Thinking about Street Photography

Street photography has been around since the advent of cameras. Early photographers made street photographs for their personal interest, but it was with studio portraits or artistic landscapes that they paid the bills or achieved artistic recognition. To a certain degree that trend remains. I have yet to see a photographer admit to earning goo money from street photography alone. Despite this, street photography continues to be a genre that attract many photographers and many of them pursue this genre as a passion.

While there are many definitions on what constitutes “true” street photography, my personal preference is the one defined by LFPH as “un-posed, un-staged photography which captures, explores or questions contemporary society and the relationships between individuals and their surroundings.”

Essentially, street photography captures people and places within the public domain.

Street photography does not need to include people although it usually does. Some photographers feel very strongly about this and insist that if the image does not contain people, it does not fall under the true definition of “street photography”. I don’t completely agree with that view. My view is that any image as long as its situated in public environments – often but not exclusively, urban settings – falls under the definition of street photography.

Another important aspect of street photography is the sense that the captured scene is unplanned, with an absence of prior arrangement. Generic scenes from pre-planned public events do not have the same feeling of chance encounter and spontaneity. Many street photographers feel that going to an organised event and taking images there does not fall under the category of “true” street photography. Again, I am not in complete agreement. There is nothing to say that if a photographer knowingly attends an organized event he or she might not still be able to capture a spontaneous and unrelated street scene. There is some element of social documentary in street photography. If not, then all the images would be without intent. Images without intent don’t tell a story and therefore don’t leave a lasting impression. After all, if you cannot be stimulated to contemplate the story being told by the image, there is a strong likelihood you won’t remember the image.

Shooting styles are also debated. There are two ways to shoot images on the street, openly or covertly. Many street photographers prefer the latter. Being open about shooting a picture of a stranger on the street is emotionally demanding. It’s takes a lot of chuzpah to go up to someone and risk hostility.

When it comes to street photography, it’s quite hard to get good images. Sometimes you have to wait a long time for something of interest to happen.  (Decisive Moment)

While the debate on what constitutes as street photography continues to rage, there are some areas that street photographers can agree on.

• Traditionally, street photographs have been in black and white often with a gritty feel or texture to the images. In Black and Images, form, texture and shape play very a strong role in composition.
• Nowadays, the color medium is also acceptable. It adds another dimension to the elements that can add interest to the composition.
• Images with People (the preference being not to shoot the back of people) and
• Without People (give the viewer a sense of place)
• Gestures are important
• Unplanned to a very large degree
• Capture the whimsical life of the street
• The ability to capture a Juxtaposition of contrast (people or place)
• Should have Intent – the photos should tell a story. The intent is to give us a sense of life and contemplate what is happening or could happen next.

Subjects and settings can vary greatly but the key elements of spontaneity, careful observation and an open mind ready to capture whatever appears in the viewfinder are essential.

According to James Maher, it often takes years to formalize your "street" shooting style. I think I agree. I personally don't think I have shot enough to develop one or even start to have the glimmering of one. Right now I am just experimenting with focal lengths, lens, shooting styles etc.

The other point that I am trying to lock down is what am I trying to capture. Again, according to James Maher, over an extended period of time, street photographers develop a theme. Whether its capturing dystopic circumstances, representing a personal set of beliefs (social, cultural or religious) or just simply representing a series of travel book pictures in an attempt to show diversity and uniqueness of the world we live in

Am I able to articulate what I am trying to capture? Not right now. What I simply know is that I want to capture the world as seen through my eyes and regardless of the setting - so if it could be both travel based as well as representing a set of beliefs. There are many people who travel the world looking for "decisive moments" travelling to exotic places,  venturing into dystopic settings to capture those unforgettable moments and I envy them but not everyone has those opportunities and maybe, just maybe, different and enduring moments can also be found in ordinary every day life. I am simply capturing the world as I come across it. It may somewhat random, almost without any specific purpose, but so what. After all, William Eggleston made a name for himself capturing random, almost banal everyday life moments. Maybe, so will I.

Street Photography Workshop with Zack Arias

Zack came down to run some workshops during the Gulf Photo Plus (GPP) Week. Along with his usual one light workshop, he's also added a street photography workshop. Leaving aside the fact that he is a fantastic teacher and absolutely hilarious, I did pick up some good tips. We went down to the souk to try out some of our newly acquired skills. The first hour was really spent watch Zack do his thing. After that, the group split to take shots on their own. He spotted these two baluchi men walking about the souk and asked them if he could take their portrait. Obviously all of us piled on the bandwagon so to speak but this was really his spot.

Walking around the souk during the afternoon was slow going. Most of the shops were closed for the afternoon but I managed to find this young shopkeeper enjoying a cup of tea outside his shop.

A few workers relaxing in a corner of the souk, generally chatting and catching up.

I somehow found myself in a little square inside the souk area. These two men were hanging out on the bench enjoying the afternoon warmth. I asked them if I could take a photo of them and while one of them agreed, the other one made quite a fuss. I still took the photo holding the camera just above waist level and quickly using my screen to frame the shot. This was one of my few "guerrilla" shots of the day and I was quite proud of it!

