings are very similar to those found in Islamic heritage and the vocabulary is very similar.
- I don't know what your story is?
- You left the main topic and kept interested in my bad language!
Well, sir / glass ,,, I apologize and withdraw from this dialogue so as not to cause any problems.
 
God bless you master / AndyH
You are a respectable person and your style is accurate and clear,
Greetings to you from Egypt.
 
mohmad khatab said:
God bless you master / AndyH
You are a respectable person and your style is accurate and clear,
Greetings to you from Egypt.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Even when you misread something in English, it seems quite clear that your intent is sincere.

Andy
 


Which again completely misses the point I was making. Bad photos are bad photos, why does street get singled out in this way ?

I suspect street still confuses a lot of the old timers on here.
 
Anna Karenina in german...
 

I see nothing wrong with pictures taken on the street been categorized as street photography.

I get you are after shit on your pictures. Tastes are different and it is available on the streets.
But then you dump dead animals old corps pictures, the question within this thread is where it is photographed comes from street perspective. Why it is for so long on the street? Is it abandoned streets of Chernobyl?
What wildlife park has to do with street photography thread then?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Trampas_Regional_Wilderness

The fact what you are walking and taking pictures doesn't make it all as street photography.
 
Ko.Fe. said:
I see nothing wrong with pictures taken on the street been categorized as street photography.
--- snip ---
The fact what you are walking and taking pictures doesn't make it all as street photography.
Click to expand...

It doesn't ? Lots of people seem to think that is exactly the definition of street photography.

But if that's not it then what is? What makes something street photography?

Does this qualify?



or this?



How about this one?



or are these just more crappy snapshots made while walking around with a camera?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register