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| Re: Street Photography today [message #148 is a reply to message #73 ] |
Fri, 08 April 2005 17:56   |
 Pedro Meyer
Messages: 202
Registered: March 2005 |
Senior Member |
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Doug,
Let me add a few other complications to this issue of street photography, that you have not mentioned. One that is most important is "security". In Mexico City, for instance, it would be insane to go walking in the streets with a camera hanging around your neck, unless you don't worry about being mugged. But Mexico City is not alone in this aspect, most big cities which have economic problems have a high degree of delinquency going on. Another very interesting phenomenon, which can be seen in most big US cities, is that life on the streets has been displaced towards life in the "shopping mall", and as you know there it is forbiden to photograph without express consent from the owners of the mall, so the traditional activity on the street has evaporated in most places. With all these realities, some legal, some related to poverty, some realted to wealth, "street photography" seems to be an activity of a by gone era.
All best to you
Pedro Meyer
Publisher of ZoneZero
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| Re: Street Photography today [message #149 is a reply to message #73 ] |
Fri, 08 April 2005 18:12 |
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11:38am Jan 12, 1999
Yes street seems to be ,not dead, but killed. Not only dose it seem as though there is an abnormaly high number of people obsessed with not haveing there photo posably taking, but at the same time popular respect for talent involved has been utterly diminished. At the university were I study fine art the profesers diminish the prosses of street photography as being as relivent to contemporary art as abstract expretionism. I have often been told "yea it was interesting in the 40's, but why don't you try to do something relivent".
Wile I see there point, with respect to the history involved, I do not beleave street photography is irrelavent to the contemporary art prosses. It seems to be more simmular to a form of public art (however dyslexic the theoretical interpritation is). Street work is art directly from the actions of the public, it is not only giving to them but showing them as well.
[Updated on: Fri, 08 April 2005 18:12]
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| Re: Street Photography today [message #150 is a reply to message #73 ] |
Fri, 08 April 2005 18:22 |
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Rumors of the death of street photography have been greatly exagerated. Yes more limitations have been placed on street shooters, but you can still stroll down 5th Ave. in NYC during lunch hour and shoot to your heart's content (I did it two weeks ago without incident, and have been doing street photography continuously since 1977 with only three adverse reactions--all took place before 1980!). I know of a number of active street shooters in cities around the world whose presence and work do not cause any negative responses like the ones described.
I think the reason some folks think the era of street photography has passed is becuase there are so few venues to show new work. Galleries want preconception-based "art", and apparently street photography doesn't fall into this category. Book publishers won't touch it, and the number of magazines that are willing to publish street work pay peanuts and have small circulation. Galleries? Very rare. And agencies won't sell anything commercially if it has recognizable faces without model releases.
As long as there are people in public places and people curious about what they look like photographed, there will be street photography. I do hope more outlets for street photography open up, and am hopeful that the Web will be instrumental in this process. In the meantime, I suggest all street photographers should take a day job to support their habit!
PS--you can view some of my older street work at http://www.photogs.com/mrphotos/mrphotos1.html. New work is coming soon!
Cheers and thanks for letting me vent,
Mason Resnick
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| Re: Street Photography today [message #152 is a reply to message #73 ] |
Fri, 08 April 2005 18:26 |
mccullogh, john
Messages: 3
Registered: April 2005 |
Junior Member |
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07:24pm Nov 30, 1999
Pedro;
thank you for your fast response.I would like to hear some opinions on the book Bystander by joel Meyorwitz/Westerbook.Did all the bases get covered or was a lot left out?Meyorwitz was a very good street photographer and can write well .I wish he had ga little deeper.His remeberences of winogrand were interesting i wonder how he coul deve and print even anything close to what he shot and where are thosands of printsthat meyorwitz said were in the apartment.how much is myth?
John
mcullough.mmppj@aol.com.
[Updated on: Fri, 08 April 2005 18:26]
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| Re: Street Photography today [message #155 is a reply to message #153 ] |
Fri, 08 April 2005 19:11 |
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I think one of the best books of street photography is Helen Levitt's "A Way of Seeing" (text by James Agee) A native New Yorker photographing in her city.
She did photograph primarily in working class neighborhoods, but that is where people lived more of their lives on the street, and on the fronts steps of their building.
I send my students out with a street photography assignment. The rules are that your feet have to be on the same pavement as the subject, and no lenses longer than the normal focal length for your camera. (No shooting from cars, or across the street with a 300mm)
But as Doug and Pedro point out there are complications these days, and I warn the students, telling them to pick a public event, or the main streets of our downtown (Dallas) on a weekday. The tourists that go to Dealy Plaza are always fair game, or art and music festivals, etc. I want them to have a safe and hassle-free experience.
What is in the background on a public street can cause you grief, too. I made some photographs with the federal court building in the background (it was across the street) and I attracted 4-5 uniformed, armed security people in about 90 seconds. Being an innocent, I always trust the truth, and they accepted it.
Also, I think that people are both more media savvy today than in the 60's and 70's, and they are are also more suspicious of the photographer's motives.
Regards,
Peter Calvin
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| Re: Street Photography today [message #156 is a reply to message #73 ] |
Mon, 11 April 2005 13:09 |
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04:41am Jan 8, 2000
I read the responses to "Street Photography" and understand the concerns of all involved. I left New York a couple of years ago and now live in Birmingham Alabama. Not only is Birmingham a great place to live but the entire state is great.
