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| On of my feeble attempts at "Street Photography." Chinatown, New York City, 2006. (click to enlarge) Nikon D200; 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lens @ 70mm; 1/160th sec. @ f/6.3; ISO 200 |
Both what we call "Street" photography as well as what has been known as "Documentary" photography have been two of my favorite genrés from the beginning of my interest in photography. I'm of the belief that the historical value of images of significant events as well as the recording of ordinary life, culture and our environment is beyond measure. The work of W. Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier-Bresson, just to name two, amazed me with how they took ordinary life and turned it into photographs that always held my interest.
Henri Cartier-Bresson specialized in the single image to tell a story, coining the term "The Decisive Moment.," He was able to anticipate and capture an image at the very peak of interest. I think just about every serious photographer knows Cartier-Bresson's work.
W. Eugene Smith specialized in the photographic essay. W. Eugene Smith, especially, mesmerized me with his photo stories I first saw in the iconic weekly Life magazine. If you want to better understand what I mean, look up Smith's essays such as, "Country Doctor," "Nurse-Midwife," "Man of Mercy," (Dr. Albert Schweitzer) "Pittsburgh," and especially "Minamata," an essay about the deaths and birth defects suffered by the residents of Minamata, Japan from eating fish tainted by the discharge of mercury into the water by the Chisso company. The company even hired six men to beat Smith senselessly to stop his work. That beating cost Smith his health and just about blinded him. His amazing work still resonates with me today.
Developing a love for this type of photography early in my photographic life, I have become somewhat disenchanted with what I am seeing today as I look at street and documentary sites on the Internet and YouTube. First, I see so much boring repetition. To me it seems many photographers' work today has become largely shallow, repetitive and unimaginative—even mundane. Yet others are brilliant! It seems what I find on the Internet consists of the seemingly the same few images, only in different cities and by different photographers. I start to wonder if street and documentary photography is being taught by lessons that dictate what one should photograph and how it should be photographed, leaving out individuality and imagination. There is so much repetition nowadays that I find it hard to discover originality. Or, maybe its me? Maybe I need to look elsewhere?
For example, how many times do you need to photograph a person walking by? A person walking by from the right, from the left, diagonally, into shadow, out of shadow, partially in shadow, up an escalator or steps, down steps, etc. You get my drift. Fundamentally, unless that person is doing something interesting that captures our attention, in the end, it is just a person passing in front of the camera lens. The key that seems to be missing for me is the person or persons walking by the camera need to be exhibiting some behavior or some other "thing" that makes the image interesting. Walking by a camera has been done to death.
I've started to believe Street photography really has morphed into Urban Landscape photography with a person or persons thrown in for human interest. Photographers will find an interesting scene, park themselves there and wait for someone to walk by. Don't get me wrong, that is a valid technique. However, when using that technique it is now the scene, the background, that actually attracted the photographer and the person photographed walking by is just for some human interest thrown in. But the background came first. The urban landscape. So, is the image about the urban scene or the person's actions who may be in that scene? Or both? What should it be about?
Developing a love for this type of photography early in my photographic life, I have become somewhat disenchanted with what I am seeing today as I look at street and documentary sites on the Internet and YouTube. First, I see so much boring repetition. To me it seems many photographers' work today has become largely shallow, repetitive and unimaginative—even mundane. Yet others are brilliant! It seems what I find on the Internet consists of the seemingly the same few images, only in different cities and by different photographers. I start to wonder if street and documentary photography is being taught by lessons that dictate what one should photograph and how it should be photographed, leaving out individuality and imagination. There is so much repetition nowadays that I find it hard to discover originality. Or, maybe its me? Maybe I need to look elsewhere?
For example, how many times do you need to photograph a person walking by? A person walking by from the right, from the left, diagonally, into shadow, out of shadow, partially in shadow, up an escalator or steps, down steps, etc. You get my drift. Fundamentally, unless that person is doing something interesting that captures our attention, in the end, it is just a person passing in front of the camera lens. The key that seems to be missing for me is the person or persons walking by the camera need to be exhibiting some behavior or some other "thing" that makes the image interesting. Walking by a camera has been done to death.
I've started to believe Street photography really has morphed into Urban Landscape photography with a person or persons thrown in for human interest. Photographers will find an interesting scene, park themselves there and wait for someone to walk by. Don't get me wrong, that is a valid technique. However, when using that technique it is now the scene, the background, that actually attracted the photographer and the person photographed walking by is just for some human interest thrown in. But the background came first. The urban landscape. So, is the image about the urban scene or the person's actions who may be in that scene? Or both? What should it be about?
