Wayback machine - your earliest street pix

<p>What are your earliest street-ish photos? Film, digital, glass plates, cave etchings, good, bad, doesn't matter.</p>

<p>I was surprised to find these negatives from around 1970 when I was a kid growing up in New York, around age 12-13. I thought they were long gone. Never printed them - I barely had enough money for film and developing. So far I've found four sets of 35mm negatives, three on Tri-X, one on Ilford HP3; and a couple on 127 Verichrome Pan from my first camera, a Baby Brownie.</p>

<p>Back then a photo buddy and I would wander around our town (Mount Vernon, a 'burb just a few minutes north of NYC), snapping pix of whatever caught our eye. Sometimes we'd venture into the city, although so far I haven't been able to find any negatives for those trips. I had no real concept of "street photography" - never heard the term back then. I'd never heard of Garry Winogrand or his contemporaries. Never saw anyone in the city snapping random pix of strangers - I'm sure they were around, but not in roving packs on every corner. I only knew of Weegee, but I thought of him as a photojournalist. I remember a lady on the subway fussing at me for snapping pix of people on the train. And a Central Park horse drawn carriage driver trying to charge me money for photographing him and his horse. Most people were cool about it. Some things never change. Street photography has always had its rewards and challenges.</p>

<p>These were from a pizza joint in Mount Vernon, NY. Shot using a Miranda Sensorex with 50mm f/1.8 lens, on Tri-X, which I developed either at the local Y camera club darkroom or in my friend's basement home darkroom. My technique was terrible. Some frames are buggered from misloading the reel and from under-fixing/-washing. Focusing? Pppbbbttt. Sharpness is a bourgeois concept, sez Saint HCB.</p>

<p>And apparently I hadn't quite mastered the transition from the square format roll film Brownie and Yashica TLR I'd learned on. I hadn't figured out how to turn the 35mm camera sideways for verticals. Glad to see 'em again, anyway.</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17951654-md.jpg" alt="img037_January 21, 2015__LR4" width="680" height="415" border="0" /><br /><em>Pizzeria, Mount Vernon, NY, 1970</em>.</p>

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<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17951649-md.jpg" alt="img043_January 21, 2015__LR4" width="680" height="414" border="0" /><br /><em>Pizzeria, Mount Vernon, NY, 1970</em>.</p>

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<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17951650-md.jpg" alt="img042_January 21, 2015__LR4" width="680" height="412" border="0" /><br /><em>Pizzeria, Mount Vernon, NY, 1970</em>.</p>

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<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17951651-md.jpg" alt="img039_January 21, 2015__LR4" width="680" height="416" border="0" /><br /><em>Pizzeria, Mount Vernon, NY, 1970.</em><br>

And a lesson in the Male Gaze concept. Hey, I was 12 years old. So now when I see from-behind voyeuristic photos of women's butts, taken by grown men, I can legitimately say "What are you, 12?"</p>

<p>Impressive for a 12 year-old, Lex. </p>

<p>Sadly I was always too insecure to do street photography but I do sneak in the occasional snap if I can be unobtrusive. I don't know if this qualifies as street photography but this is about the distance I work from and feel comfortable with.</p>

<p>Shot about 10 years ago:</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/2678559-lg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="640" /></p>

 

<p>Politically active?<br /> My Cub Scout Den getting out the vote.<br>

I was 10. Almost certainly the family Kodak Jiffy 620</p><div></div>

<p>March 1973 Amsterdam</p><div></div>

<p>Canon FT with 35 fl f3.5 on mini-pod from open Victoria Hotel 2nd floor window</p>

<p>Leica M2, 50mm Summicron, Kodachrome 25, 1973 small town in north west Mexico.</p>

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/12308550-md.jpg" alt="" /></center>

Definitely not my earliest, that would be lost in the fog of time or probably just thrown out. This is circa 1972-1974 when I

was 14-16. Taken on tri-x with my Dad's Leica M3. Crappy copy since I just shot it down n a light table with my phone's

camera.<div></div>

<p>I became interested in Street/Documentary in my mid teens (about 1972/'73).<br /> I also shot a lot of that genre using Kodachrome 25.<br /> Here are two which I (coincidentally) dug out only a few months ago:</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17796313-md.jpg" alt="" width="485" height="680" /><br /> "<strong>Friends” -</strong> Kings Cross, Sydney 1976<br /> Probably a Rokkor 135mm F/3.5</p>

