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

[Sonny Carter]

The beauty of language lies in the quality of fluidity.   Word meanings
evolve through acceptance.

Dictionaries describe the definition of a word, they don't dictate it.

Dictionaries also tell us how we are currently spelling words.

Street Photography is a term like that; it has changed.

Another word that now has a different meaning to most of us is "mouse" . . .





On Sun, May 3, 2015 at 10:14 AM, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:

> Garry Winogrand called street photography a term I think he came up with as
> "an attitude" and died with: "2,500 rolls of undeveloped film, 6,500 rolls
> of developed but not proofed exposures, and about 3,000 rolls only realized
> as far as contact sheets being made." as he was discovered by John
> Szarkowski he could quit his day job and call anything anything he wanted.
> I
> think "street photography" is his term.  I was never into his shtick so the
> term didn't catch my year in the 60's and 70's. The term we used at my
> school was photojournalism. Nobody ever said "street".
> Phil,  photographers who use "cameras mostly in urban settings to capture
> the feel and look of life on the urban streets." are photojournalists.
> Documentarians. Threes no reason to come up with trendy meaningless terms
> which mainly mean the same thing.
>
> Try to find Robert Frank using the term "street". Possibly became its
> deceptive, meaningless and trite. A huge influence on my a lot of my shots
> were direct rip offs of his though I only saw it later.
>
> " William Klein (born April 19, 1928) is an American-born French
> photographer and filmmaker noted for his ironic approach[1][2] to both
> media
> and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in the context of
> photojournalism and fashion photography.[1]"
> He was fashion photographer who went out with his camera and roamed the
> streets after a job. Notice the terms wiki used to refer to him
> " photojournalism and fashion " does not need to use the term "street" on
> his page.  Except that he lived in Bleeker street.
> Klein is called by writers and bloggers "among the fathers of street
> photography" but try to find a quote with him talking about it. I can't.
> The man was a professional not a crazy dilatant.
>
> Lee Friedlander shot jazz musicians for record covers but then got a
> Guggenheim so he could shoot what he wanted. He'd shot famous black and
> white nude photographs of Madonna who got paid 25 bucks to model for him.
> " Working primarily with Leica hand-held 35 mm cameras and black-and-white
> film, Friedlander's style focused on the "social landscape". His
> photographs
> used detached images of urban life, store-front reflections, structures
> framed by fences, and posters and signs all combining to capture the look
> of
> modern life."
> In the wiki page on him this came from the term "street phototography" is
> never used on the whole page in reference to him and certainly not by him.
>
> John Brownlow was on the original Lug many years under  the Johnny Deadman
> byline (the only one who got away with that) and is a writer in the film
> industry is no slouch by far with stills. He was very fond of the term
> "street"  and backed it up with great work yet he was getting into
> photography at the turn of the  millennium when that's the term that was
> bantered most about on the internet.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 5/3/15 1:26 AM, "Phil Swango" <pswango at att.net> wrote:
>
> > Mark, I'm surprised to hear you say you never heard the term until very
> > recently.  I've heard it used for years to refer to the school of photogs
> > like Winogrand, Frank, Klein, Friedlander, etc., who worked with 35mm
> > cameras mostly in urban settings to capture the feel and look of life on
> > the urban streets.  There's an excellent book on the history of the
> genre:
> > "Bystander: A History of Street Photography," that's well worth a read.
> > <
> >
> http://www.amazon.com/Bystander-History-Street-Photography-Afterword/dp/082122
> > 7262/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430629487&sr=1-3&keywords=bystander
> >>
> >
> > The authors say that the term originated in the 19th century to describe
> > photographers who set up their tripods on urban sidewalks and offered to
> > take portraits of passersby for a fee and deliver the prints by mail.  It
> > evolved through the years to refer to other genres of work shot in street
> > settings.
> >
> > There used to be an online group hosted by John Brownlow that focused on
> > the genre but it is no longer up AFAIK.  I can't remember the name of the
> > group, but others here once belonged.
> >
> > I like the term myself and would happily use it to describe any work I've
> > done in that setting.
> >
> > Yay!  I'm a street photographer!
> >
>
>
>
>
> --
> Mark William Rabiner
> Photographer
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>



-- 
Regards,

Sonny
http://sonc.com/look/
Natchitoches, Louisiana
1714
Oldest Permanent Settlement in the Louisiana Purchase

USA