In street photography the photograph is always more important than the photography. I like that because I don’t need a big camera and all the other photographer crap.
The classic themes of street photography are documentary. Eugene Atget documented the bones of the
streets. Henri Cartier-Bresson documented the heartbeat. Garry Winogrand documented the
sinews. Diane Arbus documented
the mutations. And Elliot Erwitt documented
the dogs.
But that's all passé. We've had about enough of that stuff now.
But that's all passé. We've had about enough of that stuff now.
I prefer street photography that isn't documentary. Photography that teases and distorts reality. It’s anti-documentary. It's irreverent in terms of the canons of classic street photography. Most of all, it’s anti-objectivity: it’s Gonzo street photography, where the photographer is imposing a transformative personal influence on reality.
That kind of street photography is just like improvisational
theatre, but with unwitting players and using special effects, props and lighting conjured up in a heartbeat and then blown to pieces.
YOU ARE HERE
Street photography is about showing up with nothing in mind. If you set out with a plan, you’re dead … you'll be seeking pictures, when they should be seeking you.
So, you are here. And suitably clueless. You see something. Something that's more than – or different than – what’s really there. And you react. Hesitation is a terminal affliction on the street.
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
This essay is about what occurred to me – what I reacted to – when I took some pictures in the street. Most of them have a Gonzo dimension; a few are more mainstream street photography.
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
This essay is about what occurred to me – what I reacted to – when I took some pictures in the street. Most of them have a Gonzo dimension; a few are more mainstream street photography.
THE GONZO GALLERY OF DUBIOUS STREET ART
BOXHEAD
A man is cleaning windows. He reaches into his bucket with a
sponge. An ordinary thing.
For less than a second, there’s an unexpected frame-wide geometric pun, like a diagram from an instruction leaflet: Tab A and Slot B, and all that. Now!
Then there’s not, and he cleans another
window. Ordinary thing again.
FIFE & DRUM
Rain and low light transforms a pair of ordinary
pedestrians into a cracked parody of a Revolutionary icon.
Initially it was all about their improbable marching-in-step here; the fife and the drum were the bonus.
Initially it was all about their improbable marching-in-step here; the fife and the drum were the bonus.
And that nun in
the background? It's Mother Teresa, isn't it? She was something of a buy-one-get-one-free opportunity. Never saw her at all, at the time.
HAPPY
COUPLE
A street wedding photo shoot, snapped between their
sticky-sweet official poses.
While the shrill and bossy wedding photographer prepared for their next elaborately orchestrated fake memory, the happy couple emitted an unscripted moment of
chilling insight into the future.
The groom evidently agreed with my own thoughts.
INTERSECTION
A wedge of sun slants down between city buildings and angles across the street, spotlighting a sparse tree. A quick push on the hinged window pivots a reflection into place, teasing a second and intersecting spotlight into being.
Then a car and a pedestrian enter stage right and left and animate the crisscross by hitting their marks precisely. Bam!
PEST CONTROL
This was nearly a fight. My hopes, as a street photographer, soared.
Unfortunately, it merely degenerated into some faux-macho verbal bluster and a bit of stagy pushing and shoving. Like those laughable street fights in West Side Story.
Still, for just one moment it held out the promise of more, and this was that moment.
DIGITAL
Raking low light reveals and amplifies a man’s alter
ego. His Jekyll and Hyde sides.
Two lines, or perhaps that's one line and its alter ego, hold the man's conflicting identities apart and keep us safe from the wall monster. Maybe.
Two lines, or perhaps that's one line and its alter ego, hold the man's conflicting identities apart and keep us safe from the wall monster. Maybe.
At the time, I thought I was getting only the picture of the two guys. The pair of lines just helped themselves to a supporting role. I saw them, but I think it was after the click.
EAT
MY SHORTS
A classic street photography theatre-on-the-fly moment, but still fun.
Only one stride
works though.
He nearly knocked me down. I was laughing so hard that I got the framing and composition about right.
CLOSE
ENCOUNTERS
UFOs hover over the city.
One step fewer, and they’re not visible to human eyes. One step more, or one step left or right, and it’s nope again. The alien invaders are cunning little green buggers.
One step fewer, and they’re not visible to human eyes. One step more, or one step left or right, and it’s nope again. The alien invaders are cunning little green buggers.
I didn't see them until I squinted into the sun. Nobody else saw them at all, as far as I could tell. There were no reports of it.
HORIZONS
A different kind of negative space.
We
have nothing when we can think of something else.
We
have something when we can think of nothing less.
We
have something when we have it so bad
That
we need not ask. We do not need to
Have
to become what we are.
- zeuszen
KITE
Flying the kite? No, the way I saw it was the child reaching for the kite. Reaching for something higher. I expected both kite and child to lift up together, into the low clouds and away.
