[Leica] To SP or not SP

[Martin Howard <mvhoward@mac.com>]

Jeffrey Smith wrote something that seemed to suggest that street 
photography (SP) in New Orleans is difficult because it's limited in 
size.

I, of course, disagree.

There are a lot of SP chichés out there.  A lot of discussion around SP 
tends to make the assumption that, unless you're doing the in-yer-face, 
funky-angle, Gary Winogrand thang, you're not really doing street 
photography. (BTW: How does the man spell his name!?)

Of course, nothing could be more wrong.

Following chichés is easy, which is why you find endless numbers of 
500-page paperback novels in the adventure and sci-fi sections of 
bookstores.  What is difficult is going beyond them.

I'll preface all of this by saying that I am not an SP photographer 
(hell, I'm not even a photographer!).  I'm in academia, which means 
I've made a career out of telling others how they should do what I 
myself do badly, so take the following with an appropriate grain of 
salt.

To me, SP is about documenting life as it is in a public space.  Having 
spent a little time in New Orleans, I know that it has a fair number of 
public spaces.  True, a number of them are "touristic", but that is 
part of the city.  It's part of what makes New Orleans New Orleans.

The challenge, then, is to think about how you'd photograph those 
public spaces in such a manner that it captures whatever New Orleans 
means to you.  It's about communicating that to the rest of us, so that 
we can see *your* New Orleans.  You can't really go wrong: whatever you 
see is whatever you see.

I think the mark between good photographers and people like me who just 
take pictures is consistency of vision.  When I look at the work of 
good photographers, both living and dead, the hallmark seems to be that 
they consistently shoot (or edit...) in a particular way.  Think not of 
individual photographs, but in terms of a portfolio.  How does each 
image fit into a great whole?

One trick appears to be to settle on a particular small detail and then 
pursue that ruthlessly.  People with dogs, perhaps.  Or the theme 
"Lost".  Or "Contrast".  I think inspriation, creativity, and the mind 
as a whole needs a foothold to get going -- otherwise to tend to be 
overwhelmed by the possibilities and your stuff ends up all over the 
place (I know mine does).

Food for thought, and perhaps even inspiration?

Good luck, in any case.

M.

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