I have rarely, if ever, encountered problems with street photography and that is especially true with the officials here. From the Capital to the Mayor to the police and fire department all enjoy their photographs being taken especially while performing their
duties. I have many great photos of all these people and the general citizenry as well. If I am asked by anyone why I am photographing them I give them a polite truthful answer. You would be surprised how cooperative the people are.
I would also like to say that I would not be discouraged by any so-called professor in a college or anyone else who says that street photography is dead. That just isn't true. You simply haven't found the right outlet for your work. There are many editorial stock
agencies who will use your work and you do not need to try to obtain model or property releases. You don't need them for editorial usage.
Of course there are areas that still object to photographs being taken such as museums or the Birmingham's Civil Rights Institute. They have their own photographic books that they need to sell in order to keep operational funds coming in, but other than that I have
no problem.
Just remember that these are Southern polite people and you should treat them with the same respect that you would want to be treated with. A simple "yes sir" and "yes ma'am" goes a long way here. Come down and enjoy the beautiful South and its people. Tell em "Hey Y'all Bill sent you.
Bill Griffin
Griffin Freelance Photography
P. O. Box 94625
Birmingham, AL 35220-4625
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| Re: Street Photography today [message #157 is a reply to message #156 ] |
Mon, 11 April 2005 13:11 |
Pedro Meyer
Messages: 202
Registered: March 2005 |
Senior Member |
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09:16pm Jan 19, 2000
Dear Bill,
Your comments are well taken, we thank you for them. The idilic nature of how you describe your city, somehow contradicts that which I have in memory about Birmingham. Was it not in that city that the civil rights movement met some of it's most brutal days? I wonder if some of the black folks living there would coincide with the gracious nature of how you describe life in Birmingham. Isn't it true that everyones experience is not necessarily the same, from one place to the next? therefore what for some is a real life experience about the "death of street photography" might not be, such as your case, how it is lived by others.
Publisher of ZoneZero
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| Re: Street Photography today [message #158 is a reply to message #157 ] |
Mon, 11 April 2005 13:13 |
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04:54pm Jan 20, 2000
High Pedro Meyer:
You are correct in your observation about the old Alabama from the Civil Rights era but there is peace here now. I hope that I did not paint an "out of reality" portrait of Birmingham. We still do have agitators coming from outside the state blowing up abortion clinics and just recently sending anthrax letters to the same. But there is general overall peace here.
I am originally from NY and been traveling here for ten years and have met many people. Most of the people are as polite as I described them. Of course people are people and we are the same all over the earth. You will always find good and bad where ever you go.
In NY and when ever I have met New Yorkers out of state they always seem to have that attitude. One of which I have shed like a snake shedding its skin. I have been in many situations where my camera has been set up on my tripod and while framing a shot at the
Birmingham Botanical Gardens I looked up only to find a line a people waiting for me to finish as they wouldn't walk in front of my camera.
During this Christmas (1999) I was photographing an animal clinic in Chalkville, at night, which was beautifully decorated. My tripod was set up in the corner of the driveway. A car pulled in with a family to view the decorations just as I was releasing the shutter. Well
obviously that can't be helped and it does happen but what happened after that has always left me proud to be living here. The driver came over to me and apologized for possibly ruining my shot.
I am not exaggerating or making up stories as some of you might expect. I understand that you will have your doubts as you are not use to this kind of treatment. Yes, we have some very serious problems also from murders to arson to bombings but the overall
atmosphere of Alabama seems somehow to soften these other tragedies.
I suggest to you and others that you vacation here. What I use to do is spend three or four weeks here per year and each time I stayed in another place. One time in Montgomery another time in Huntsville another time in Hoover until I became very familiar with the people and culture. I did this for ten years before moving here and I love
it.
In the apartment complex that I live in most everyone knows and helps one another, we all care about each other. When I lived in NY I didn't even know who my neighbor was and most of the time I was glad of it.
I hope you are able to come here yourself and absorb another atmosphere. It may make where you are living more bearable. It did for me as I always hated to go back to NY.
Bill Griffin
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| Re: Street Photography today [message #160 is a reply to message #73 ] |
Mon, 11 April 2005 13:27 |
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09:27am May 9, 2000
http://www.netway.com/~rmjohn95/
The Wista Photo Gallery is an exhibit of documentary photographs taken in Worcester, Massachusetts. The photographs are full frame black & white images.
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| Re: Street Photography today [message #161 is a reply to message #73 ] |
Mon, 11 April 2005 13:39 |
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03:23pm Nov 22, 2000 PST
Wonderful, wonderful site that is rich with vision. Although I am about to completely update my site, I hope some of your visitors will stop by http://www.streetshoot.com.
Many thanks!
Brian
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| Today's SP [message #162 is a reply to message #73 ] |
Mon, 11 April 2005 13:53 |
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12:17pm Sep 27, 2004
Wonderful good ideas! Will visit often,
Regards,
Luis
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| i like to be a member of photogrephers' world by DRIK [message #163 is a reply to message #73 ] |
Mon, 11 April 2005 14:14 |
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12:56am Nov 23, 2004
i'm a student of dhaka commerce college and be a photographer. tell me how i get reach on my aim by drik.
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