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Tales from the front: Street photography and the market


akochanowski

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Some of you know what type of stuff I do and others, well, I do color

work that is somewhat loosely street-based, meaning no set up shots

and photos of things generally outside. Recently I had a chance to

find out at least to some extent what curators, gallery owners, and

photography magazine editors thought when they took a look at a

portion of my portfolio at Houston's biannual FotoFest.

 

If you haven't done this before, it's quite an interesting

experience. Once you are in the portfolio pool (this was by lottery)

you assemble whatever you want to show and for a period of several

days participate in scheduled reviews with some fairly prominent

people who may loosely be categorized as the buyers/gatekeepers to

publication. Though some of these events may have different rules, at

FotoFest you are give a list of a number of reviewers which you rank

for preference. Your interviews with a reviewer(s) are generated by a

system that seemed to work pretty well-m at least for my choices.

 

I got to show my work to about 20 people over the several days,

including some German and South American museums, several photo

magazines (again German, Danish and so forth), a couple of American

photography centers, a photo publisher, and several other people. I

also had a chance to talk about the market's acceptance of street

photography today. While I certainly don't propose that this is

gospel, here is what I generally came away with.

 

Street photography is a narrow niche that may be reviving a bit.

Black and white style is generally seen as dated, unless you really

do something different with it. Showing copies of Winogrand, etc.,

style (which I didn't do but heard about) is greeted with

disinterest. "It's hard to follow these guys [Wino, Friedlander, HCB]

and why would you want to?" Curators/gallery owners are looking for a

distinctive style- FWIW, several people seemed to like a number of my

shots, termed "minimalist street" (trust me, several others couldn't

hide their disinterest in my stuff as well). Not a lot of it is being

shown, which made me stand out a bit, subject wise.

 

Number one lesson for anyone looking to place/sell/show in the big

leagues: edit, edit, and then edit some more. I spent many hours over

the course of severall weeks working with a large number of shots to

winnow it down to 20 or so. Over the course of four days I removed 5

of the shots from the portfolio, not because they were "bad" but

because they didn't fit in, thematically, visually, or emotionally,

points made clear by several reviewers.

 

Number two lesson: some of the people in charge of photography

museums, magazines and galleries are terrifically astute and can make

you look at your work in a different way in 20 minutes. Others, well,

let's just say you gotta wonder.

 

How did it go for me? I seemed to have elicited some interest from

European publications and a German museum-- veterans of these things

told me that when a curator is interested they will ask you to send

them a CD or other materials after the session, which happened for me

a fter a number of reviews. Nothing concrete, however. Of the peole

who were not interested, the general feeling was that my style had

not moved far enough from the "classic" street material, color or

not, to be of publisheable interest. All in all, an interesting

experience which I recommend.

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Congrats on having some success, Andy.

 

I think it's good you went in for this kind of scrutiny. As you say, many of these people have good judgement for quality work, and some likely don't. For myself, I'll always do the work I'm interested in first and foremost, at least without major alteration... it's the only valid reason I can find to do photography. I've found for myself that it doesn't work to try to chase after what the gallery world might find of value. Even if one does and is successful at it, it seems a pointless exercise to me. One may as well go out and do purely commercial advertising- it pays better. It's certainly understandable that b&w street work wouldn't get much reception though... all you have to do is look at how many fairly competent street photogs we have right here working in that mode.

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There was something like that in Fotofusion in Florida and I was

interested until I found out it was like $500 or so. I want my

photos published in a book rather than say hang in a art gallery

ultimately so I skipped it since put together a little book probably

don't cost more than a couple grand nowsdays. Besides, I could

careless about money making in street photography anyway.

 

How much did it cost if you don't mind me asking?

