An essay exploring photographers and how they recorded people in their different urban environments
This essay will be exploring how photographers have recorded people in their different urban environments from the early 1900’s up to current times. Also to connect and compare the works of other street photographers, such as Robert Frank, Beat Streuli, Steve Paxton and Markus Hartel to my own work. Through the eyes of a lens these street photographers and my own work, have captured the essence of people’s day-to-day lives, emotions and situations. To capture them when they unaware, can show the greatest observations. This can be seen in my images, which are snap shots of people as they are walking down a street, these shots can be quite revealing. The photographers that will be discussed, who have used a variety of different tools and techniques to capture people on the street and have as a result produced varied and vivid images, have really inspired the theme of my work.
Robert Frank’s photography work goes back as far as the early 1930’s, which takes us to the early stages of photography. Frank takes extraordinary black and white photographs with lots of contrast. His images convey people’s lives and movement on the streets of America. Which ties in nicely with loads of other well know street photographers.
Robert Frank’s photography work goes back as far as the early 1930’s, which takes us to the early stages of photography. Frank takes extraordinary black and white photographs with lots of contrast. His images convey people’s lives and movement on the streets of America. Which ties in nicely with loads of other well know street photographers.
Alfred Stieglitz
Another amazing black and white photographer is Alfred Stieglitz, who was and is a well-known documentary photographer. Stieglitz took extraordinary street images in the early 1990’s were he clearly shows the distinction between different classes of society in his images. His work stood out from the rest of his contemporaries as he broke away from conventional photography by steering away from normal reality. For example, the image above The Steerage was taken in 1915’s; Stieglitz abandoned the idea that photographs should bear some likeness to paintings. He embarked on a new direction and was committed to explore photos in their own right. This was a big turning point in his work and also showed the excellence of his craftsmanship and seriousness of making is photographs a work of art in there own right. This piece of work discussed was placed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
His image has limited tonal range, which brings attention to the sharp focal point of his picture, also by using black and white film makes the viewer concentrate on the subject. He quoted “The scene fascinated me: A round straw hat; the funnel leaning left, the stairway leaning right; the white drawbridge, its railing made of chain; white suspenders crossed on the back of a man below.” His images evoke a feeling of movement, texture and interest with the opposing directions of the visual objects of different shapes; for example, the photo above is of a boat mast that cuts into the sky completing a triangular shape. It brings together the image, which simple depicts people; the felling of the ship, the ocean and the sky. This picture also portrays an economic division of society. The black and whites of the gang plank divides the picture into tow parts, upper and lower which is the symbolic division between two different classes in society. Below the line is the steerage that is reserved for people who couldn’t afford staterooms. Above the line is an observation deck for everyone aboard the ship. When he took this image he was set out to show the graphical vision between the balance of shapes and the social conditions people experienced in those days.
His image has limited tonal range, which brings attention to the sharp focal point of his picture, also by using black and white film makes the viewer concentrate on the subject. He quoted “The scene fascinated me: A round straw hat; the funnel leaning left, the stairway leaning right; the white drawbridge, its railing made of chain; white suspenders crossed on the back of a man below.” His images evoke a feeling of movement, texture and interest with the opposing directions of the visual objects of different shapes; for example, the photo above is of a boat mast that cuts into the sky completing a triangular shape. It brings together the image, which simple depicts people; the felling of the ship, the ocean and the sky. This picture also portrays an economic division of society. The black and whites of the gang plank divides the picture into tow parts, upper and lower which is the symbolic division between two different classes in society. Below the line is the steerage that is reserved for people who couldn’t afford staterooms. Above the line is an observation deck for everyone aboard the ship. When he took this image he was set out to show the graphical vision between the balance of shapes and the social conditions people experienced in those days.
Robert frank
An observation of Robert Frank’s images, such as in his photo book called ‘The Americans’, is that through his work he would confront hot political issues of that time and often put himself in very dangerous situations by documenting people and places not usually portrayed or published. ‘The Americans’ images symbolized American politics, religion, socioeconomic differences, culture, and mainstream thinking. Many of these images depicted racism, poverty, and despair, through his photos of graves, urinals, crosses, trams, bars, cafeterias and department stores.
