people

hidden inspiration: shadow dancing

streetnoontues-8 Richo GX100   f/5.1  1/320  5.1m  80 ISO[/caption]

Marcus, Streets of Nuremberg, invites those who are interested in street photography to “try to shoot people who are engulfed in their every day business, unaware of the photographer aiming the camera at them. Obviously, using a longer lens (or zoom) does help not to get too close. But even with a wide angle lens, the camera up at the eye, you can wander through shops, bars or your local market, looking for interesting scenes, people, gestures, colors, patterns – and press the shutter when something catches your eye and gets your creative juices flowing. Move naturally, shoot, and trust me you will not be noticed.”

a photo study: street photography

What is street photography?

street-4-web

Nikon D750   f/22    1/25s    35mm    800 ISO

Nick Turpin writes that “…When a child picks up a camera and pushes the button that simple spontaneous image is a Street Photograph, it is, first of all, a raw reaction to the scene in front of it, a person, a car, a color. That primitive urge to react, to make a picture is at the heart of Street Photography beyond any other area of picture making, it comes before any other agenda.

“So we are all Street Photographers before we narrow our sights and impose conditions and rules on ourselves to become Portrait photographers, Fashion Photographers, Landscape Photographers, Art Photographers (whatever that really means) etc.”

street-12web

Nikon D750    f/20    1/25s    35mm    800 ISO

Eric Kim defines street photography as the “…candid photography of life and human nature. It is a way for us to show our surroundings, and how we as photographers relate to them. We are filtering what we see, to find the moments that intrigue us, and to then share them with others. It’s like daydreaming with a camera.”

irishdancers4web

Nikon D750    f/1.8    1/10s    35mm    800 ISO

Within “The Ultimate Guide to Street Photography” James Maher writes “…the best image of your life can pop right in front of you on the way to get your morning coffee. This spontaneity is what’s celebrated. That is why grainy images, slightly off-kilter framing a-la Garry Winogrand, or import focus will not alway ruin a street photography. Sometimes they will, and we must aim for technical mastery, but other times they can add to the realness of the moment. Sometimes these deficiencies may actually improve the image.”

street-5web

Nikon D750    f/2.5    1/2,500   35mm    800 ISO

Sometimes the best way to understand something is to put aside the book, silence the mind, and visually explore the creative works of others. With this in mind, I would like to introduce three of my favorite street photographers.

To journey through Salle de Shoot — Photographie’s blog is to inspired by his creative and unique examples of street photography.

The Streets of Nuremberg.com identifies street photography as “…a free creative design in which the artist’s impression…experiences are brought to life…the aim of street photography to depict reality unadulterated, whereby the specific artistic aspect is expressed in the conscious selection of the detail of reality and the design with photographic means.” To take the time to visit this blog is to view amazing street images as well as educational posts.

And finally,  Reinhold Staden Photography’s gifts us with inspiring photography as well as a super visual journey through Berlin.

How do you understand street photography? Do you have one or three street photographers that inspire you? I would love to see your street images and read your ideas about street photography.  Let’s tag with #aphotostudy.

toddler’s sun hat

street-9b-web

Nikon D750    f/22     1/25    35mm    800 ISO

“Playing with point of view, with the position of the figures and the wide palette of grays, he proved that photography, like painting, is–to borrow Maurice Denis’ famous dictum–‘essentially a surface plane covered with color in a certain assembled order.'”

cited: C Chérous, aperture masters of photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson, pg. 84

lines & shapes

street-3web

Nikon D750     f/22     1/25     35mm     800 ISO

“…after trying for so long to program computers to make drawings autonomously, I noticed one key factor that distinguished me from the machine: I wanted to make a good drawing. The first step in making a good drawing is recognizing and giving voice to the desire to create. The creative urge is the engine that will drive the great effort it takes to pursue art over the long term, and understanding the nature of this desire will be critical in staying motivated long enough to develop good work.

“…What makes a drawing good? It would be impossible to list all the qualities of a good drawing, and in any case the list would be different for each of us and each artwork we liked. Luckily, we don’t need a precise definition. We understand how to proceed with our creative work by developing our intuition and learning to pay attention to what we value and respond to.”

~J F Simon, Jr (Drawing Your Own Path)

We tend to think…

“We tend to think of human beings as falling into two groups: those who are similar to us and those who are different. We allow political boundaries to obscure our interconnectedness. What we often refer to patriotism is actually a barrier the prevents us from seeing that we’re all children of the same mother. Every country calls its nation a motherland or a fatherland. Every country tries to show how it loves its mother. But in doing so, each country is contributing to the destruction of our larger mother, our collective mother, the Earth. In focusing our human-made boundaries, we forget that we are co-responsible for the whole planet. …

park-1web

Nikon D750   f/4.5   1/200    85mm    100 ISO

“Every one of us, regardless of nationality or religious faith, can experience a feeling of admiration and love when we see the beauty of the Earth and the beauty of the cosmos. This feeling of love and admiration has the power to unite the citizens of the Earth and remove all separation and discrimination. Caring about the the environment is not an obligation, but a matter of personal and collective happiness and survival. We will survive and thrive together with our Mother Earth, or we will not survive at all.”

~Thích Nhát Hanh (Love Letter to the Earth)