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You've done some nice work with your color street stuff which is shown in your PN folders and you have developed a distinctive style. Still, I think it shows some courage to display your work to a group of people who are engaged in a rather brutal business. On the other hand, perhaps it is a good thing to get some opinions from outside your normal sphere.<br>    While I think it important to show my work and appreciate the opportunity provided by Photo.Net to do that, I can't recall ever seeing a comment on my work or on that of others that I thought was really helpful. The rating system seems to focus on the least important aspect of criticism. The comments often seem to be about something other than the photo in question -- how the commenter might have shot the scene, or suggestions to go back and re-shoot, which I consider an impossibility outside a studio. If anyone has some examples of commentary or criticism that is genuinely useful - not necessarily on photo.net, I would certainly be interested in seeing them.
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Thanks for posting this -- interesting stuff. Congrats on the good feedback you got (and to hell with the bad feedback -- there's a Steinbeck quote about critics that fits here but I can't remember it). It takes a certain amount of guts to lay your work out face to face with people who seem likely to shred it.

 

I found it interesting that they don't want b&w street work, considering that so many people seem to think street photos aren't street photos unless they're in black and white.

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Street photography is a lot like jazz improv in that it appeals primarily to its practicioners. What this means is that publication and exhibition is rare for anyone who is not already known. Documentary work, while often stylistically similar, is quite different in vision, scope, and methodology. As a result, it's much easier to get published with street work that can thematically be shown as documentary work.
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Thanks for sharing! Enlightening yet kind of predictable. The more you show stuff the more you are reminded the world is blessed with bright lights and cursed with dim bulbs. That said, once work on an image is complete it takes on a life of its own and its creator should probably not invest too much emotionally in how people react.

 

I really enjoyed reading about your experience.

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Thank you, yes they are all in the color, non-boxing portfolio. I cannot go through them now for time reasons but will get to it soon.

 

As to publication, I am not sure that the road is closed for street shooting. It's true that books are few and far between, but there seems to ba an active market in the photography magazines for showing mini-portfolios. That could lead to a show, then maybe more.

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Thanks for sharing this information with us, Andy. It's good to hear

about how the Market views our efforts. I'm glad you had the

succeesses, or potential successes, you had--they were hard won.

Good luck and keep on shooting and posting.

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Jeff Spirer wrote:

 

<i>"As a result, it's much easier to get published with street work that can thematically be

shown as documentary work.</i>

 

<p>Jeff, I really think this statement is terrifically insightful. Really sums up what's been in

the back of my mind as I've looked at a number of shows, but haven't formed the words to

the feeling. Documentary-themed street work...

 

<p>Changing the subject: Anyone else know of good threads/sites regarding other

people's experiences at Fotofest? A Kochanowski, thanks for sharing!

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Jeff, it just occured to me that even in the past the images we think of today as ikons of street photography were usually just part of a picture story. HC-B's "Picnic on the Marne" was for a story on the first paid holidays for French workers. Eisenstadt's "Sailor and Nurse" was a story on the end of WW2. The magazines which published this kind of work no longer exist.
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  • 1 month later...

<p>Congratulations on the interest that was shown in your work. Personally I believe your colour street style differs enough from most of the "classic" street work. I especially like your work on documenting the boxers through candids, although they might not qualify as <i>street</i> shots. Keep at it, someone once said that you are not a sucessful (commercial) photographer until you can plaster your walls with rejection slips.

<br><br>

All the best,

<br><br>

--Dominic</p>

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I can't agree more with Jeff Spirer. Jeff, you've nailed it! Art photography and jazz have a lot in common as both are surviving on the interest of their practitioners. The same is true for modern art, dance, rock music and you name it what else!

 

Average people are overloaded with images these days. And TV is a major factor in why people don't seem to be interested in documentary or street photography as an art form anymore, I think. It takes thinking to appreciate it. Looks like we're in post-modernism era. Nobody wants to see anything that has been done before. And there isn't much else you can do with current tools and ideas that would shock people and create any kind of wave within the public.

 

Just remember to keep going at it, don't give up and be ready to show something when people start calling you 20-40 years down the road. :)

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