Discussions about street photography

Barcelona, 2005
Photo © Ulf Fågelhammar
(they are not disussing street photography)


Have a look at some of the ongoing discussions about "street photography".

Nick Turpin, Sevensevennine(779) says:
"Less than 1% of the 'street photography' I see on the web is worth seeing, less than 1% makes me look twice and my heart race, less than 1% makes me dearly wish I had been the author of that shot...so why is that other 99% there?"
(It is worth remembering that it is forbidden to photograph people in the streets in many countries - I think I would rather see some "crappy" pictures from such places than the "humouristic" and calculated work by for example Matt Stuart who Mr Turpin apparently consider is a genius) - Mr Urbano

Blake Andrews says: "I think one reason is that street photography has become a sort of catchall for much of the non-project oriented photography out there. If you're not a conceptual artist and you like to let your camera guide you, what do you do? You wander around with a camera and shoot what you find. If you're in an urban setting, this becomes photos of pedestrians and bums and pets and billboards and whatever. By default it becomes street photography."
(There are interesting articles in Blake's blog, but I am in great doubt about him publishing photos of Helen Levitt, HCB etc - obviously without permission) - Mr Urbano

The discussion continues on Flickr :
where for example !Jinju Pro User says:

I disagree. If a "photo tells a thousand words" then I don't think you fail if you can write those thousand words about it. the problem is when you can't write more than 4. "It's an umbrella nose".


If you are looking for the context of all this, you have to visit the sites that I have linked too. There are indeed a thousand (wise?) words about the subject (mostly uttered by men for some reason)
- Mr Urbano ( who happens to agree with "Jinju" on the "umbrella nose".)
"Jinju" is referring to a picture by photographer Matt Stuart.


Comments

LUC RABAEY said…
I noticed the discussion and followed. Interesting controverse. I can learn about.
cafe selavy said…
As my friend once said (he may have been making jest of one of my photos), "Even a blind pig can find a truffle once in awhile." Isn't that part of the beauty of shooting in the streets?
Rhonda Boocock said…
great to read...and what are they discussing in your photo?
br said…
street photography is plagued by cliche (as is painting etc etc). considering our amazing access to millions of images i think each person must find and follow the artists that are important to them. personally, i think the "humorous" fotos and the NYC long shadow photos are the most cliched of all. but some people like them, and that's ok. as artists it is our life's work that will be important.
ok....have to go take some bad photos now. :))
Mr Urbano said…
Rhonda - they are discusing Catalan vs Spanish, a hot topic sometimes
Mikael said…
Interesting discussion, photography can be bent in every direction and in the end its all about the individual subjective mind.
However I can agree on when looking at flickr and other photosites there is a number of so called streetphotography that not are worth the name and at the same time there are many outstanding streetphotos too, I think it comes down to be selective about what to show, not just take a shot of a street and call it streetphoto, for me its about capturing a special moment, an expression that make the photo worth looking at twice.

From a subjective point of view :)
Interesting discussion, thanks for showing
Tom Stappers said…
Amusing discussion about one of my favorite subjects - street photography - to which most of my website (with blog incorporated!) is dedicated. Some hard but true words spoken; really like it.