Posts Tagged ‘street photography’
The London Street Scene
Is this deeply private photograph – almost an intrusion – posed? Just what is the couple doing? All we can tell is that an intense human drama is playing out at a picturesque setting. Apparently it is not posed and is a spontaneous exposure, for Stewart Marsden is a ‘street shooter’ who documents life in London. His images were published in The Telegraph earlier this year.
Cartier-Bresson’s “fleeting moment” is on show in this Marsden shot which captures two tableaus. This exposure recalls to mind another Cartier-Bresson expression as to the photographer having to wait like a “hunter” until the moment arrives.
How much more ‘composed’, in all senses of the word, is this riverscape. What a picture— we have much-photographed and romanticized Tower Bridge presented in a matter-of-fact manner, unusual in being full side-on, and as the backdrop to a lone youth and barges in the foreground, with construction work and a crane in-frame. One might call this image an exemplar of the Naturalism or Realism style. Good eye!
Here are a few people on the fringes of society with a couple of them wearing rather ‘spacy’ looks. But who’s that in the background? People smack-dab in the mainstream of society such as commuters waiting for a bus! Oh, for a shallower perspective (with a longer lens set to a narrow aperture) which would have brought these extremely different classes of Londoners closer to one another to heighten the impact.
Here’s a fine little slice of life on the sidewalk. First, is the blonde ignoring that pest Marsden or has she not seen her ‘hunter’ as she claws her hair back? Second, did Marsden ignore himself or did he not see himself in the window pane? Either way, ‘it works’.
Check out this lovely image encompassing two of London’s most famous sights. It is more artistic (note the symmetry and also how Big Ben is framed within the Ferris Wheel and how both are framed within the two buildings on either side and the grimy wall below), more alive, and more genuine than any brochure or postcard photograph of these two sights – don’t you agree?
We’ve covered only a small sampling from the first half of this 30-image gallery.
Marsden’s street shooting is a cut above; many of the photographs make you wonder what’s happening or make you just take in the scene. They convey both the throb and the tinkle of London’s street scene.
The “Fine Art Street Photography” of K. Chae
Logo for Leica Camera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Fine art street photography” – at first glance that sounds like a contradiction in terms and also seems a little pretentious. But before coming to a final judgement, take a tour of South Korean photographer K. Chae’s imagery and you may reconsider.
“My attention to color is what sets my work apart from other street photographers,” Chae says, in an interview published on the Leica Camera Blog. “People often comment that they confuse my photographs with paintings. I never shoot B&W.”
On that note, here’s Exhibit A: a luscious photograph of a kneeling, slender maiden writing out the names of bakery items on a display case. The careful composition, the ‘moment in time’, the ‘story’, the details, the splashes of colour – this is really a new approach to street shooting.
In diametric contrast is this photograph with literally two hues but infinite tints, a truly artistic composition, and an oddly hypnotic sense of depth (partly attained by perspective and partly by the combination of focal length, f-stop, and focus-point). It’s almost an abstract composition (and it would look really hypnotic on a large canvas).
This photo again is street shooting (frankly, at its finest) but here ones sees lines – including leading lines – galore, lots of texture, and a clear story – in fact, this one picture tells two human interest stories.
Want some more? Just set aside ten minutes, visit Chae’s website, and admire the enthralling slideshow. If actions speak louder than words, so do pictures, and Chae’s portfolio ‘loudly’ proves that his work is truly “Fine art street photography”.
Despite how Chae sets himself apart (as do his distinctly unusual ‘street shooting’ photos), like most street shooters his “primary weapon of choice” is (surprise, surprise!) that well-beloved of street-shooters, a Leica. He loves it “because it is difficult to use,” as he is averse to “current developments of cameras where it seems cameras make the picture for you.”
In addition to further particulars about Chae’s affinity for Leicas, the interview plumbs his philosophy of photographic art and, indeed, everything surrounding photography, such as the importance of learning and experience, the “shades of the earth,” and the need to nurture fresh talent.
In closing, if you haven’t clicked on any of the links above, take this on trust: don’t leave without clicking this one: if the saying “the eyes have it” is true, these ‘have it’ in spades.
Craig Semetko: Where Leica, America, and Street-Shooting Come Together
Here’s the second part of our exhibition double-header, following up from yesterday’s post about the exhibition of The Hyland Collection. I had mentioned that we’d look at “a virtual” exhibition “about street photography” “on a ‘name’ website.”
That ‘name’ website happens to be the Leica Blog. In their interview with Craig Semetko published a few days back, they feature a one-man virtual exhibition of a kind, America: E Pluribus Unum. The writer nails just who and what Semetko is in the very first sentence: “A classic street shooter in the great tradition . . . .” In addition to the images (click on the thumbnails for bigger images), the text is instructive as well.
Semetko is a first-rate “street shooter” – and more. Witness the arresting underwater set-up. The quasi-symmetry, the uncorrected blue cast of the water, the American flag – it all makes for a riveting photograph. What, though, could be the inspiration or impetus for this set-up? I believe it is an expression in which Semetko takes an observation to its (il)logical extreme: “[I]t’s amazing how many American flags you see driving through the country. If you’re looking you see them everywhere.”
For the most part the series of images and the interview surround the function and skill of documenting ‘stuff as it happened’ – that’s classic Leica style; classic Magnum style.
Reading the interview and viewing the images provides an insight into how well Semetko’s mindset on the one hand, and his street photography on the other, converge. For instance, he says: “A sense of humor is fundamental to me, as I believe it is for most people.” Now see this!
Semetko uses the word ‘story’ in relation to his photography a few times in the interview. Even when he tells the what-happened-next story of a horse in trouble on a snow-swept plain, the composition is just perfect.
Or take the ‘Slice of Life’ shot of three strangers at a train station. Profile, front, profile; each stranger disconnected from the other, and each in his or her private world. Each one of a different ethnicity too. I had never realized train platforms were such unutterably lonely places!
Semetko is one of the very finest photographers in his field. Any photographer aspiring to the Leica-Magnum ethos would do well to spend some time reading what Semetko has to say and – of course – learning the craft from a master’s images.
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