Is street photography fast becoming a thing of the past?

Desirae, that was very thoughtful and incisive. You hit the nail right on the head that good street photography makes the

ordinary seem extraordinary and the extraordinary likewise seem ordinary. I agree that my favorite photographs, and not

just street photography, since all good images follow this same basic premise, allow me to relate to it on several levels. You

have emotional, intellectual, and visual. Not all great images will contain all of these elements, but the ones we continually

return to study and admire and perhaps learn from do have these. To cut to something you also said, I would encourage

you to enlist a patient friend to accompany you while you go out street shooting. You must conquer your fear each and

every time out there. I get scared just about every time, but I've learned a simple exercise; I start to stare at everyone

passing by. When I can hold their gaze without fear, then I am ready to take street pictures. If I can't then I take pictures of

buildings and beer cans and call it a day.

Andy, I forgot to mention that that's a hell of a good comment about women and an equally good picture.

Allen,

 

you raise some good and interesting points. "Have people ever really appreciated street photography?"

Sure they have. Look at especially the first half of the last century. The world was a much larger place then than it is

today which is one of the reasons so many of them got recognised for their work.

 

"So, I don’t really think it does any harm for someone to point out these facts and encourage the wannabe street

photographers to raise their game. Critique is equally important as encouragement"

Well, who wouldn't agree with that, especially the latter.

 

"It seems to me that too many photographers are more interested in where the nearest gallery is ,being told how

wonderful they are, and why they have not been recognised as the second coming of Henri"

True, there are some of those but they would have a hard time finding a gallery if their work wasn't up to it. Secondly,

I think we all seek recognition one way or another. Just the fact that we post here is proof of that and frankly I can

see nothing wrong in that. All of us may be driven by different motivations for doing what we do. For some it may be a

creative outlet, for some it's merely fun while others can be idealistic about it. Whatever it is, I suspect not many

would go on with it if there was no exposure of one's work to some extent. As far as HCB is concerned, I can only

speak for myself. I'd rather be recognised for my own work than for copying or emulating someone else's. In the end

however it's all in the perception of those that view our work.

Desirae, good post. I think following Orville's advice could be worthwhile trying.

Street Photography is already a thing of the past. There is nothing new under the sun. The best thing about street might be that people with minimum investment are enjoying what they do and they should keep on doing it.

Wow, thanks guys. It's funny that you suggest that Orville, as I had made that a goal of my own not too long ago, to

make more eye contact while talking to people, also with people that I pass by, and to also hold my head up high

when I walk. My goal is to become more confident, and more aware of the world around me. Doing those simple

things, I thought would help me achieve that, and I definitely can see how that will help with my confidence to

try street photography again. The only funny/negative thing is the more eye contact I make, the more I get

approached because I'm a young, good looking woman! I guess it means that I'm interested or something....you

men! Haha! Oh well...at least it's on a positive note. ;-)

Desirae... the thing about being observant in public (and armed with a camera) is that there's plenty of people who are a-swim in their own world (and aren't always aware they're being observed). The more preoccupied they are, the more they seem to reveal their private face in public... that's always held some fascination for me. Even better when you come upon 2 or more people similarly engaged... everyone has their own techniques (and reasons) for getting out there.

Orville wrote:<p>

 

<< ... <i>I get scared just about every time ...</i>>><p>

 

That's remarkable. As many years as you've been doing this, and as well as you do it, I probably would have

guessed that would happen very rarely, and only in a completely new environment, one foreign to you.<p>

 

I appreciate your candor. <p>

 

On some days it's clear to me I just don't "have it." I'm impatient, inattentive, or preoccupied. And since I'm

not heading out regularly to shoot -- that's a function of schedule and where I live, not at all due to lack of

interest -- I get annoyed with myself on those occasions.

Michael, to be without fear is to have no heart, no mind, no truth. To occasionally overxome fear is a high no drug can surpass.

Well put, Orville.

 

I hope you realize when I used the term "remarkable" I meant it literally -- as in worthy of being noticed. It wasn't intended as a negative.

