[Leica] GeeBee's 'Street' photography

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

Disagree away, Paul - but please go look at some books of classic street
photography. And by the way, as is my wont I left the most important
element off the list - ambiguity.

As to the bikers and the bar in the well composed photo - so what? What
does that tell us? That bikers go to biker bars? That bikers ride bikes?
That some people who ride bikes look like typical bikers? Now - give me
that biker bar at night photo, with a sea of bikers standing around the
bikes, beer cans and bottles in their hands, and sitting on one of the
bike, oblivious to the crowd, is a biker couple kissing, or engaged in
an obviously intimate conversation in a very public place, and maybe you
have something.

Of course composition and timing are incredibly important...but then
what?

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Paul
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 1:55 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] GeeBee's 'Street' photography


Wow... do I disagree with you!

The things that make great pictures are composition and timing. The 
subject matter is hardly important at all - something that all those 
people who think taking a picture of a homeless guy sleeping on a park 
bench is street photography simply don't understand.

Using composition and timing you can tell the viewer what it was like 
to be there, and that's what it's all about.

It doesn't matter a damn whether those bikes are outside a biker's bar 
or a flash shop, if you can catch a picture that communicates the time 
and place, you've made it.

What is good composition? That's a rather more complicated question!

P.

*******
Paul Hardy Carter
www.paulhardycarter.com
*******

On 26 Feb 2005, at 19:00, B. D. Colen wrote:

> :-)
> First off, I'd suggest that anyone wanting to do, appreciate, or
> discuss
> "street photography" take a look for minimal starters at the work of
> Winnogrand.
>
> For whatever its worth, street photography must contain either irony, 
> humor, or some degree of pathos. It has to say, or really show 
> something about the human condition. It can't just say 'some people 
> are fat;' 'a girl talks on a cell phone.'
>
> I don't make any claim what so ever to being a 'street photographer,' 
> although I believe I have a handful of images that make the grade. But

> doing real street photography takes enormous skill and dedication, an 
> amazing eye, and a willingness to shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot 
> and shoot and shoot and shoot some more.
>
> Since you asked, I'd say BeeGee's shot of the four? women with ice
> cream
> cones cuts it as "street photography," and the shot of the seaside
wall
> with the cup and the guy behind it almost does - it would work if it 
> had
> been shot slightly differently so that the guy's head seemed to be
> sitting on the wall like the cup. I'd say that this makes the cut..
> http://www.leica-gallery.net/bdcolen/image-68308.html - others may
> disagree.
>
> -----
> You shouldn't look at a street photo and say, 'oh, look at those
> scruffy
> guys around those motor cycles outside the bar.' Because if you do,
> you're just looking at - a shot of a bunch of scruffy guys around a
> bunch of motorcycles outside a bar - about which one would have to
say,
> 'And your point is...?'
>
> But if, for example, those same choppers are parked infront of a high 
> end boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and a Hells Angel Type 
> and his 'Mama' are coming out of the boutique with shopping bags, you 
> might have a good street photo.....

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