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

By: Phill Hunt

Phill Hunt — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:01:46 +0000

Bait replied to:
Sorry Michael, I wasn’t meaning to sound snarky, that was never my intention and I wasn’t trying to bait you.

No, I realise that you didn’t invite us to look through David’s 1500 images, I was just overwhelmed by the sheer number of them and expected to see more of the type of imagery you highlighted.

Yes, I suppose it could be argued that all art criticism could be construed as such but I guess that only works if I agree with the criticism. (Not sure if that makes sense or not).

Anyway apologies if I offended you, that was not my intention.

By: Michael David Murphy

Michael David Murphy — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:32:03 +0000

Bait taken:

* Where above did I invite you to look at a portfolio of 1,500 images?
* What art criticism *isn’t* of the “it’s good because I say it is” school?

By: Phill Hunt

Phill Hunt — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:26:11 +0000

The more I look, the less I get from this shot. I generally enjoy your thoughts and writing, however this essay, in it’s tone and general vibe, smacks to me of the “it’s good art because I say it is”, school of photography criticism.

You invite us to look at David Yee’s portfolio; the link of which takes us to a Flickr page. I don’t have the time to flip though the 1,500 images (edit people, edit!!) but it would seem to me that the bulk of Yee’s very competent portfolio is comprised of the very type of imagery that you describes yourself as becoming weary of. The image that you have highlited as “terrifyingly original” would seem to be the black sheep of the set

By: Paul Treacy

Paul Treacy — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:39:12 +0000

Here’s some hardcore street for you…
http://paultreacy.com/street1.htm
Cheers,
Paulyman.

By: Paul Treacy

Paul Treacy — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:37:15 +0000

I’d prefer this shot if there was a drain right there and she’d dropped her keys… or some such.

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!