Le’ street photography has been dead for years, dead as a doorknob before the likes of any of you lugs were feasting on

your mamas breasts.

 

Back in my days street was street, roaming the streets, day and night, constantly prowling for something decisive,

something real. Why one night after enjoying several servings of absinthe into the le’ petite hours of the morning Gene

Atget and myself, oh and that crazy Brassai were strolling through Pigalle when we ran into a rabbi, a priest and an

Irishman, mmm, never mind that’s a story for another night.

 

Why we’d photograph all day and night regardless of weather conditions, in the morning develop our film in puddles and

do it all over again the next day and the next and the next. Never once did I hear Doisneau say “hey Hank, you think

street is dead?”

 

As I have always said photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they vanish there is no

contrivance on earth which can make them return. Around here it’s all the same old shots of the same old people

crossing the same old street, jumping over the same old puddle, over and over and over.

 

Le’ merde, there hasn’t been anything worth looking at never mind hanging since Josef and little Bobby Frank put there

cameras down.

 

The whole lot of you posers should trade in your cameras for photocopiers. Le’ Christ.

Hank - Ever do speed with Gene Smith?

 

Acknowledgment of street in the art scene will come and go.

People will do it anyway, and from time to time shaky shots of back-lit redhead kids and seagulls shot w/ a 300mm lens will be called street.

And we'll see it all on flickr.

 

If I ever meet anyone who paid off their M by selling street pictures, I'll give them a hi-five.

Because I can't afford to buy them a beer.

 

People who do street, really do it, just can't help it. I have tan lines from my wrist strap.

But can't afford to process. I just keep shooting, assuming I'm getting pictures.

 

One thing is certain - it is increasingly becoming illegal.

If not straying from the vision of the what, nine, originators.

 

as they say, shoot first & ask permission later.

If you don't, your fault.

If you suck, your fault.

 

But if someone wants to give you money for it, keep your mouth shut and get back out there.

 

And try not to get arrested or stabbed.

Couldn't be more correct, Henri...

 

Or as we said in 5th form Latin: "Cave cibum, valde malus est."

 

"If you have to ask the question, you already know the answer."<div></div>

“shot w/ a 300mm lens will be called street. And we'll see it all on flickr”

 

And among them were the idolaters who had cast aside their rangefinders, forsaking the given word Tri X, and had

removed the love from their hearts for the prime. In their lustful ways they fornicated among themselves

worshipping the false god zoom, and taking, and seeing photos in colour…..<div></div>

Just because when a style is out doesn't mean you should put down your gears or else you will be look weird in the public. There is many reasons why someone will not shoot anymore. Financial, job, commercial purpose, the time the location, weather condition, stuff like that. That is why you are seeing less and less. Probably there will be more in the summer I hope, because it is winter now, most of the college students are preparing their midterm, perhaps their paper at this time.

Well I still LOVE doing Street Photography<div></div>

Hey Guys :)

I just read through this whole forum and found it really interesting !!!

The response from Orville Robertson 19th Oct regarding where are the women in street photography ? Yeah, I do agree, there's really not that many (unless Im not really looking). I'm a female currently living in OZ and I love street photography. I don't wanna appear sexist here or anything but I tend to also think, from personal experience, as a female it is so much easier to get shots of children especially. This kinda sucks how some generalise photog men as being perverts or something when they really are not. But yes I would like to see more women participating in this field. And when I do shoot with partners none of them are my female friends, all of them are males. My girlfriends either don't like to walk so much or it's just too "boyish". But I just love taking photos of life ! And the great thing I love about street is the unplanned nature of it all... it's fast and unpredictable !

Hi. This is a really interesting, and in many ways moving, thread. I don't think I have ever taken the time to read through a thread as long as this in my 14-year internet life, but I just did, and it was very rewarding. Thank you.

 

Just wanted to share some personal thoughts with you from a newbie (apologies in advance for the random stream-of-consciousness style sharing):

 

What was particularly jarring for me were some of the comments expressed, that because of the proliferation of cameras and photo sharing web sites etc., there are many many more pictures being taken and displayed, but the quality has gone down. It was jarring because it's so true, and I feel to be helplessly part of it.

