street photography - Parkwood Camera Club

street photography
public observations, personal view
Why street photography?
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Pretty picture syndrome
Telling stories
Making people think or smile or laugh
Saying something
Straight (real?) photography
For the challenge: it ain’t easy
But street photography and club competitions?
Forget it!
Some photographs
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Hands up if you think it’s a street photograph
Not necessarily a GOOD street photograph!
Northumbria
Alan Bourne, 2014
Southwark
Alan Bourne, 2014
Rochester, Kent
Alan Bourne, 2010
Maidstone, Kent
Alan Bourne, 2011
Brighton
Alan Bourne, 2011
Brighton
Alan Bourne, 2011
Covent Garden, London
Alan Bourne, 2013
Rochester, Kent
Alan Bourne, 2013
Brighton
Alan Bourne, 2013
Ipswich
Alan Bourne, 2013
St Mary’s Bay, Kent
Alan Bourne, 2009
My definition (sort of)
PREAMBLE: NOT THIS
”If the poem's score for perfection is
plotted on the horizontal of a graph and
its importance is plotted on the vertical, then
calculating the total area of the poem yields the
measure of its greatness.“
Dead Poets Society
However…
My definition (sort of)
All street photographs
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Show humanity in some form
Are unstaged, candid
My definition (sort of)
All street photographs have at least one
or more of these. The best have all of
them
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Story
Humour
Social commentary
My definition (sort of)
The best street photographs have one or
more of these (though they’re not
required)
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Visual jokes, rhymes and puns
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Juxtaposition
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The surreal, or some oddity,
weirdness, quirkiness, or mystery
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Strange (but natural) lighting
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The HCSP factor (“give us something
that makes us remember it”)
My definition (sort of)
NOT street photograph material
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Street portraits (?)
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Street performers
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Cliché: e.g. the homeless
My definition (sort of)
The less definitive stuff…
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Taking the ordinary or mundane and
making it special through observation
and composition
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Saying something about the human
condition, especially ironically
“Street Photography is an attitude, it is an
openness to being amazed by what comes
your way, it is unlearning the habit of
categorising and dismissing the everyday
as being ‘just the everyday’ and beginning
to recognise that extraordinary, beautiful
and subtle stories are occurring in front of
you every day of your life if you can see
them.”
Nick Turpin
“I’m trying to create little dramas that lead
people to think, to feel, to dream, to fantasize,
to smile… It’s more than just catching
beautiful moments; I want to fascinate, to
hypnotize, to move my viewers. Making
greater statements about the world is not my
thing. I think there’s a coherence in the work
that comes not from an overriding philosophy
but from a consistent way of looking and
feeling.”
Richard Kalvar
Quality doesn’t mean deep blacks and whatever
tonal range. That’s not quality, that’s a kind of
quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike
someone as being sloppy–the tone range isn’t
right and things like that–but they’re far superior
to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to
quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I
may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard.
But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that
has something to do with what he’s doing, what
his mind is. It’s not balancing out the sky to the
sand and so forth. It’s got to do with intention.
Elliott Erwitt
My definition (sort of)
Must have all these Must have one or
more of these
Optional, but each
one adds value
Humanity
Story
Visual rhymes and
puns
A portrait
Unstaged
Humour
Juxtaposition
A street
performance
Social commentary
Weirdness and
mystery
A cliché (?)
Strange lighting
The HCSP Factor
This list is not exhaustive
Is NOT
Revisited…
Humanity – ok
Unstaged - ??
Story – ??
Humour – ??
Social commentary –
ok
Portrait - ??
Street portraits
Can be a street
photograph BUT
• Need more than just a
character
• Needs an oddity
• Needs a visible story
• But it doesn’t matter
– still take the
photograph!
What about the “decisive
moment”?
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The decisive moment is not the same for everyone
There may not be one anyway
But if there is one, did you get it? Would the photo
have been better a fraction earlier or a fraction
later?
Good street photographs are
rare…
Richard Kalvar has been shooting street for 40 years.
He reckons he has 89 good photographs.
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Derriere la Gare Saint-Lazare
Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1932
What would a club
judge say about this
photo?
Iconic, quintessential
Background to it
Our criteria
In retrospect…
Methodologies
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Engage (HONY)
The Bruce Gilden method
Stealth/invisibility mode
Engage
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Talk to people
Ask their permission
Get their stories
Not candid?
Probably end up with a street portrait
Is it “real” street photography?
The Bruce Gilden Method
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In yer face
Flash!
Good interesting photographs
May provoke violence
Not recommended!
