Comments on: Street Photography’s Killing Me Softly, With Its Song (Part 1)

By: GreenTrees

GreenTrees — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:39:27 +0000

glad to see matthew baum mentioned above (www.matthewbaum.com). i have noticed his work increasingly over the last year…most recently on a 50 foot screen at the recent Slideluck Potshow (www.slideluckpotshow.com) and it blew me away…definitely taking tired old street photography into the 21st century.

By: Stan B

Stan B — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:48:03 +0000

What makes this photograph such an “unusual” hybrid success is that it takes the stop motion (in)decisive moment of urban street photography and transplants it into the more suburban environs of the color aesthetic that has so dominated the photo art market for the past several decades.

Place that same figure (in B&W or color) in the same mid motion position next to the same car on a city street, and you’d have yet another street photograph appreciated only by other street photographers…

By: chris

chris — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:47:49 +0000

visual prosciutto! …good! i like it!

although, by your definition, i’d say, while this image does hint at the zipzap half of the recipe, it clearly lacks the organization of scene necessary to make as savory as it could be…

i’ve been lurking, and i like your words very much. i usually prefer to lurk, and very rarely comment, but “visual proscuitto”?… i just had to say something!

thanks for your eloquence.

By: Tim Lewis

Tim Lewis — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:50:38 +0000

Another way to think about the often maligned repetition of images is elegantly described in Sze Tsung Leong’s essay “From A Picture You Already Know” available on the Words Without Pictures website here: http://www.wordswithoutpictures.org/main.html

The replies in the Discussion Forum are also well worth a read.

Enjoy!

By: kathleen fonseca

kathleen fonseca — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:09:30 +0000

OH-MY-GOD is this article well timed, timely, on time and about time!!! I shoot the street every single weekend ad nauseum. Well i don’t really mean it about the nauseum part because i can’t get enough of this genre. I also look at a LOT of street photography on the web. When i first began looking at it, it was mainly stuff out of Eastern Europe and i called it “The rainy night in Prague” look Could just as easily have been in Warsaw..you get the picture. Now that the fever’s spread, the look could just as easily be called “Suits dashing through a patch of light in Munich look”..could just as easily be Manhattan or L.A. Who’s counting? My emphasis is not what David so brilliantly focuses on but neither is it about suits striding past billboards with brief cases swinging from their robotic wrists. I wondered where and how i fit in and never got an answer, never heard an echo back from the great void that is the ether. But your writing, your stand, what you are so eloquently articulating has hit home like an overnight FED EX pak. And i thank you from the heels of my walk-worn feet to the blister on my shutter finger. This is the first thing i have seen or read about modern day street shooting that even begins to suggest a contemporary path forward for such a tired but i think oh so important genre. Thank YOU!

By: eyesee

eyesee — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:21:50 +0000

Please delete my comment above Richards as my security on the net is at RISK !! Not sure how though it seems my link goes straight to my e-mail account; not cool. HELP I’M
NAKED and caught with my Pants around my Ankles..

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:52:19 +0000

Hmmm - can’t see what’s interesting about this work, but I’ll take you up on your point about the “street photography of the past”. I think you are too concerned about the actual image. That’s not the point in my opinion. If the image is the main point then you are into contemporary fine art or conceptual photography, which is fine - these are all valid artistic themes. Maybe though you miss the point about what you call street photography of the past, in that it was image based and the image is dated. When Frank produced “The Americans” for example it was his vision, his thoughts (right or wrong) that he was conveying - as a poet, for example, as Kerouac rightly alludes. That vehicle is still valid today. Just there are not enough poets among the photographers

By: eyesee

eyesee — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:34:42 +0000

sounds like a bunch of mental masturbation too me. the picture above is totally stale. perhaps you should look at the work of paolo pellegrin, antoine d agata, or even jacob sobol all of which are magnum photographers. what about the street photographer boogie ??

By: Bingo for fun

Bingo for fun — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:59:18 +0000

Think the photo is pants, and so is the commentary. Street photography can be done by anyone, and most of it is pants. URGHHH

By: Which Main? What Cross?

Which Main? What Cross? — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:06:32 +0000

Hi,
I have been clicking pictures of the streets of the city I live in for the last 2 years with a point and shoot camera. After reading your post, I’m left wondering if my pictures make any sense.