All this is not to say there isn't really good street photography work being produced. It us just hard to find and I applaud those who use their imaginations and creativity to create work that will be lasting and remain interesting.
The second and much more alarming trend I've noticed is that in many countries there continues to be a legal assault on photographing people in public view. To me that way of thinking and those kinds of laws have a chilling effect for recording accurate history. We need street photography and documentary photography. The two genres are being restricted in many countries as violating the privacy of individuals who are out in public places in public view. To me, that is an oxymoron. In my view, there is no expectation of privacy when you are out in public places doing things in view of tens or even hundreds of others. Be clear, I'm not referring to utilizing someone's image in a public place for commercial or advertising use, but for documentary and editorial use. Also, I'm not criticizing other countries' governments for invoking laws to prevent any use of images of people out in public without their permission. However, I must be missing something that caused them to enact these laws in the first place. I'm sure, in the minds of the legislators, they have good reasons. It is hard for me to understand, but they get to make the laws in their countries. But those laws will do history, the future and future populations a huge disservice.
How many times have you looked a images from the past? How many times did you comment about the contents of images made 100 years ago, 50 years ago or even just 25 years ago? Did you find them interesting and a bit peculiar and remark how much change has occurred? Did the images show you a way of life now long gone and cause you to appreciate the history and how we got to where we are today? Did you learn something from looking back at images made decades or even more than a century ago? I bet the answer to all of those questions is yes.
If street and documentary photographers cannot record "everyday life" and "things as they are," I'm afraid the past will then become what those in power want you to think it was with no contrary proof of what all of our collective pasts really were. The old notion that those who win the wars write the history books can become true not just for war, but for all of our daily lives and family histories. Look how history continues to be be revised now as we discover through science and other means that what we were taught in school and from history books was wrong in many instances. Street and Documentary photographs can keep the historians honest as well as provide great insight into where we were and how we lived our ordinary lives.
I'm a big advocate of street and documentary photography. I applaud those who practice it. I wish many of them would become more creative and not just repeat the kinds of photographs that have been made by their predecessors. I wish that I would have tried more of it in the past. I find history fascinating and educational and I hope these two types of very important record keeping don't perish under restrictive and, in my view, misguided governments.
Join me over at my website, www.dennismook.com.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
All content on this blog is © 2013-2019 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.
The second and much more alarming trend I've noticed is that in many countries there continues to be a legal assault on photographing people in public view. To me that way of thinking and those kinds of laws have a chilling effect for recording accurate history. We need street photography and documentary photography. The two genres are being restricted in many countries as violating the privacy of individuals who are out in public places in public view. To me, that is an oxymoron. In my view, there is no expectation of privacy when you are out in public places doing things in view of tens or even hundreds of others. Be clear, I'm not referring to utilizing someone's image in a public place for commercial or advertising use, but for documentary and editorial use. Also, I'm not criticizing other countries' governments for invoking laws to prevent any use of images of people out in public without their permission. However, I must be missing something that caused them to enact these laws in the first place. I'm sure, in the minds of the legislators, they have good reasons. It is hard for me to understand, but they get to make the laws in their countries. But those laws will do history, the future and future populations a huge disservice.
How many times have you looked a images from the past? How many times did you comment about the contents of images made 100 years ago, 50 years ago or even just 25 years ago? Did you find them interesting and a bit peculiar and remark how much change has occurred? Did the images show you a way of life now long gone and cause you to appreciate the history and how we got to where we are today? Did you learn something from looking back at images made decades or even more than a century ago? I bet the answer to all of those questions is yes.
If street and documentary photographers cannot record "everyday life" and "things as they are," I'm afraid the past will then become what those in power want you to think it was with no contrary proof of what all of our collective pasts really were. The old notion that those who win the wars write the history books can become true not just for war, but for all of our daily lives and family histories. Look how history continues to be be revised now as we discover through science and other means that what we were taught in school and from history books was wrong in many instances. Street and Documentary photographs can keep the historians honest as well as provide great insight into where we were and how we lived our ordinary lives.
I'm a big advocate of street and documentary photography. I applaud those who practice it. I wish many of them would become more creative and not just repeat the kinds of photographs that have been made by their predecessors. I wish that I would have tried more of it in the past. I find history fascinating and educational and I hope these two types of very important record keeping don't perish under restrictive and, in my view, misguided governments.
Join me over at my website, www.dennismook.com.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
All content on this blog is © 2013-2019 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.
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