For a few years now ‘Street Life’ is the name I have been giving to my brand of ‘Street Photography’. It’s a small name change I know and I’m not sure exactly why it is I call it that. I’ll attempt to get to the bottom of that in a moment, but I doubt very much we’ll get to any sort of conclusion, let’s face it, that rarely happens on this blog!
I also gave up giving titles quite a long time ago for my Street Photographs. If posting something on Social Media I just say ‘Street Life: Bristol’ or wherever it was I took the shot. Giving a witty title is good fun for sure, but one that attempts to explain what the photo is about fails on every level. It’s as though the photographer has captured something purely by luck and then tried to make something of a very ordinary shot by titling it. You know the kind of thing: “He’s not sure which way to go” and we see some guy stood by a sign post or “Into The light”. The image should be able to stand on its own and if there’s anything of interest let the viewer look for it. I feel that Titles almost force the viewer to decide without giving them little chance of deciphering the photo for themselves, using their imagination or in any way forming an opinion. Each to their own of course, I’m not saying what’s right or wrong, it’s just an opinion. I understand also that there are occasions when some kind of context in the form of a description is required.
Banksy? ;-)
Back to ‘Street Life’. Surely Street Photography is what it is, in fact I often think to myself “it’s all just photography at the end of the day, forget the Street part altogether”. Street Photography seems to encompass such a huge range and variety of photography though that it needs a few sub-categories. One could call it Photojournalism, but it isn’t really, for me that conjures up news reporting, war zones, protests and that kind of thing. Then we have the Street Photographers who might describe themselves as Humanist or Purist, the ones that are interested in the Abstract or Geometrical and those who dedicate themselves to portraiture on the street or some who concentrate on Fine Art.
For now I persist with the name I’ve given to my street photography, the aforementioned ‘Street Life’. It appears at times to include all of the above, apart from Fine Art because that always strikes me as a little pretentious. Why not call it Street Photography then? Well, partly because I try to depict Life on the Street, the things I see on the Street. Hold on! Aren’t I simply Documenting the Street or isn’t this a kind of Social Documentary?
Well, I suppose it could be. Though it has to be said that Documentary Photographers have a predetermined reason to click or a message to put over. Street Photographers have a more a candid approach, just observing and clicking at a moment that attracts them. We must remember that Street Photography isn’t a new phenomenon, something dreamt up by the Millennials, it’s been around for a very long time. Way before photography was even invented artists were depicting typical Street scenes. Obviously I didn’t coin the phrase Street Life either, it’s not new. That term was coined in the late 19th century to describe candid photos taken in the street. Before the war a french writer called it "fantastique social de la rue", describing the work, excellently in my opinion, of the early Street Photographers. Perhaps I’ll rename it that, rolls off the tongue nicely, only problem being that my work can’t be described as “Fantastique” and my French pronunciation is a little suspect! Besides all of that I like the song “Street Life” by Roxy Music, man that Bryan ferry was cool.
Remember back at the beginning of this post when I said that a conclusion is rarely reached on this blog, yep, you’ve guessed it! I suppose what we could say is that call it whatever you like, Street is the absolute hardest discipline in photography. There are good days, but mostly there’s bad days with Street. All the photos included in this particular post were taken in Bristol on a short trip I took there last week. I had a good day and rarely can it be said that I was pretty happy with what I produced. Partly the frame of mind I was in helped. We’ve had torrential rain for weeks and I haven’t had either the will nor the opportunity to get out in the street, I was delighted to get out there.
I loved every moment. People seemed to bounce off this attitude. The couple in that coffee shop earlier for example smiled as I pointed to the camera, gave them the thumbs up before I clicked and they obliged. Things fell into place or at least almost how I wanted them. Colour matches, skateboarders, a Ninja…as I said earlier it’s not ‘fantastique’, nevertheless;
I loosely followed my usual route for Bristol, mixing it up with some general street scenes and closer up interactions;
On almost every trip I run into other photographers. A couple of blog posts ago I met a guy using Medium Format, a Fujifilm from memory. Last week in Bristol I chatted to a student who had a Hasselblad Medium Format on loan from the University, she was completing a photography course and she wanted to take my photo (who can blame her!):
and of course I grabbed a quick shot of her:
And this is the thing about Street: Putting aside other photographers, it’s incredible how many people you meet. I always end up having a conversation with someone and often I learn something I didn’t know. Perhaps about the human condition, the individual I’m speaking with or the place where I’m stood. I strongly recommend Street to any photographer. It’ll sharpen up your skills and I hear so many saying that they’re lost for inspiration. Simply go to a street near to you and it’ll all unfold. Sometimes the unexpected happens:
other times we can predict roughly what will happen, wait and click…
What I will say is that it’s not always great and can definitely be so very frustrating. Generally I upload my SD Card the moment I arrive home because I want a quick look at what I got. The day after this I went into Bath, that was almost a week ago and I’m yet to upload from the SD Card, I’m fairly positive that there isn’t anything of interest.
I’m sure you’ll have noticed that there aren’t any Black & White images here, there’s no particular reason for that. I converted a few and decided that they work either way so best to leave them as they were. I will eventually take a look through last weeks SD Card from Bath and I might write a post on that. In the meantime here’s one from Bath I grabbed as I walked past with Sam and the children the other weekend. It’s in Black & White just to show that I’ve not suddenly become anti-mono!
As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are taken using a Leica M with Summicron 35mm Lens fitted.
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