Street photography, for Mike Kovacs

For years I've been shooting street photography. I had always a camera

with me, and kept my eyes open. As I was a student, I had much time

free - so I could spending hours hunting for the "decisive instant".

 

Mike, here's my advice : take a camera you know VERY well, with a lone

lens (for example, a 35mm in 24x36), and a pack of film you know VERY

well too - and that's all. Then, visit the country you will be in,

catch the atmosphere, and shoot what you see.

 

The photo I attach here was shot with what was wy favorite companion

during the eighties : a black Nikon FM-2 on which was mounted a 2/35mm

AI-S Nikkor, and loaded with Tri-X. No doubt it's my favorite picture,

period.<div></div>

Some other street photography style pictures I don't dislike, either.

 

Sorry I don't have any scanner here - just quickly shot the enlargements with my digicam.<div></div>

Sorry, forgot to downsize !<div></div>

Another one...<div></div>

Another one (2)...<div></div>

Last one (for today ;-))<div></div>

Nicolas, you made my day. stunning photos. all classics. I love street photography, just as you said it takes lots of patience and good timing. see this one from 1991, Praktica MTL 5.

guys, sorry for the big size, I'm in the office with no editing tool.

Very impressive, Nicolas - VERY.

The street musician and the couple kissing are stunning. I like the nosey trio peering through the fence as well. Viva la Tri-X, which is Spanish not French for long live Tri-X.

<p>The nosey duo peeking are pretty good. But they're not so special. No, what makes it is the would-be addition of the old lady: "Can't I look! I want to see!" (As said by another old lady, in an aquarium in a rather remarkable and of course black and white movie -- do you know it?) Excellent work, Nicolas!</p>

 

<p>I shall get out my Willy Ronis book tomorrow. Oh, excuse the tangent here, but as I'm thinking of books: praise in another (MF) thread for a book titled <cite>Along the Ohio</cite> took me <a href="http://www.daedalusbooks.com/Products/SubCategory.asp?Media=Book&SubCategoryID=2192&MajorCategoryID=30">here</a> , where I also see <cite>Brassaï: The monograph</cite> and <cite>Wisdom cries out in the streets</cite>: I ordered about half a ton for $60.</p>

Nicolas,

 

Great shots! Wonderful, love the old man with the accordion! These are the best you have posted to date. What happened in the following decades, was your creative spirit subdued or you just haven't posted you best work yet?

Nicolas: <strong>VERY</strong> nice! You mention that some of these are digicam copies of prints. Can you say how large the prints are and what is your setup for doing this? Tripod, copy-stand, handheld? Lighting?

These are 23.5 x 30.2 cm Ilford Galerie prints, I quickly shot them today in the kitchen because of Mike K.'s post regarding street photography : for shooting I put them stand up along the wall at the end of the kitchen's table and hold them in place with some milk bottles, then quickly shot these samples with my PowerShot G3 mounted on the Manfrotto mini table tripod before I had to drive the son to his weekly swimming lesson. So - not too scientific a method, huh :-) !

 

Well. I think I should properly scan the whole lot (including these ones) with the Epson 1260 flatbed I can use at the office (I have many others prints of the same format in several sheets...) and build some presentation pages, classified by date and camera. I just opened a bare website.

 

Marco, I have many other ones, and more recent, but I can't show all of them today (see paragraph above). As my favorite is from 1988, I shown others that ware in the same sheet.

 

In the late nineties I mostly shot slides, alas as previously said I've no film scanner to share my Kodachromes and E6 (both in 35mm and 120 format) with you all.

 

Well I can see no more than one decade an a half since the last photo shown here today was shot, so I'm not an old timer yet ;-)

Mihai, your photo is a gem ! Ha ha ha !

what a great string of photos....

<p><a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/3436379">indoor from off the street</a>

I think my biggest challenge for street photography is not one of equipment or technique, rather one of nerve. I'm a little shy of intentionally photographing people I don't know and I always wonder whether people run into trouble.