His black and white images, such as the one shown above, shows white and black segregation on a bus or tram at a time where there was a huge political upheaval with the start of the civil rights movement in the 1950‘s. The photo shows that the white travellers sit at the front and the black travellers are segregated to the back of the bus. At that time, black Americans were considered third class citizens. In the background you can see building, shop signs, in the foreground you see shadows that are reflected upon the windows on the top deck of the public bus. One thing that stuck out is that these images have different tones of black, white and grey, which
Would not be as stark, confrontational and contrasting if it was a colour photo. These colour changes clearly section out different parts of the picture. Also the facial expressions brings this whole image together, all six individual people and one child you see here makes you consider what hardships and struggles have come to them.
Frank’s images convey an unsettling feeling of despair and emptiness that is transcended by the unsuspecting subjects he portrays upon his images.
The Americans changed the history of photography when it was published in the United States in January 1959. His strong compositional images caused huge political criticism, but also for the majority a definite confirmation on the injustices of a country with huge political, social and religious differences. Frank’s images were shocking because it was a mirror to the pathway of what America was really like and not what it was portrayed to be like through the media of the time.
His black and white images, such as the one shown above, shows white and black segregation on a bus or tram at a time where there was a huge political upheaval with the start of the civil rights movement in the 1950‘s. The photo shows that the white travellers sit at the front and the black travellers are segregated to the back of the bus. At that time, black Americans were considered third class citizens. In the background you can see building, shop signs, in the foreground you see shadows that are reflected upon the windows on the top deck of the public bus. One thing that stuck out is that these images have different tones of black, white and grey, which
Would not be as stark, confrontational and contrasting if it was a colour photo. These colour changes clearly section out different parts of the picture. Also the facial expressions brings this whole image together, all six individual people and one child you see here makes you consider what hardships and struggles have come to them.
Frank’s images convey an unsettling feeling of despair and emptiness that is transcended by the unsuspecting subjects he portrays upon his images.
The Americans changed the history of photography when it was published in the United States in January 1959. His strong compositional images caused huge political criticism, but also for the majority a definite confirmation on the injustices of a country with huge political, social and religious differences. Frank’s images were shocking because it was a mirror to the pathway of what America was really like and not what it was portrayed to be like through the media of the time.
Heneri Cartier-Bresson
Heneri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of the 35 mm format, were he mastered candid photography. However, his great interest was in street photography. He called it his life reportage; his style has influenced photographers over generations who have followed his style and fame. Many of his fans called him Henri the Godfather of street photography. In all his work he follows clear imagery techniques, such as: focus on geometry. His images show various integrated vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, curves, shadows, triangles, circles and squares. He also paid particular attention to framing his images. He preached that photographers had to be patient and was known for “The Decisive Moment”. However some could be spontaneous but at other times he had to wait for the right moment to press the shutter. Cartier- Bresson was an avid traveller and went to such places like India, Europe, United States, China and Africa. He was interested in capturing different slices of life and learns more about the local people he was with. For example, when he was in India he stayed there for around a year and immersed himself into the culture, so he could get to grips on exactly what India is all about or were ever you where in the world. This inspired him as a photographer and opened up a whole new world of images to capture. Another rule he had when shooting for himself was to only shoot with a 50 mm lens. Although when on assignment, while working for Magnum, he would use different lenses. By being faithful to that lens for decades, the
Camera truly becomes “an extension of his eye”. His idea to only using one lens was that it made him experiment with different focal lengths so that he could truly capture the subject in its essence.
He argued that ultimately you should eventually use only one focal length, which encourages artistic vision. After time you will end up seeing natural frame lines in your everyday life. These angles and distances are important to create dramatic effects.
He also believes that you should not crop, he argued that the framing should only be done at the time the photo was taken. So if any of his framing or composition were off he would disregard the image. Cartier-Bresson never had much of an emotional attachment to his image. Whenever he took a photo he would then simply move on and looks for the next photo to take. He argued that it is good to appreciate your own work, but to idolize your work to much can make you complacent and stop you striving for greatness in your up coming images.
These ties in to my work as it connects to the "decisive moment", to the point were I would walk onto busy streets and take shots of many different situations and sceneries that caught my eye as I stroll down the different city streets.
Camera truly becomes “an extension of his eye”. His idea to only using one lens was that it made him experiment with different focal lengths so that he could truly capture the subject in its essence.
He argued that ultimately you should eventually use only one focal length, which encourages artistic vision. After time you will end up seeing natural frame lines in your everyday life. These angles and distances are important to create dramatic effects.
