Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/05/02

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Subject: [Leica] Street Photography: a meme created on the internet
From: mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)
Date: Sat, 02 May 2015 20:29:02 -0400

Good luck with that talk Gerry. I hope they shut up and listen and its not
one of those free schools.


On 5/2/15 1:43 PM, "Gerry Walden" <gerry.walden at icloud.com> wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> 
>
> _______________________________________________
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> information


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-- 
Mark William Rabiner
Photographer
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/




In reply to: Message from gerry.walden at icloud.com (Gerry Walden) ([Leica] Street Photography: a meme created on the internet)