Late afternoon light and some wilful in-camera negligence ensured that the picture didn't turn out good enough to be bad.
LEARNING
TO FLY
Father and son. Their senses reel.
Often scraps of Pink Floyd are swirling inside
my head when I hold a camera in the street. I don't know why. I don't hear it anyplace else.
First I saw the hand, then the sunlight skewer, and then at the intersection of the two an imaginary sign saying, "Insert man here".
Then the bloke arrived and self-inserted and the camera just went off on its own.
SWIMMING
IN A FISH BOWL
Two lost souls, with the Same old
fears. Wish you were here. It's Pink Floyd again.
A couple on a footbridge. The street lamp / totem pole wasn't really on the bridge, it was much closer.
I saw them with their heads bowed before the totem, even though they were actually just looking at ducks in the water below.
I saw them with their heads bowed before the totem, even though they were actually just looking at ducks in the water below.
But how many more pictures of ducks, or pictures of people looking at ducks, can we handle before we explode?
MASLOW'S FINGER
It’s a street photography
standard: the salutary coincidence of person and sign.
Nothing much new about it, but a slender shaft of sunlight gives its faint
praise to this one.
First I saw the hand, then the sunlight skewer, and then at the intersection of the two an imaginary sign saying, "Insert man here".
Then the bloke arrived and self-inserted and the camera just went off on its own.
MONEY
FOR NOTHING
Panhandlers are staple grist for street photography hacks.
The usual photographic mistake is to ask too much of the beggar.
The real story isn't about the panhandler’s ‘character’ lines nor the dirt on his face. Not his beseeching eyes either: that’s just his bullshit for the gullible. It’s only about the terms of the deal.
This is a picture of that.
The usual photographic mistake is to ask too much of the beggar.
The real story isn't about the panhandler’s ‘character’ lines nor the dirt on his face. Not his beseeching eyes either: that’s just his bullshit for the gullible. It’s only about the terms of the deal.
This is a picture of that.
ORBITAL CAPTURE
A mysteriously street-sketched black hole is
about to make a capture.
Blur’s not
always just an affectation. Sometimes
it’s physics. Sometimes even
astrophysics.
NIGHT
COMES DOWN
Darkness falling, and big fat starry,
starry raindrops spatter the filter.
That’s no time to be taking photographs, Vincent. Use a flash. Use several flashes, key lights, fills, whatever: might as well crush the life out of it completely.
That’s no time to be taking photographs, Vincent. Use a flash. Use several flashes, key lights, fills, whatever: might as well crush the life out of it completely.
PANORAMA
A stranger in town.
A Panoramic tumbleweed at my feet. A dog barks, offstage.
The Wild West is a
small place, up close.
I didn't hear Pink Floyd here. It was that Good, Bad and Ugly thing.
QUADRANT
A street classic, the Abbey Road
shot, but all marked up for a dissection and autopsy. In 4/4 time.
This was my first ever street shot, so the cliché is excusable I hope.
As you might guess, I was on a balcony. Not a bad place to start, because it gets you used to looking at things from an unfamiliar point of view.
As you might guess, I was on a balcony. Not a bad place to start, because it gets you used to looking at things from an unfamiliar point of view.
SNAP
Street theatre made during some actual street
theatre. Had to be shot from inside the
action. Somebody (Robert Capa?) said to
get closer. It's the street photographer’s rule-of-thirds: that two thirds of the distance between you and the picture shouldn't be there. So get closer.
It didn’t really look like this – the hand belonged to a player on-stage, and the girls were still waiting in the wings for their cue.
I imagined a black & white about black
and white.
TWIN PEAKS
The unwitting parody.
Street photographers, even the Gonzo ones, can’t resist this recurring absurd motif.
As long as it’s real. If you set it up, you're a … a thing that isn't a street photographer.
Street photographers, even the Gonzo ones, can’t resist this recurring absurd motif.
As long as it’s real. If you set it up, you're a … a thing that isn't a street photographer.
SOLILOQUY
A shaft of sunlight and a thick stack of ND
filters.
And there’s Hamlet right on
cue, muttering to be or not to be.
This picture was produced backwards: I started with a quick look at the complete thing and backtracked from there to find the start.
GOODFELLAS
Street doesn’t have to be black &
white.
One of these guys is me. Yes it's pretty cheesy, but I didn’t take this one and anyway there’s always got to be an author photograph on the back cover.
One of these guys is me. Yes it's pretty cheesy, but I didn’t take this one and anyway there’s always got to be an author photograph on the back cover.
Thank you.
– o –
TECHNICAL NOTES:
I use this little Oly, unless I'm using film or iPhone.
Always aperture priority.
Always spot metering.
Always exposure lock.
Always exposure lock.
Always ISO 100.
Almost always with stacked ND filters.