He also believes that you should not crop, he argued that the framing should only be done at the time the photo was taken. So if any of his framing or composition were off he would disregard the image. Cartier-Bresson never had much of an emotional attachment to his image. Whenever he took a photo he would then simply move on and looks for the next photo to take. He argued that it is good to appreciate your own work, but to idolize your work to much can make you complacent and stop you striving for greatness in your up coming images.
These ties in to my work as it connects to the "decisive moment", to the point were I would walk onto busy streets and take shots of many different situations and sceneries that caught my eye as I stroll down the different city streets.
Steve Paxton
Steve Paxton takes portrait photos; he took many amazing images of the homeless in Settle. All his images have a story to tell as he captures the hardship of the subject’s lives. He also advises other photographers on how to approach the homeless, so you can capture a true image of the subject. He uses various techniques in Photoshop to create the distinctive looks in each of his urban portraits that are shown above. He prefers to use mused, dark, edgy urban images. He applies this type of processing because he believes that it suits the subject matter and makes the images more hard-hitting and dramatic to the human eye. He was influenced by the traditional black and white shots. He argues that this creates the dark, urban feel that most of us expect to see in street photography. He likes to sometimes vary this just a bit by allowing some colour in his images to maintain a high contrast. Witch he fell that it was common in any urban scene that he would shoot of the streets.
Steve Paxton inspired me to take images like him because it opens many different gateways for me to think of the different side to street photography. Were it got me to step out of my confront zone and take hard-hitting images of homeless people in London streets.
Steve Paxton inspired me to take images like him because it opens many different gateways for me to think of the different side to street photography. Were it got me to step out of my confront zone and take hard-hitting images of homeless people in London streets.
My work
This image I took of the city of Sydney, here I used a method of light painting. This is were the exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera or even the lens itself. The term light painting also encompasses images lit from the in borders of the frame with a hand-held light source. Light paining can be traced back to the early 1914’s when Frank Gilbereth, along with his wife Lillain Mollen Gilbereth, used small lights and an open shutter to track the motion of light.
My Sydney city image shows the clear technique I used to portray light painting. To do this image I slowly spun around my zoom lens 360 decrees to get this pop-out light streams coming from the skyscrapers. What I clearly see from this image is the strong contrasting elements from the different colours of lights, also the reflection from the lights of the building onto the water. As there are many different layers to this image, that is; the foreground, middle ground and background.
My Sydney city image shows the clear technique I used to portray light painting. To do this image I slowly spun around my zoom lens 360 decrees to get this pop-out light streams coming from the skyscrapers. What I clearly see from this image is the strong contrasting elements from the different colours of lights, also the reflection from the lights of the building onto the water. As there are many different layers to this image, that is; the foreground, middle ground and background.
I took this photo above on a bridge in Paris. A quote that represents the theme of this photo is “So I placed my heart under lock and key to take some time, and take care of me, but I turn around and you’re standing there with the lock and key in hand”, by Debra Cox. First off the focus of this image is in the colours that stand out. The green lock is the focal point, which is offset by the large bright red lock. These locks symbolize the strong feelings of love between people. Red is the classic colour of love, were the green represents jealousy or unrequited love. We have one clear element within this image is the that a strike out to me which is the way that this image flows in many individual ways that clearly connect together as one whole image. The gold colouring within the image sets this photo as a background colour that brings out the other colours. For example the reds, greens, pinks and the blues are all bring striking depth of colour to this image.
Above is a photo that I took on Portobello Road at the Notting Hill market. Again the first thing that stands out is strong colour. The photographer that inspired me to take colourful images was Matt Stuart. He has the ability to tell stories within his pictures. His images are all about timing and decisiveness, capturing an image at the right moment of time. He says that when someone would whinge about not having any good scenery to shoot photos, he would argue that being a street photographer allows him a greater choice and variety of sceneries. This image has greats depth of colour that makes this image stand out; the expression on each of their faces lightens the mood of this image. Within this image I was going for maximum effect with the use of colour and depth. To me this image has three layers to it, the first being the male subject at the front, then the second layer being the female subject and finally the background. The blurred background offsets the couple and draws your gaze to the smiling faces. Stuart quoted ‘The lovely thing about street photography is the best of is absolutely no way you can stage or even think of - it just like - it happened and isn't it weird and it is gone. I think the crazies stuff is the stuff that is generally real and the stuff you can make up is less impressive.”
Which to end, bring me to a conclusion this is why I love street photography so much as there is so many different variety’s, colour’s, structures, objects and people that change the way you see life around us whenever you walk down any street in any country around the world, were you can always get inspired with what ever you see.