[Leica] Street Photography: a meme created on the internet

[Gerry Walden]

Mark

Of course you are right! I have been shooting for 50+ years, and have always photographed what is around me as most photographers of our age have. The term ‘street photography’ is a new phenomenon which has appeared very recently and most of the modern so called gurus of the art form haven’t been alive long enough to warrant the fame they have acquired.

As an aside I have just been asked if I would do a talk to a high school photography goup about what it was like in the ‘old days’ when we shot film. I am now officially of historical interest it would appear!

Gerry

Gerry Walden
023 8046 3076

> On 2 May 2015, at 17:46, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:
> 
> I was just looking at the Wiki on "Street Photography."
> At the top of it is a box with words in it which says:
> "This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help
> improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced
> material may be challenged and removed. (December 2013)"
> We see these a lot on Wiki it would seem to be a basic BS alert.
> In other words caution; what you are about to read was made up off the top
> of the head of the person writing it. It's meme making.
> I started shooting Tri X in 1965 and doing and reading everything I could
> get my hands on on photography and I'm trying to remember the first time I
> ever heard the term "Street Photography." as it was sure as heck not in the
> 60's or 70's. And I'm not sure about the 80's or 90's either and my memory
> is pretty good but I cant remember when I started thinking that.
> The internet has gotten photo enthusiasts and photographers talking on a
> level we could not imagine in the Shutterbug 80's. I think the internet hit
> in the mid 90's. Was that when AOL bit it and we didn't have to pay by the
> minute any more?
> I think in the history of "Street Photography" most of the "Street
> Photographers if you told them they were doing "Street Photography." would
> look at you like you were nuts they had never heard the term.
> I think the term came out in the late 90's with chat lists on the internet
> but I'm looking for other peoples recollection on it. As mine is clouded
> with decades of me being me.
> 
> I'd heard of Atget as being the Bach or Shakespeare or Einstein or Freud of
> photographers in other words.... The Man. But just the other day I'd heard
> of him as "the father of street photographers" and as he shot mainly
> lifeless facades of buildings as I mainly do I found that both invigorating
> and unnerving.
> He is mentioned as such in the Wiki thing on so called street photography.
> I think it may be about the time we draw back the certain on this so called
> street photography thing (meme) and find out what's really going on. Is it
> for real or not? Because I think its a classic case of people making up
> stuff as they go along and calling it history or reality. I'd call it meme
> making.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography
> I think we need to get in touch with what scientists call their "Baloney
> Detection kit". An idea I think put together by Carl Sagan.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography
> http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mark William Rabiner
> Photographer
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information