Street photography

Kind of like clockwork somebody criticizes me for taking photographs of people without their permission. Someone, I suspect someone who has done this before, put a comment to this effect on one of my photo essays about Washington, D.C. They use the term rude and in the most recent comment say that I damn well better not take a picture of them without asking.

If people such as this are just looking for an excuse to criticize me they are terribly ignorant about what is generally called street photography (which applies to the beach as well as the street).

This is from Wikipedia (link):

Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society.

Street photography often tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment.

On the other hand, much street photography takes the opposite approach and provides a very literal and extremely personal rendering of the subject matter, giving the audience a more visceral experience of walks of life they might only be passingly familiar with.

In the 20th century, street photographers have provided an exemplary and detailed record of street culture in Europe and North America, and elsewhere to a somewhat lesser extent.

Many street photographers adopt a specialization. For example, some street photographers might emphasize the ugliness of modern society by depicting drug use, prostitution, and other forms of crime and/or exploitation. Others might focus on the humorous moments that usually go unnoticed. Either form is a constituent part of street photography.

Some of the greats of the street photographers are Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Alfred Eisenstaedt, W. Eugene Smith, William Eggleston, Brassaї, Willy Ronis, Robert Doisneau and Garry Winogrand. Before somebody jumps in commenting that I am hardly in this league I'll respond by saying that is totally irrelevant.

I'd also suggest that some of my photographs are pretty damn good. In fact these three of the four public domain pictures used to illustrate the Wikipedia article are quite similar to ones that I have taken.

Click images to enlarge.

Photo by David Skankbone

Photo by Jpaluh and by me below.

Photo by Ben Schumim above and by me below

When street photography becomes documentary photography or photojournalism

When street photography is used to illustrate a point such as a social problem it blends into documentary photography or photojournalism. An example of this is the Photo Essay I put on Capitol Hill Blue, Washington, District of Contrasts.

Writing about shabbily dressed people sleeping in a grove of trees near the Washington Monument or people eating food out of refuse cans can have an impact but take 1,000 words. One picture, as the saying goes, can be worth those thousand words.

Documentary photography can blend into news photography when the subject is deemed newsworthy. The lines of distinction are blurred and not all that important.

What each has in common with the other is that the people photographed don't give permission and often don't even know they are having their pictures taken.

Here are some examples of documentary photography becoming news photography.

The crowd sometimes is part of the story. While not much of a picture the observers watching the fire were probably shown on television, so how is it different if I post it on the web?

Through my two eyes: How I see the world

I don't know how everyone else sees their environment but I do know how photographers see it. Everywhere they go they are taking pictures in their mind's eye. Most serious photographers never go anywhere without a camera. Even if you see me without my big camera I probably have my pocket camera with me.

It's become a cliche but like all photographers I am always looking for moments in time to capture. My main interest is taking pictures of people but I've also taken everything from landscape, cityscape and nature photos to photos of trash hanging in trees in front of Newberry Street stores.

Most people don't consider that when they take a walk in Boston tens of thousands of people will see them. Tens of thousands of people will look at tens of thousands of other people. Most will look through them, though people watchers will pay attention to those they find interesting.

Street photographers are the ultimate people watchers because they not only are alert for interesting people, sometimes doing interesting things, but they are waiting for people who look like they will be subjects of a good picture.

In this era of people going about their daily lives plugged into their iPods and texting their friends I'd hazard a guess that a lot of life is passing them by because they just aren't paying attention.