These blog posts become increasingly tricky to write, especially if we’re talking purely about Street Photography. I start one, leave it for a week, have a read through, delete it and begin writing the exact same again. Talk about Sisyphus. I know we weren’t, but that stone is getting larger and heavier believe me. I’ve “literally” turned into Oscar Wilde who wrote that revising one of his poems took a day: the morning to take a comma out, the afternoon to reinstate it. All I can really do is show a few current photos that I’ve made. Here, for example, is one from last week that gets the taken out and then reinstated à la Wilde. A lift or elevator in which I’ve taken many/hundreds of photos over the years during the very short ride to the street from an underground car park in Bath. It’s slightly out of focus after all that practice. Says it all really. Accept it doesn’t. Because in the process of taking photos and writing this blog I learn about myself, an idea occurs to me or in this case me something vitally important to us all.
We could discuss the weather, an Englishman’s favourite subject. Whinging about how it hasn’t stopped raining for a month one minute and the next moaning that 45 million people in England are living under drought conditions. If nothing else in this country we’re great at grumbling. We are, however, on the lookout for more than the the couple of millimetres of rain we’ve had in the last eight weeks.
Not him, evidently he’s no Englishman. There were a few Nazi’s about in a field near me last week. Though he is at least demonstrating my point that no male over the age of 10 should wear shorts unless they’re playing a sport. I have no idea why men think it’s acceptable and ignore everyone else who are subjected to viewing their hideous legs. It’s never that hot and it definitely isn’t cool. We’re enduring the fifth heatwave of this year, in a country essentially without air conditioning living in houses designed to retain heat. I’d like to dismiss it, but only a half-wit would look outside and announce “It’s just summer”. The idea that the world and its 8.3 billion population are going to get together and sort all this it out is pure fantasy. Never going to happen, far too busy bombing each other. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. Forget that “Make Germany America Great Again” crap, how about “Make Earth Great Again”. Herr Trump…
A little subterfuge there in order to distract you (mostly me) from another desperate dilemma. Namely - Street Photography, walk with me…
Desperation Street. You must know it? Take a stroll down Memory Lane, turn right just after the junction of Tin Pan Alley and Skid Row. You’ll find quite a few street photographers down there. Certain something good is coming their way, a misplaced dream focussed on the notion that a great shot is going to happen whilst executing the most ridiculously difficult genre of photography. Constantly anxious about how many followers they have on Instagram, desperately in need of validation. There are some other denizens of Desperation Street, a no-go area for street photographers, a dead end at the bottom where the Street Portrait community hang out. They spend their days comparing lenses, GoPro’s for their YouTube channels and “bravely” asking each other “Is it’s okay if I take photo?”. The Street Photographers, though they might sometimes mock them, are secretly envious. At least the street portrait crew have come to terms with the fact that street photography is brutal, given it up and opted for something easier. Meanwhile, the deluded, continue to torture themselves in the pursuit of a photo that finally gets them back on Easy Street.
The part about Street Portraits was another Oscar Wilde “indecisive moment” (as are Street Portraits when you think about it). It was in and then out, remember this is meant to be light hearted blog, I have no wish to offend the street portrait gang and sincerely do like some of them. Anyway, five people in blue, a blue sky, blue headphones and a blue bus in that photograph. Pointless. No story. Street Photography is maddening difficult because to qualify as a street photograph according to the so said “rules” - Once you disturb a scene, ask someone for a portrait or pose any kind of shot it’s no longer candid and therefore something other than Street Photography. Nothing wrong in that, but it’s not hard enough so, we can also rule out silhouettes or one person walking through some geometry with light and shadow. Those type of shots although candid are considered blasé, way too easy and have nothing to say. We could try some of those crappy shots that have a smartphone displaying the scene as part of the photo…
As a side note I took the photo on the left because it struck me that the lady having her photo taken was pregnant, the ultimate selfless gesture, meanwhile the guy on the right was the epitome of selfishness. I thought he was taking a photo of the river, weir and Pultney bridge below the wall. One of my, random, archive photos below to show what he was missing.
Again, where’s the narrative in those smartphone shots. I’ve tried everything at various times and even spent one whole hour in Bristol many years ago flirting with Street Portraiture. In the end you grow out of it and ignore the silhouettes, one person moving into light and try your hardest not to take shots of people who are essentially just walking along (unless they’re a Nazi Officer from earlier in this post!). We need a scene, a reflection, some gestures, maybe some layers
Most importantly we want something that asks a question of the viewer. Otherwise it really is all form and no content. In other words aesthetically pleasing, all the mechanics of photography are there, focus, exposure, framing, but will live for less than 2 seconds in the collective consciousness. In the end I think we limit ourselves with our perceptions of what Street Photography is or should be. We walk around for an hour and see what we see. Something catches our eye, we release the shutter instinctively. We have to come to terms with the fact that most of what we take is crap. It’s not what we’re looking for. Of course that’s another issue to confront. What are we looking for? Remember the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organisation? Well, there’s also something known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also called the frequency illusion. Essentially it’s when you consider buying a red Land Rover and suddenly all you see is red Land Rovers. Your brain had registered it and drawn to search out red Land Rovers. Or it’s a word or phrase and that’s all you hear and read. Likewise if you see lots of photos on Social Media of people just walking along, street portraits and a person walking into the light from shadow the next time you go out with your camera then that’s what you’ll see and photograph. I read this recently in a newspaper about holiday snaps, it made me laugh and reminded me of Street Photography -
” To put your mind at rest, the world already has sufficient pictures. Pictures of grinning half-wits pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The thumbs up gesture is maybe tolerable if you’ve just been rescued from a mining disaster or won a stage of the Tour de France”.
I said in the first paragraph of this blog that I’d learned something. Back to the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. In the midst of writing a blogpost I’m reading this and that. Sometimes there’s something that jumps out at me, perhaps it’s because of the frequency illusion. My mind is on why I bother to do this and creativity. In this instance and out of the blue a brilliant quote from the author Kurt Vonnegut.
"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."
I’ll include taking any kind of photos, street, portraits, landscapes, documentary photography or writing or playing the guitar. I do all of those, and sing in the shower and dance around with my headphones on. No one needs to see, read or hear any of it, everything can be deleted. In the process, and here comes the crucial part, your mind and soul will thank you.
Anyway, the word on Desperation Street is that there’s a competition coming soon (Link: Street Photo Rumble) and we all desperately want to enter something, one shot and it’s free. My friend Tim @wordonthestreet covers all this on his YouTube Channel where he reviews the current Street Photography competitions and festivals. The standard at times is pretty low - Welcome to my world, I might win!
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails. Not that it matters they were made using a Leica M with a Summicron 28mm lens fitted. Photos of Bertie 1 & 3 in the grid as a puppy with a Canon. I used an Apple keyboard to type it all out.
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