<p>***</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17796312-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="356" /><br /> <strong>“Stage Door” -</strong> Haymarket, Sydney 1976<br /> Probably a Rokkor 58mm F/1.4</p>

<p>WW</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Unfortunately, all my negs from high school and college years are lost. I used to be constantly taking candids everywhere I went. Can't find them anywhere, other than a few prints that got saved.<br />After college, I didn't shoot much for a couple of years, until the mid-eighties. This is a shot of a vender who showed up when Pope John Paul II visited the San Fernando Mission, across from where I was working at the time.<br>

<img src="https://c3.staticflickr.com/3/2677/4470676203_2faa7396d5_z.jpg?zz=1" alt="" width="466" height="640" /></p>

 

<p>I got into photography when I moved to Boston, MA, to work at Harvard in the mid 1960s and after returning to London in 1968 I continued taking pictures and have done so to this day. These are some early ones.</p><div></div>

<p>Another</p><div></div>

<p>.</p><div></div>

<p>..</p><div></div>

<p><a title="Untitled by Eddie . ., on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/23/24900190_d5c9c82f17_o.jpg" alt="Untitled" width="625" height="454" /></a></p>

<p>This is about the oldest I can find in digital form from a scanned slide.</p><div></div>

<p>Just before the invasion of Iraq anti-war demo in San Francisco, February 2003. I had just started taking photos a couple of years before and was then in photo school. <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17867224-lg.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>1974-75 from living in the streets to a tale of x2 cities, Minneapolis and Chicago I bought my first camera and setup a darkroom.</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956193-lg.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="608" />my first print... IDScenter<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956192-lg.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="314" />highland park<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956199-lg.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="288" />Selby Dale<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956198-lg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="547" />st paul......<br /> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956201-lg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="451" /><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956196-lg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="453" />wisconsin /chicago<br /> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956195-lg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="452" /><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956194-lg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />chicago/powderhorn park<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956190-lg.jpg" alt="" width="319" height="500" /><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956191-lg.jpg" alt="" width="319" height="500" />hyde park</p>

<p>Lex, this topic is an interesting “then and now” idea. For us older guys raised on “The Americans” I’d have to say Frank was there in all my work. Today the genre has matured and the influences are so broad. Everybody, it seems, finds urban life and cameras go together. I’ve gone over to the dark side with PS plug-ins. <br>

<br>

My street epiphany was when I stepped off the train in c. 1975 Chicago. Right at the beginning I favored the graphic style of Ray K. Metzker. It fit in with my panoramic passion. At some point I amended my self-description to “urban photographer” only because the popular notion of <em>street</em> was that it is tight, grab shots. Patience, is a requirement for panoramas. I much prefer that my pictures have people. </p><div></div>

<p><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2329/2265278138_66ca51aa1a_o.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="517" /><br>

Rural Tibet, 1987 (the oldest image I have in digi format) </p>

<p>This is a thread I can certainly relate to Lex. Got my start in photography and street stuff using my fathers Rolleiflex way back in the fifties. Around 1965 I got into SLRs and used Canon cameras during a year long work trip to Australia. For travel and street the Canons were a bit too large, so there was a switch to Leicas, both M's and LTM. <br>

By 1969 I was getting more into street and carried a Leica everywhere while trying to be alert to possible decisive moments. A first trip to India and Nepal in 1970 got me started on a genre I've come to call "exotic street". Through the seventies the travel bug bit hard and any leave I could obtain from my research job got used going walkabout. India seemed to be the focus of many of my trips which included two ATW ones. On the way home from second around the world trip in 1977 I stayed for a while in French Polynesia. While at BoraBora I met some of the cruising yacht people and my life took an abrupt change. Back in Canada I resigned my position and moved to the west coast starting a new career in oceanography. Much of my time was in shore based labs but there was enough sea time to keep the travel bug satisfied. Life aboard ship and ports around the Pacific were often what my lenses got aimed at. <br>

After taking early retirement I finally had time to scan all those negatives and slides that a lifetime of shooting has generated. There were lots of gems that I'd never bothered wet printing because they would have needed too much darkroom work. <br>