 

When I started, I went about doing what I _thought_ to be street photography. I captured random shots of lots of people in the street; I went furtive a bit and stole portraits of people here and there; I took a lot of pictures of people's backs. And so on. And I thought, great, I'm a street photographer too, yeeha.

 

Then I started trying to read up on what constitutes good street photography. Maybe browse a few picture books of the masters. Then I started subscribing to flickr groups on street photography (there are lots of them, believe me), looked at image after image, and at one point literally became nauseated.

 

Nauseated because there is so much _sameness_ everywhere.

 

So many pointless pictures of people walking by. So many out of focus, mis-aligned, and poorly composed shots.

 

And this was doubly nauseating because my own attempts are just like those too. It was really hard to come to grips with the fact that a lot of my own work, what I thought belonged to a certain "style", were actually snaps that I didn't put enough thought into. Snaps that, well, sucked.

 

So, when I read related comments here about how the quality of street photography may have gone downhill, it really resounded with me. Hard.

 

I did a search on online street photography courses, and was dismayed to find offerings / comments which seemed to suggest good street photography doesn't require good composition, doesn't require good technique, it's all about being brave enough to push a camera in front of someone's face without feeling emabarrassed. How can that be?

 

My own discovery, reinforced by some of the comments / laments here, is that good street photography (and good _anything_, really), requires hard work. It requires an emotional investment in the strangers around me. It requires that I observe and try to appreciate the underlying beauty and humanity of others, even if externally or aesthetically it doesn't look appealing. It requires that I try to feel what others feel. And all this has to be done at the same time as getting composition, focus, exposure, lighting, and everything else right, either through practice or preparation. It's not supposed to be easy.

 

Going back (finally) to respond to the OP's question. My glass is half full answer is that I don't think street photography will become a thing of the past, for as long as there are people who are still intent to treat it as something of human connection, of communication, of emotion, of empathy. If you put enough into it, you will get something out of it, hopefully more than the amount you put in. It will stay with you, and for those images that carry true emotional value, they will be timeless, and will therefore not be a thing of the past.

P.S. I also invite you to view this gallery of street pictures of Hong Kong, taken in the 1960s.

 

http://www.picturethiscollection.com/exhibitions/2008/YauLeung_SixtiesHK/page1/

 

Just to respond to some of the comments here that modern things have become "ugly" and more mundane ... my own inspiration from viewing the above exhibition, is that a lot of the things photographed must have seemed very ordinary and not worthy of interest for the people living through those times also. But the photographer still (in my mind) transformed what were some very ordinary things with good form, composition, lighting and timing, into something which still carries resonance today.

 

Perhaps the picture of that ugly SUV will, in a few decades time, be looked at with the same nostalgia, and be dissected in colleges states-wide (and perhaps in outer space also) in 10,000 word essays about how the photo is a piece of social commentary on the abject environmental irresponsibility of the age, when all that happened was a !@#()*$&(*& SUV just got in the !)(*@#()$&* way of your shot.

 

Happy shooting!

<p>It's 2015.</p>

<p>I just had a re-read.</p>

<p>This remains one of the all-time great forum postings.</p>

<p>And in my opinion, street is far from dead; it occupies the greater part of my life. If it has a smaller part now, in 2015, on Photo.net, it may be in large part because of its great ascendancy on FLICKR which has a Huge street following (and a free storage cloud of 1 Terabyte plus no membership fee -- though no real good way to download those photos, so that terabyte is mainly 'for show' and 'for advertising purposes'.</p>

<p>I shot street all day and will be up all night processing it, then for the next years processing and reprocessing and discovering and rediscovering from past shots the ones I missed that I shouldda seen but just didn't until I got a better exposure to both photography and the street genre).I</p>

<p>I keep learning from my initial, naif approach to street, even from that first roll which produced one 'good one, a keeper', to today's several keepers, including maybe a lifetime best.</p>

<p>Who could ask for more?</p>

<p>john</p>

<p>John (Crosley)<br>

2015c</p>