street photography

Ed_Davor · Apr 1, 2006

Hi

Can someone suggest a good book with lots of large images covering street photography of american cities in COLOR from 70's to 90's?

thanks

Ed_Davor · Apr 1, 2006

roadside stuff also passes, doesn't have to be just cities

rbarker · Apr 1, 2006

Street photography in color? I don't think I've ever seen any, Ed. Sorta like plaids and argyles in high fashion.

Ed_Davor · Apr 1, 2006

Street photography in color? I don't think I've ever seen any, Ed. Sorta like plaids and argyles in high fashion.

Well I've searched all day and found a few books I like:

-"Slide Show" by Helen Levitt
-"Uncommon places" by Stephen Shore"

But I'd like to search for more

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Apr 1, 2006

Does Stephen Shore counts? He took pictures, in color, during the seventies, and usually setup his camera either on a street, a parking lot, or a small road. If so, then try to find his Aperture book, "Uncommon places". It's view camera stuff, so not really the colour equivalent of Doisneau.

Ed_Davor · Apr 1, 2006

Does Stephen Shore counts? He took pictures, in color, during the seventies, and usually setup his camera either on a street, a parking lot, or a small road. If so, then try to find his Aperture book, "Uncommon places". It's view camera stuff, so not really the colour equivalent of Doisneau.

yea, as I said in the above post, I'm already considering this book, but would like to search some more before I buy anything

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Apr 1, 2006

Ed_Davor said:
yea, as I said in the above post, I'm already considering this book, but would like to search some more before I buy anything

Our two posts came up at the same time, and noticed yours just after I sent mine. That said, it's a tough call because "classic" street photo was made in B&W, and color film in the 70's wasn't always all there. It also depends on what aspect of the street/city you want to cover. If the theme is the city, i.e. the equivalent of HCB, Winogrand in colour, then those might be more scarce than photos that take street as a setting.

Nan Goldin was one of the first big names for color, but only a fraction of her work would count as street, and would mostly be in relation to her personal life.

My impression is that most of the urban colour work was spearheaded by people coming from a visual arts background, so that the documentary/candid aspect was not the most important aspect, or else it was made in a post-modern/ironic/deconstructive/blah manner.

Case in point, Philip-Lorca DiCorcica has a series of headshots of people in crowds, which he did by using a dissimulated flash and a long lens, but the effect is more brechtian than documentary. It's more about imposing artistic canons onto the street than about catching what it is like to be there.

Other case in point, and a classic example is Jeff Wall's 1982 "Mimic" :
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/jeffwall/infocus/section1/img4.shtm

It's a "street photo" in all formal aspects, but for the fact that it's a mise en scène performed with a view camera. By the time color became prominent in the artworld, the attitude towards photography as a document was highly skeptical, so the delicate balance between art and record that the traditional B&W reporters cared about was shattered. Around the 80's you end up with either highly theoretically aware artists like Wall, or with more straight press photo, but nothing in between.

Even Stephen Shore's photos, despite the fact that they were taken in a real setting without any setup, feel a lot like they are "made", and aware that they are "made." I think the combination view camera + color + urban setting just entails conceptual art.

Ed_Davor · Apr 1, 2006

Thanks for your post

I said street photography because I wanted to see some street scenery from cities like New York, but it really doesn't matter to me wheather it is really improvised or done with hours of preparation. Both is fine.
But I'd like to avoid clishe postcard photographs like the ones you find in city guides.
I want something that sort of shows the real life, trash cans, parked cars, bars, regular street corners etc.

I'd go and buy Stepehn Shore's book, but I didn't want to limit myself to just one period. I'd rather like something that shows both 70's, 80's and maybe early 90's, and not just a few years from early 70's.
Of course if there is no such thing, I'll probably go for Stephen Shore, I like his esthetics very much (composition and color)

I've also been examining some work of Jeff Wall, and I like him too, but he doesn't have that much street scenery, and he is Canadian, and I was hoping for something that would show that authentic US texture.

But really, it can be conceptual art or not, I don't care, just as long as it paints the texture of US streets and roads, and as long as it is vintage (I like streets full of 80's and 70's cars, such simple primitive designs, very photogenic if you ask me)

Christopher Colley · Apr 1, 2006

Open city : street photographs since 1950 / with essays by Kerry Brougher and Russell Ferguson

Publ date Oxford, England : Museum of Modern Art Oxford ; Ostfildern : Hatje Cantz ; New York, N.Y. : Distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, c2001

some stuff in color there, most of it is more modern than between the 50s to 70s, a great book! look for it at a local library...

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Apr 1, 2006

Ed_Davor said:
But I'd like to avoid clishe postcard photographs like the ones you find in city guides.

