German Idyll Street Photography

[gross_holger]

Hello,

i have a new section i call german idyll with street photography.

www.holgergross.com

Comments welcome

Holger

[bacsa]

What exactly do you want to say with the fact that 90% of the people have their backs turned towards the camera?

[gross_holger]

* E-mail csab' józsa:

 

Biography

 

c'mon, don't be ridiculous, who would care about what i've done and where and why.

[bacsa]

I don't understand the relevance of your "answer" above (yes that's my "biography" here). However, my question was serious.

[joris_van_looveren]

You can ignore my opinion too, but the fact that there are many backs in the pictures does stand out. It makes "german idyll" sound almost ironic.

[andrew_lee2]

<i>What exactly do you want to say with the fact that 90% of the people have their backs turned towards the camera</i> <p>

The importance of this is debatable, I think. Holger shows a good eye for composition, better than many here. There are also fewer behinds and backs of heads in the other sections. So, I don't think Holger is simply being chickensh*t.

[gross_holger]

Thanks andrew, you got it. Bye the way, really great Conney Island and new york street work. Your work shows where the name street photography comes from. I hope you continue your series.

Holger

[leslie_cheung]

so then why did you shoot from the back? I'm just curious...

[._._z]

Is German idyll street photography anything like a German sense of humor?

[dirk-san1]

I have seen much worse in terms of backs elsewhere and they seem part of the

programme here. Fair enough.

 

Still, this series fails to arrest me. It seems like a half-decent idea, albeit

seemingly executed incoherently and immaturely. I prefer the tourists series in principle,

but it also suffers from the same problems. I would tighten things up a lot more,

conceptually and technically.

[john_glasser]

I liked the beach picture with the bike.

 

John

[jack_lo_..._t_o]

The third one in the "Colour Portraits". I like!

[bruno]

So, it's clear that nobody of you criticizers has ever tried to shoot street in Germany!

 

Now, this depends a lot from personal approach, but sometimes I see street photography as a documentary of every day life. Germans are difficult to approach, they're rushing, their towns are highly livable and efficient, but they don't have the beauty of Paris or the mood of NY.

 

Germany is the place in Europe where the "consume society" shows it's worst. Forget that you walk on the street and you can get any kind of contact with people (also without camera). And don't try to ask for a cigarette...

 

Of course there are a lots of good things in Germany, otherwise I won't live here, but Holger just showed what you get on any german street (or beach) on any crowded weekend.

 

I see Holger's work, here, going a little bit in the direction of Martin Parr. Yes, there are things to improve, but there are also 3 or 4 gems inside his section... I understand that the "Idyll" is highly ironic and extremely critic.

 

Germany is giving me a lots of troubles for street photography, it just doesn't come in the conventional way you might think about when you name people like Bresson or Riboud or Erwitt... just take a look at "Europeans" from Bresson and see how different the german pictures are from the rest... there is (among others) the "Parr approach", but I don't feel anymore confortable with it...

[emre]

If people only want to show each other their backs Germany does not sound like a place I would like to live. Maybe the rural areas are more hospitable?

[._._z]

I've seen a lot of more incisive German street photography, Bruno. This is less, um,

idyllic.

[Jochen_S]

O.K. sometimes to many backs, but 60% seem O.K. I wouldn't believe most fat sunburned Germans would like to find their faces on the web, so it seems really well done to me.

[bacsa]

No I've never tried street photography in Germany. Just like i never made a 3-hour movie and I still think I am allowed to say that Titanic the movie sucks.

 

My question to Gross Holger, however, was not a critique. I was seriously interested in his answer, as to WHY are there so many backs shown on the picture, thinking maybe he wants to say something with that, but he failed to explain it taking it as an insult or dunno what. Well, what can I say...the photos were unable to explain why they are how they are, the photographer does not want to explain it for whatever hidden reason, i'm seemingly too stupid to figure it out myself, so, it's a bad combination. Goodbye.

 

PS: the OTHER folders are very nice on that page, i like lots of the photos. However, Gross was asking about this special one. If he had no other photos (ones that I like) i probably would not have bothered to ask him.

[jsbc]

I like the one where the couple sat on a towel facing the sea.

 

It is extremely counterpuntal to HCB's similar photo of a French party. Now HCB's photo is about idyll. Gross Holger's photo is about a serious couple who don't know how to relax.

[jsbc]

btw, about the other folders, there are some interesting compositions, and some that seem that snapshots, but presented as a whole, it seems a very deliberate approach to take note of the recurrent seemingly indecisive moments where everything hang in equilibrium. In fact the Idyll section seems to portray people who are seriously dourly trying to do nothing, rather than enjoying themselves as they should be.

 

I am not a critic (nor am I very good at expressing myself) but I also find that gross is quite masterly in his use of light and depth of field. Some of these images must be very 3D-looking as the central characters pop out of the background even in the slightly fuzzy webshots.

[dirk-san1]

This has nothing to do with Germany. These photos reveal nothing significant, and

blaming it on what is in front of the lens is pathetic.