The Almanac - Concept - Street Photography

"When I saw the photograph of Munkacsi of the black kids running in a wave I couldn't believe such a thing could be caught with the camera. I said damn it, I took my camera and went out into the street." Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Following our first steps into the foray of street photography through a photo walk session in the city of chennai - here's a precursor to what photography in the streets is all about - Read on !!!

Street photography is an approach to photography rather than a location, although the streets are the usual place it happens.

Street photography captures candid mood and situation and it is generally practiced at public places streets, parks, sea-beaches, malls and political and social gatherings. It is pretty easy to take photographs at these places without seeking any permission.

A street photographer can also take the pictures of historical buildings and archaeological monuments.

Street photography can be and often is: Odd things in the fore ground; no central focus; odd crops.It is sometimes referred to as no rules photography.

The plethora of equipment (tripods, lenses, filters, lights etc etc) associated with "serious" photography is left at home, or better still in the camera store. Its just too heavy and bulky to cart around, takes way too long to set up and by the time it is set up the moment is gone.

Street photographers see the usual, the every day with fresh eyes. The reflection in a rain puddle, the colours in a crowd, the balance of a negative space. Their minds are open to all the stimuli that they see and they curse the days when they leave their camera at home.

Street photographers are optimists, for them the glass is always half full. They go out on a photo shoot with no plan in mind secure in the knowledge that this wide world of ours will provide. A subject, a situation, a scene will present itself all they have to have is the presence of mind to capture it when it does.

Street photography is, what all photography is, a snap shot. What shines through is the photographer, his/her interpretation of the scene, what they see in the situation, their reaction to the stimuli, the art they see in their every day walk of life.

Technicians take technically correct and often pretty pictures. Visual artists, whatever their medium, create images that stimulate the mind, the heart and validate the human condition in all its guises. Because, after all, pretty is in the eye of the beholder and consequently very subjective, whereas art speaks to all who are prepared to listen.

content reference : excerpts from bateman's blog & other digital camera resources

Hari Kumar Balasundaram