What is Street Photography?

[hippiebrian]

Hmm, pictures of people you don't know and didn't pose doing what they are doing. Seems this has been going on since glass plates. I think, just imho, the term "street photography" is a term thought up to make this style sound urban or "hip". I have a hard time, honestly, listening to any artist, be it a painter, writer, sketch artist, what have you, using the words "street" or "urban" and taking them seriously. I know it's a prejudice, but it usually sounds like someone, and we've all seen them, trying to make their mediocre art seem important.

I'm probably wrong, but the prejudice sticks...I'll try and open my mind I suppose.

 

[The_Traveler]

Hmm, pictures of people you don't know and didn't pose doing what they are doing.

I'm probably wrong, but the prejudice sticks...I'll try and open my mind I suppose.

I think you might be missing an issue here.

Good street photography points out something, frames something meaningful on some level and shows that to the viewer. It has nothing to do with where, when or who, it is the singling out of something that you may not have seen and capturing that.

A good street photograph has a point, it may be intellectual, emotional or cultural. It may be big, it may be small - but it has a point.
Cartier Bresson is an example of intellectually accessible street.
Eric Kim, otoh, is well-known but, IMO, does ambush photography and that style is easy to emulate but, imo, basically meaningless and even offensive.



Some of it appeals to lots of people, some of it requires a very developed taste.

Of course this is an ambiguous definition and lots of photographers think they are doing this kind of photography when all they are doing is snapping pictures at random.

 

[hippiebrian]

Hmm, pictures of people you don't know and didn't pose doing what they are doing.

I'm probably wrong, but the prejudice sticks...I'll try and open my mind I suppose.

I think you might be missing an issue here.

Good street photography points out something, frames something meaningful on some level and shows that to the viewer. It has nothing to do with where, when or who, it is the singling out of something that you may not have seen and capturing that.


A good street photograph has a point, it may be intellectual, emotional or cultural. It may be big, it may be small - but it has a point.
Of course this is an ambiguous definition and lots of photographers think they are doing this kind of photography when all they are doing is snapping pictures at random.

These things were also true when the photographs were labeled as candids. They didn't change when the term "street photography" was coined is kind of my point.

 

[amolitor]

"Street" isn't candids. Well, NOW it's candids, because "street" means whatever anyone wants it to.

It didn't used to mean candids. Or portraits. Or homeless people. I gave a link in an earlier post that does a pretty solid job of explaining what it was, because the term got hijacked by every hipster with a Canon 5DMkII and a purple fedora.

 

[The_Traveler]

Hmm, pictures of people you don't know and didn't pose doing what they are doing.

I'm probably wrong, but the prejudice sticks...I'll try and open my mind I suppose.

I think you might be missing an issue here.

Good street photography points out something, frames something meaningful on some level and shows that to the viewer. It has nothing to do with where, when or who, it is the singling out of something that you may not have seen and capturing that.


A good street photograph has a point, it may be intellectual, emotional or cultural. It may be big, it may be small - but it has a point.
Of course this is an ambiguous definition and lots of photographers think they are doing this kind of photography when all they are doing is snapping pictures at random.

These things were also true when the photographs were labeled as candids. They didn't change when the term "street photography" was coined is kind of my point.

There's a difference between a definition and a meaning.

 

[gsgary]

For me it is capturing every day life and hopefully catching something quirky

 

[rexbobcat]

Hmm, pictures of people you don't know and didn't pose doing what they are doing. Seems this has been going on since glass plates. I think, just imho, the term "street photography" is a term thought up to make this style sound urban or "hip". I have a hard time, honestly, listening to any artist, be it a painter, writer, sketch artist, what have you, using the words "street" or "urban" and taking them seriously. I know it's a prejudice, but it usually sounds like someone, and we've all seen them, trying to make their mediocre art seem important.

I'm probably wrong, but the prejudice sticks...I'll try and open my mind I suppose.

What would you prefer people call photographs taken outside in an urban area on the street?

 

[hippiebrian]

Hmm, pictures of people you don't know and didn't pose doing what they are doing. Seems this has been going on since glass plates. I think, just imho, the term "street photography" is a term thought up to make this style sound urban or "hip". I have a hard time, honestly, listening to any artist, be it a painter, writer, sketch artist, what have you, using the words "street" or "urban" and taking them seriously. I know it's a prejudice, but it usually sounds like someone, and we've all seen them, trying to make their mediocre art seem important.

I'm probably wrong, but the prejudice sticks...I'll try and open my mind I suppose.

What would you prefer people call photographs taken outside in an urban area on the street?

I guess the word "candid" has been around for most of the last century. It should suffice.

 

[The_Traveler]

I'm probably wrong, but the prejudice sticks.

I agree, you are wrong and you are prejudiced.

 

[amolitor]

"candid" covers a great deal more than photographs shot outside in urban settings, and as has been stated many times "street" is usually taken (by people who actually know what they are talking about) to be something quite a bit more specific, and not entirely overlapping, than "candid on the street in an urban setting."

Even if we assume that "street" = "candid photographs taken outdoors in an urban setting" claiming that "candid" should cover it makes no more sense than to say we don't need words for different colors, "color" should cover it. The sky is color. Apples are color. The sea is a beautiful pea-color today.