 

E.g., it came to light that a child pornographer was taking candid photos of kids. Stuff like this makes people paranoid.

Nicolas, I always enjoy being kicked in the pants by others. These are all very good, and I'm glad you're sharing them with us. Street photography is probably the hardest for me, but a genre I enjoy very much. Time to load up! Thanks for the boot.

Hmm... I'm not too sure, if you wrote that sentence in the good order ; weren't you rather wanting to say "a man taking candid photos of kids was recently accused to be a child pornographer" ?

 

Anyway, here in Europe the mentalities are still free open - still possible to take candid photographs, even of kids.

 

How long will it last - I don't know. Things change too here, alas. So, enjoy your trip in Europe during the next fall !

 

Just handheld "digishot" another 20x20 cm print, which illustrates your post well I think. Yes it must be hard to take such a picture "a la Weegee" now in North America.

 

This one was shot in a very poor suburb of Montpellier, France, in 1993. As you can guess the guns were toys, unless wouldn't I be there to post that ;-))<div></div>

Sorry, the police arrested a person here on child pornography charges and in his apartment they found non-pornographic street type photos of kids in various places, including local pools and splashparks.

 

<p>Maybe what I need for my camera is <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00CSnG">HERE?</a> Who would sucker punch a guy with that on his camera?

It's 1993 not 1994 and there is an unexpected &@#! light reflection on the left part of the pic - my apologies.

 

Time to stop that tricky and aventurous reproduction technique and use a good ol' flatbed scanner, as any reasonable family father should ;-))

Ha ha ha ! Bart and Ernest from the PEZ - all my childhood is there - THANK YOU Mike :-))

 

Regarding the point you went to, well, let us not fall in that trap. That guilty guy could have had a collection of Dinky Toys, Teddy bears or post stamps as well.

 

Last year I was designed to be one of the judges of one of our town's criminal court 15 days session - as every French citizen might be once in his life. Many of the trials regarded such crimes - horrible. None of the arrested men had something to do with photography. So, that cause/consequence link is an isolated fact, I'm sure.

 

It's a global tendency of our time to mix everything in a shaker, but without seeing what is really dangerous. For example, artistic nude pictures are considered to be pornography while they're surely NOT ; while the most horrible porn. data are easily accessible on the Internet, and against this, nobody acts ; most of that puritan minded people generally don't care about the free sale of weapons to young people either.

 

It's a big and global problem that regards our societies values' hierarchy, and it's quite serious IMHO.

Some very nice street shots in that collection. I'm not very outgoing and not very socially adept. I figure that if I can do street stuff, anyone can. I have learned to use different techniques to match a variety of circumstances. I think the easiest street opportunity is in places where there are a lot of tourists. Next is any kind of public celebration, where people with cameras are expected to show up. In a tough neighborhood where camera toters may not be looked on favorably, I tend to hip shoot. If you use fast film and appropriate zone focus, you really don't need to worry about the viewfinder. On the other hand, sometimes I just choose to move fast, aim carefully, shoot and move on. Another useful technique, particularly in a place like an outdoor cafe is to just lay your camera out in the open and spend some time blending in; people seem to ignore your presence after a while even if you casually snap a picture now and then.

Nicolas: Wow!

Mike: I used to feel VERY shy about shooting people I don't know, but a once in a lifetime chance to photograph the Yanomami in their turf meant that had to change. Among others, I took a couple of Minox cameras (a B and an ECX), and they helped me alot, as I felt less exposed.

Or: Place your No. 2 Brownie on a table and pretend to fiddle with it whilst lining up your interesting subject in the viewfinder. Express disdain whilst tripping the shutter..."Aw, ^%$*&ing X2-8 Space Modulator...broken again!" (Click)

 

Maybe even get a photo of the subject staring at you, wondering what you're doing at a street cafe with an X2-8 Space Modulator, anyway.

 

M.