Street photography
Covering nine decades of street photography, “Everybody Street” explores the careers of many notable photographers, featuring: Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, Jill Freedman, Bruce Gilden, Joel Meyerowitz, Rebecca Lepkoff, Mary Ellen Mark, Jeff Mermelstein, Clayton Patterson, Ricky Powell, Jamel Shabazz, Martha Cooper, and Boogie, with historians Max Kozloff and Luc Sante." -everybodystreet.com
“Everybody Street illuminates the lives and work of New York’s iconic street photographers and the incomparable city that has inspired them for decades. The documentary pays tribute to the spirit of street photography through a cinematic exploration of New York City, and captures the visceral rush, singular perseverance and at times immediate danger customary to these artists."
“Everybody Street illuminates the lives and work of New York’s iconic street photographers and the incomparable city that has inspired them for decades. The documentary pays tribute to the spirit of street photography through a cinematic exploration of New York City, and captures the visceral rush, singular perseverance and at times immediate danger customary to these artists."
What did you learn from the video?
1) How do street photographers behave?
2) What kind of equipment did they use ?
3) What kinds of subjects interest them ?
4) Why do they like photography on the street ?
5) What are the risks involving street photography ?
6) What makes a successful street photography ?
1) Photographers move quite quick when taking street photos. They all have a different way on how they take their images for example most of the photographers crouch while taking their images wheres as other photographers stand still.
2) Different photographers use different cameras depending on how the photographer wants there photo to come out.
3) It still depends on the type of photographer for example; Joel Meyerowitz enjoyed taking photos of people and all the gestures they do, wether that's waiting for a cab or waving high to someone.
4) I think they like street photography because it's more creative and fun than an organised picture, for instance, a picture of two men talking to each other is more interesting than someone who just poses in front of a camera because it almost tells a story.
5) Pedestrians could dislike you taking a picture of them, turning the situation into a fight. One of the photographers named,'Boogie' was taking photos of the people in Brooklyn of them doing drugs. This could of got him killed.
6) I think that if a street photograph made people think about what's going on in the photo and makes the audience bring up a specific idea or feeling.
2) What kind of equipment did they use ?
3) What kinds of subjects interest them ?
4) Why do they like photography on the street ?
5) What are the risks involving street photography ?
6) What makes a successful street photography ?
1) Photographers move quite quick when taking street photos. They all have a different way on how they take their images for example most of the photographers crouch while taking their images wheres as other photographers stand still.
2) Different photographers use different cameras depending on how the photographer wants there photo to come out.
3) It still depends on the type of photographer for example; Joel Meyerowitz enjoyed taking photos of people and all the gestures they do, wether that's waiting for a cab or waving high to someone.
4) I think they like street photography because it's more creative and fun than an organised picture, for instance, a picture of two men talking to each other is more interesting than someone who just poses in front of a camera because it almost tells a story.
5) Pedestrians could dislike you taking a picture of them, turning the situation into a fight. One of the photographers named,'Boogie' was taking photos of the people in Brooklyn of them doing drugs. This could of got him killed.
6) I think that if a street photograph made people think about what's going on in the photo and makes the audience bring up a specific idea or feeling.
Rickey Powell
Ricky Powell is an American photographer. Powell's photographs are mainly focused on the organic of New Yorker. Powell considers the relationship between the photographer and the photograph to be ' a chemical connection of some sort'.
Ricky took most of his pictures with a 'straight ahead' view point. Most photographers take photos while moving, but this photographer stands neutral. In my opinion I think when you stand still while taking a photo your focusing on one thing, but when you moving at the same time your capturing many different things.
If I was to ask the photographer 2 questions I would ask him:
- When you go to take images to you have an idea of what you would like to take or do you take random photos ?
- Why do you chose to take images of people posing ?
Ricky took most of his pictures with a 'straight ahead' view point. Most photographers take photos while moving, but this photographer stands neutral. In my opinion I think when you stand still while taking a photo your focusing on one thing, but when you moving at the same time your capturing many different things.
If I was to ask the photographer 2 questions I would ask him:
- When you go to take images to you have an idea of what you would like to take or do you take random photos ?
- Why do you chose to take images of people posing ?
Photo challenge from different perspectives: Looking down, shadow, reflection, over the shoulder, cropping, walk by and surfaces.
Photo challenge #1: Ways of seeing
Looking down
This example is by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Shadow & Reflections
This image is by Lee Friedlander.
Over the shoulder
This example is by Joel Sternfeld
Walk by
This example was by Lee Freelander
Cropping
This example is by Saul leiter
Photo challenge #3: Diagonals
Photographers use diagonal lines because it it shows that there is more to a picture than the image and straight lines. The diagonal method (DM) is a rule of thumb in photography, painting and drawing.
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WWWI feel like the pictures I took were good because of all the different angles I use and how I positioned the camera . Although none of it is colour you could probably pick out where the diagonal lines would be located. I also tried to keep the photos simple .
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EBII could improve these set of photos by looking for more complicated objects and take pictures of them. I could have also done some in colour instead of just making them all in black and white.
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Photo Challenge #3: Rule of thirds
In the rule of thirds, photos are divided into three sections horizontally and vertically making nine rows and columns in the image. With this grid the mind now identifies four important points of the image where the lines cross. The four points also help us position the objects in our photos.
What I learnt
The rule of thirds helped me think how to take the picture by positioning it straight and how what I want to be in those certain nine squares. Not all of my photos are completely straight but, nevertheless I tried to get more than one image in the photo so it doesn't look so simple.
Photo Challenge #4: Compare & contrast
Similarities
Apart from the obvious that they are in black and white, they do have somethings in common, for example there is women in both images, and they are both located outside. They were both posed photography rather thanks street. And there is different shades of grey, so you don't know if the weather was good or bad.
Differences
There are many differences between these two photographs for example 'beautiful women' is a photograph of one woman riding a bike capturing the streets behind her and the cars on the side, whereas the picture next to it, is a cropped photo of a woman's two feet standing next to a dog. This image shows how small the dog is compared to her. Another difference is in the second photo the background is blurred, however you can still make out what the actual object is, for example: there is an extremely old car in the back ground, this shows how old the picture is.
WWWI think through the whole of street photography, I had taken a range of different photos that were unusual. I like how you can take images for different perspectives and it will look like a whole other image.
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EBII could improve by taking more images for the first photo challenge (ways of looking), because I didn't take as much as I would like, I will have to come back to this and add some more.
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Overall I think I might do street photography in the future while using the rule of thirds at the same time, you never know how you images will come out, if you get peoples facial expression or actions intentionally or by accident.