At some point I found that two negatives were of the same street scene but six years different in time. There were obvious changes which got me wondering what the street would be like four decades after the first photo. Turning to Google earth I found that one of the shops in my photos was still in business. How cool would it be to go back and shoot the same street again and do it with the same camera as the first photo from 1970. Was finally able to do this in 2012 and even took along prints of the early photos to leave with the shop people. It was a fun experience giving them the photos and photographing the encounter. For the next couple months I tried to return to places visited in the seventies for a time travel series. <br>

Trying to re-shoot old photos does have its dangers. While trying to photograph a group of women working in a field, I had a close encounter of the cobra kind. And yes I got a photo of the snake, but not the women at work.<br>

After the recent "Calling Christchurch" motorcycle thread I've been tempted to post the time travel series here. Would they be out of place in this forum?<br>

Glenn<br>

The attached photo was from the Marrakesh bazaar during Ramadan. Food stalls were busy after sunset when fasts were broken. Ca. 1971 </p>

<p> </p><div></div>

<p>Yes, this is really a fun thread, great idea Lex. I wish I could contribute but much of my earliest efforts are lost to time. I came into photography kind of late compared to many people and my first street shots were taken in San Diego and Tijuana sometime prior to 2005 which is when I started making the effort to organize my negatives. Maybe these early rolls may turn up someday but I'm not going to hold my breath. </p>

<p>2008 with canon 40d</p>

<p>herreeee</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks, all, for pitching in and playing along. It's been fun to see what other folks were doing early on. Since starting this thread I found a few even earlier sets of negatives, one dating back to the mid-1960s with my first camera, a Baby Brownie in 127 format. I must have been around 8 years old. Within a year I was contact printing tiny prints using a shoebox sized contact printing kit in the bathroom - much to the consternation of my family, since we had only one bathroom. <em>("What are you doing in there so long? Masturbating?" "Nooo, ma, I'm only 8 years old, I don't even know what that means!")</em> So far I haven't found any of those prints, and I was surprised to find even the negatives from my first roll of film.<br /> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17960345-md.jpg" alt="Mount Vernon NY playground - Baby Brownie - mid-1960s" width="680" height="680" border="0" /><br /><em>Baby Brownie, 127 format, mid-1960s when I was around 8 years old. Grim looking playground, hmm?<br />Dig that vignetting, soft focus and light leaks. Suck it, Holga, you poser.</em></p>

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<p>Also found a roll of 35mm Ilford HP3 Panchromatic "Hypersensitive". An overrated film, literally. Ilford was desperate to compete with Kodak Tri-X and upped the box speed to ASA 400 without changing the emulsion which was barely a true 200 speed. I seem to recall trying a couple of rolls of HP3 in a borrowed Yashica compact fixed lens rangefinder of some kind - maybe a Lynx? Disappointed, I went back to Tri-X. However HP5+ is a very good film - I have a ton of it in the closet. I still prefer old Tri-X, but the current version isn't quite the same. Faster, sure, but the sensitizing dyes and finer grain changed the flavor a bit.</p>

<p>Some older teenagers playing basketball - judging from the court and neighborhood I'm guessing this was an elementary school playground near Lincoln Avenue a couple of blocks from Hartley Park in Mount Vernon, NY. Probably 1969 or so.<br /> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17960343-md.jpg" alt="img034_February 04, 2015__LR4" width="680" height="413" border="0" /><br /><br /><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17960342-md.jpg" alt="img045_January 22, 2015__LR4-5" width="658" height="680" border="0" /><br /><br /></p>

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<p>This last one is more personal than street. My friends Warren and Mitchell, around 1970, when we were all around age 13. Tri-X in my Miranda Sensorex. I'm guessing we were doing the cover art from their upcoming proto-punk-polka album "Flying With the Blue Whales" by the Radon Daughters. Dig the indie vibe. We were way ahead of our time with that indifferent angst look. Reminds me, Thom Yorke was only 2 years old when I took this photo. He owes me money for stealing this look of artsy ennui. I'll settle for a backstage pass.<br /><br /> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17954992-lg.jpg" alt="img058_January 22, 2015__LR4_Warren-Mitchell_Mt-Vernon-2" width="680" height="1058" border="0" /></p>

<p>This was a great one, Lex thanks for sharing those. I wish I could photograph some of my youth, I can visualize the photos.. now .sadly they exist only in my mind. Point to ponder.</p>