On being invisible…
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Blend in
Use small
inconspicuous
cameras
Avoid eye contact.
Use peripheral vision.
Look past your
subject.
Keep moving!
Stay still!
NO!
The Fear Factor
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Embarrassment
Invasion of privacy
Guilt
Fear of confrontation
and public argument
Getting over the Fear Factor
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SMILE!
Talk, be polite
Show them the photo
Offer a print
Memorise a good list of excuses
As a last resort, delete the photo
(Then go home and use recovery software to
retrieve it)
Excuses, excuses…
“I just shot this building in the background and you walked into my photo.”
“I’m a tourist and document life in the city”
“Do you know Bruce Gilden? He is even worse…”
“Do you know Vivian Maier? If you kill me, your photo will be released to public…”
“You should see Eric Kim, he is a creepy Korean tourist with a Leica M9…”
“There is this contest on Flickr I’m participating in…”
“I’m a photo student and our teacher wants us to shoot people. He is very tough…”
“I work on the 100 Strangers project…”
“I have this new camera I’m testing today…”
“I’m young and need the money…”
“I have an unhealthy addiction to ugly people…”
“Others use drugs, I do candid portraits of strangers…”
“You will be on television tomorrow…”
“We are making a movie, please stand back…”
“This is a crime scene investigation. I cannot answer your question…”
“Your wife wants me to observe you. You should bring her some flowers tonight…”
“Thank you, I will sell your portrait to a charity to teach disabled children photography”
“Give me your address, I will send you a print…”
“One day you will be proud that I took your photo…”
“No, I cannot delete the photo, it’s on film…”
Getting started
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Build up your confidence slowly – go somewhere easy
first
Try street festivals
Get the shutter clicking over (pictures of anything)
Take a photo of someone’s back
Take a long range photo of people
Get a bit closer
And a bit closer still
Stand next to them….
Once you’re
confident…
Tony Ray-Jones’ notebook
Legalities (But IANAL)
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In public places, you can photograph anyone you
like
You can publicise the photos, sell prints, and sell for
editorial use
You cannot sell for commercial use
You can photograph the police, but you can’t get in
their way
More legalities (But IANAL)
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No-one can take your camera or delete your photos,
including the police (unlawful destruction of property)
Shopping centres are privately owned. You can be
asked to leave and be banned, but security guards
cannot detain you (unlawful)
Dangers of arrest are: obstruction; harassment;
stalking; breach of the peace; suspected terrorism (but
police have to have a reasonable suspicion – ask them
to articulate it)
Don’t be a moron
Equipment
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Small and inconspicuous is better
Focal length 35mm to 50mm
Camera set up
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(You’ve spent a lot of money for a lot of expensive
technology and software – use it, so that you can
concentrate on observation)
“f/8 and be there” (greater DOF important to style)
Auto ISO with minimum shutter speed
Evaluative/matrix metering
Silent shutter mode
AF on all points
Use a Custom (C1, C2..) dial setting for street
Camera techniques
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SLR
Mirrorless
Mirrorless fixed lens
Camera Phone!
Examples…
New York City
Elliott Erwitt, 2000
Humour, positioning, angle
Moorgate Underground
Matt Stuart
Exploit 2D
Knoxville, Tennessee
Lee Friedlander, 1971
Is it street?
Observation, wit, cleverness
New York City
Bruce Gilden, 1990
Surreal, bizarre, mystery
New York City
Joel Meyerowitz
Positioning, serendipity
Spring Corner, New York City
Melanie Einzig, 2000
Choreography, juxtaposition, and
a dog and parrot. Are we
bothered by the slant?
Tuscany, Italy
Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1933
Foresight, positioning, humour,
social commentary?
Brighton, E. Sussex
Alan Bourne, 2014
Rochester, Kent
Alan Bourne, 2014
"Libby... was what we used to call a 'suicide blonde'
(dyed by her own hand)“
Saul Bellow
Him With His Foot In His Mouth and Other Stories
“Suicide Blonde”, London
Alan Bourne, 2014
Brighton Pride
Alan Bourne, 2011
London
Alan Bourne, 2013
Greenwich, London
Alan Bourne, 2013
Brighton
Alan Bourne, 2014
Brighton
Alan Bourne, 2014
London
Alan Bourne, 2014
Rochester
Alan Bourne, 2013
Brighton
Alan Bourne, 2014
Rochester
Alan Bourne, 2012
Rochester
Alan Bourne, 2013
Modern Tate, London
Alan Bourne, 2014
Rochester
Alan Bourne, 2014
Whitehall, London
Alan Bourne, 2014
Rochester
Alan Bourne, 2013