Actually, there is one very interesting book of cliché postcards edited by Martin Parr, called "Boring Postcards USA" published by Phaidon. If you go on Phaidon's website you can look for it and see a few sample pics, but it's absolutely hilarious and also very strong. The postcards were not chosen because they depicted the cities in a somptuous manner, but rather because they were depicting the most ordinary thing: a highway exchanger, a drugstore interior, a gas station, etc.

There's a big tongue in cheek, but at the same time it brings down the barrier between "conceptual" art and practical photography, because it shows you that the conceptualist's obsession with the parking lots creates pictures not dissimilar to these postcards ("Welcome to our new ESSO station, don't miss our expanded gas choices") that no one in their right mind would send on their honeymoon. Look back on Stephen Shore after that and it feels familiar.

Whenever I'm travelling around Canada or the States I try to find such postcards in the gas stations or the convenience stores. They're usually at the bottom of the stacks, and haven't been sold for 30-40 years, but they're just a riot. My favorite one so far was an RCMP parade in Winnipeg shot before a big Esso sign.

Ed_Davor · Apr 1, 2006

Wehn I think of clishe postcards, I mean the most obvious spots in the city, like bridges, famous statues and buildings etc. You know, the stuff tourists take pictures of when they come to a big city.
For example, when you come to Washington, the most obvious and clishe thing to do is thake a picture of the White house.
But that building is not a part of peoples lives, gas stations, garbage cans and little stores on the corners are

SuzanneR · Apr 1, 2006

I'll second the Helen Levitt reference. She really sets the bar very high for color (and B&W) street photography. I don't have that particular book you mentioned, but it's on my list of coveted books. I do have "Here and Now", which is a great collection of images. I'd love to get her "Ways of Seeing" (I think that's the title) but it's long out of print, and quite expensive, er... I mean collectible!

Ed_Davor · Apr 1, 2006

I found something else interesting...

Recreation: American Photographs 1973-1988 by Mitch Epstein

any comments on that book, anyone took a glimpse at it?

bjorke · Apr 2, 2006

There's a lot of color street photography. Just look on flickr. Or try beeflowers.com

Gordon Coale · Apr 2, 2006

mhv said:
Does Stephen Shore counts? He took pictures, in color, during the seventies, and usually setup his camera either on a street, a parking lot, or a small road. If so, then try to find his Aperture book, "Uncommon places". It's view camera stuff, so not really the colour equivalent of Doisneau.

Maybe Shore is the color equivalent of the original, and maybe greatest, street photographer, Atget, who used a view camera.

Ed_Davor · Apr 2, 2006

I can't believe this, I'm searching for almost two days, and I keep bumping into same books, maybe 10 of them.

Is it possible that only a few books of conceptual and street photography were made featuring images from 70's and 80's?
There must be something more out there.

Ed_Davor · Apr 2, 2006

Considering the above, let me change my search parameters:

Can you please tell me any significant color publication by an american photographer featuring photography between early 70's and early 90's in any style revolving around people and settlements (minus studio photography and fashion photography) that you can think of.

that should give me a few more choices to look at, i hope

SuzanneR · Apr 2, 2006

Who was the guy who did the subway series in the early 80's? Bruce Davidson, maybe? And I remember there was a show and accompanying book I think called "New Color" from the early 80''s at ICP.

Ed_Davor · Apr 2, 2006

Wow, I've checked out some of the stuff from Subway, really interesting..

proves my point that I've missed a few books in my search, so people keep them comming, I'm sure mor einteresting publications will come up in this thread

thanks

p.s. didn't find any info on "new color", though the name rings a bell

Ed_Davor · Apr 4, 2006

Here is what I finally ordered:

Stephen Shore, Uncommon places and Philip-Lorca Dicorcia (the yellow MOMA book)

Can anyone tell me what these guys were shooting on (film and format)?
I know Stephen Shore shot those images on a View camera, and I assume it was loaded with Ektachrome. At the time, it was 64 X in E4 or something like that (the one used on Moon), did he use Ektachrome or perhapse some color negative film?
And what about Dicorcia?

agGNOME · Apr 4, 2006

Hi Ed,
Check out this link for street photography if you haven't already:
http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/links.htm
it may broaden your search. And it may just suck you in for hours of viewing.....
have fun, Cameron

Richard Boutwell · Apr 5, 2006

Joel Meyerowitz's work from St Louis.

William Eggleston, but that should be obvious.

Someone yet to be mentioned is David Graham from Philadelphia. He now teaches at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and has quite a few books. My favorite may be Only in America, but they are all good.

You might also look at Robert Flick's Los Angeles Documents from the 90's. It is a little different from most street photography, but that is partly what makes it so good.

gr82bart · Apr 5, 2006

All my street photography is in colour. More than 15 years of Kodachromes and Ektachromes.....but I don't have a book published. It's all tucked away in very large plastic bins! Sorry.

Art.

Ed_Davor · Apr 13, 2006

I got my Stephen Shore book, uncommon places

In the text, it says he was shooting Kodacolor negative in 8x10

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