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Video: Leica street photography


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No offense or arrogance meant but it really doesn't teach me anything. It's all a bit cliche IMHO. "Be invisible", "follow your instinct" a picture is a "frame" reality. Besides that, color nagative film in Sunny f/16 light, doesn't make for striking shots. I'd rather use Tri-X for the streets.
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yes, he really seemed batman, and it's the first thing i thought when i saw him!

 

but in some ways this videos are interesting: they let you see how a photographer works. I really would like to go out with a professional street photographer (do they exist?) and see how he moves, ask him what he thinks...

 

Do you have other videos of this kind?

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Now if someone could make available the footage PBS made of Garry Winogrand somtime in the 70's prowling the streets and doing "pik-tchas" now THAT would be entertaining and educational, for those interested in street-photography!

(imho J.M. has always been like Ralph Gibson for instance a second-rate snapper when compared to G.W. or Lee Friedlander...)

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Thanks Rich, real cool video. I sure like to see him do that in a small rual town. I guess in New York most people just pay attention to themselves only and do not care about their surroundings. BTW what lens was he using? A 50 summilux or summicron just wondering?
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Thanks for the link, Rich. Interesting. It shows yet again just how dead-easy it is to do street photography in Manhattan! In-yer-face behaviour like that wouldn't be tolerated at all in Sydney (let alone its outskirts, where I photograph).

 

BTW the Meyerowitz video is in Flash format. On my Mac OSX/Firefox you don't get a preview or progress bar or any warning to wait. Just a black player-window until the entire video downloads (approx 10 minutes). Not very user-friendly...

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Quite interesting. However I could see that people near him were not very at ease. I am sure that some of them did not care about him because he (JM) was in front of a cameraman.

 

What I found very good about this short film was teh fact that there are pictures waiting to be taken.

 

I would have prefered B&W, we would have focussed more on teh patterns and not being disturbed by all the colors.

 

A.

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Most impressive thing to me was that he uses his Leica while wearing thick leather gloves. I can't shoot with gloves unless I cut the fingertips off.

 

I think the video would be helpful for someone who's never done street shooting and is curious about how to get started. It's shallow but upbeat and encouraging. He should've explained zone focusing, though.

 

About the "invisibility": I think he's just wrong about that. I mean, sometimes you can in fact be invisible, it's true: In densely crowded places, you can walk right up beside people and take their picture. But a major inspiration I got from reading about Winogrand is that his approach was to be *friendly,* not invisible. Smile, be natural, say "Hi" if they notice you, look unthreatening. Not sure how JM fares on that score -- tall thin guy dressed all in black, jumping around like batman? ;-)

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The mighty Leon Chang: "color nagative film in Sunny f/16 light, doesn't make for striking

shots. I'd rather use Tri-X for the streets"

 

Leon, are you actually familiar with Meyerowitz's work? Maybe I'm alone in this, but his

color street work from the 70s taken in harsh daylight looks pretty striking to me.

Meyerowitz is one of the more interesting photographers of the last 40 years, if people

want a low priced overview there's a JM Phaidon 55.

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