The group crossed to the other side of the sukuk using one the underground walkways. I took advantage of a lull in activities to shoot this frame.

Finally, at the end of the day, we met up again as a group to share images and get's Zack's viewpoint. It was a good day and I am looking forward to participating in the next GPP event in March 2014.

Street Photography by Alan Wilson

I was surfing the web looking for examples of images of street photography when I found the most wonderful website. These images were all shot by Alan Wilson and his website is link is http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/. I actually wrote to him and got permission to use his images on my blog. In the course of that email exchange, Alan mentioned that all of these images were taken with Film which explains a lot in terms of how he managed to get that wonderful black and white gritty feel to the images. Of course, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed as well because I would love to be able to turn out digital images like these and I was hoping to be able to get some tips from the master on how they would turn.

In his email, Alan mentioned that he now working in color digital formats now and I am quite looking forward to seeing his images once he gets around to putting them up.

I found his work to be well composed and thought provoking. Actually, perhaps a bit too much thought provoking. I would be very curious to see if the same thoughts were also going through the Alan's mind when he shot the images. It might be that a lot of these are my own read into the images.

My all time favourite is the image below:

Alan Wilson (2002), Princes Street, Edinburgh, Available from: http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/ ; Accessed: December 18^th, 2011.

The first thing that came to mind when I looked at this image was that it was a wonderful example of two points within the frame. The second thought was how wonderfully dynamic this image is and not only because of the subjects themselves but the way they are placed. My eye went straight to the young woman and then across to the shirt on the wall. I liked the fact that there is nothing else to distract the viewer from those two images. If I recall correctly, the image on the T-shirt is that of Shiva, the Hindu God of destruction. In the Mahabharata, Shiva is depicted as "the standard of invincibility, might, and terror", as well as a figure of honor, delight, and brilliance. Within the frame, the image of the young woman comes across to me as primarily one who is defiant and angry. At the same time, she is very attractive (almost delightful). Both of the subjects within the frame are therefore linked symbolically and synergistically with each other.

Alan Wilson (2002), Waverley Station, Edinburgh, Available from: http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/ ; Accessed: December 18^th, 2011.

The second image that I quite liked was the one shot in Waverly Station. I like the way the figure (and I cannot tell if it's a man or a woman) seems to walking around in a circle. The arrows imply that there is circular movement to the whole image when in actually the figure is probably just standing still. In more basic form, I looked at that image and my first thought was "That's life, everything eventually comes full circle"

Alan Wilson (2004), Princes Street, Edinburgh, Available from: http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/ ; Accessed: December 18^th, 2011.

Then there is this one. How depressing and relevant in the context of today.

An image of a single human moment taken in 2004 but still valid today. I work in Banking and am constantly bombarded with stories of financial crisis, layoffs, bankrupty etc, it's really depressing. I know people who probably feel just like this man. This image so clearly shows the irony of life.

Alan Wilson (2003), Leith, Edinburgh, Available from: http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/ ; Accessed: December 18^th, 2011.

The fourth image that I picked out was because of the quote written in chalk on the street. The quotation was very familiar but I couldn't quite recall where I had seen or heard it. So of course I decided to google it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find it pop up as part of the dialogue from the eighth episode of the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series. It was aired by NBC on November 8, 1968 and was written by Rik Vollaerts, and directed by Tony Leader. As a child I used to watch this TV series avidly. In fact to this day, I have a crush on Captain James T Kirk.

The overview of the story around this episode is that the crew of the Enterprise rush to stop an asteroid from colliding with a Federation world, but discover the asteroid is actually an inhabited generation ship. All the inhabitants of this ship, except for one, are unaware that their world is artificial. He is the one who basically quotes this line.

If you extend this line to more metaphorical level, then clearly the world today is pretty artificial and hollow. People are losing their sense of self worth, increasing lack of religious and cultural tolerance amongst many is leading to more and more conflict (very unnecessary and unfair, in my opinion) and there are unknown forces at play that clearly benefit from this scenario.

Back to the image itself, I like the way the bars curve around. The eye goes to the quote on the road then moves up across the bars to the two men standing in the corner. They could easily represent that segment of the world which is often misunderstood.

Alan Wilson (2004), Great Junction Street, Leith, Edinburgh, Available from: http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/ ; Accessed: December 18^th, 2011.

The image shows an interesting line of repeating patterns. The figure of the man breaks what would have been a bland composition.

Alan Wilson (2003), Nicolson Square; Available from: http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/; Accessed: December 18th, 2011.

I am running out of steam here. I think I can probably comment on a lot of more of Alan's work but my fingers hurt and I am going to have to stop for the time being. This one I like because of the content of the poster. It says Cold Mountain and there is a man who is obviously dressed up for the cold passing by. I like the way it kind of reflects the general feeling of the image i.e cold day in Edinburgh. I am not too sure about the pole in the middle but I am not too pushed about it because it blends quite nicely with the poster.

All in all, these were great images. Each of them tells me a story. I think the most important aspect of street photography is that documentary, almost story telling context of images. If I can get a series of images that tell the viewer a story, I think I would be lucky. There are lots more on the website so really worth visiting the website if you get a chance.