- Messages
- 36
- Name
- Ivor
- Edit My Images
- No
Recently I had a fantastic experience shooting two rolls off film through a TLR in the busy streets of Chester. It was an experience that left me with quite a few questions about people, perceptions, and strangers interacting like old friends.
There seems to be some unwritten rules applied to street photography....
Blend in to the environment
Use a quick camera
Use a small camera (to help blend in).
You need to be ready to shoot at all times.
It's similar to the advice an apprentice assassin would hear on their first day at killer school!
Mr Cartier Bresson didn't like to be noticed, so much so he painted his cameras all black to avoid them being seen! And his god like status among street togs has cemented the notion that to be good, you have to be invisible.
Personally, and I'm gonna stick my neck out here, I think an unhealthy portion of this thinking is cr@p. Utter cr@p in it's purest form too!
My own view, and it is only my personal view & many will vary, is that Bressons shooting style & tactics (which have been copied to death) were employed to suit the times he lived through & places he found himself. He operated in different times among people with different frustrations.
Back in the day, many folks didn't have a camera of their own, so more motive for robbing a photographer. People weren't used to being photographed. Anonymity was a given & streets weren't filled with lamp posts, police cars, shop cctv etc etc ALL taking your picture!
Candid photography is going on wherever there's an electricity supply & a human being. People are so sick of being photographed candidly from control rooms, that the opportunity to voice their objection to the cameras operator when they've access to him, is understandably often taken up.
So I went back, and just spent three days shooting the streets getting noticed as much as possible by as many as possible. The absolute opposite of candid & what you're supposed to do!
I took a tripod, TLR and very obvious camera bag into town to shamelessly photograph shoppers & shop staff. There's not much 'candid' about welcoming children & parents to check out an old camera! There's something incredible about strangers stopping to talk, then striking up conversation with the next person to stop, then they unite for a brief moment & have their photograph taken together. Total strangers man!! I was enthusiastic about what I wad doing & it showed in those who involved themselves, that they wanted a piece of this. They were having fun being photographed with friends or family, or even a stranger.
In the age when everybody has a camera in their mobile phone, we're all aware that photographs are shot every minute & digitally fired straight onto facebook or twatter or whatever your guilty pleasure is.
So how refreshing & welcome I found it to watch people bored & pi$$ed off with constantly being photographed, to enjoy being photographed! Enjoy smiling with friends while they became part of a novelty act for a moment. Enjoy meeting a new person or people.
I don't care of this comes across as over romanticised. I don't care if I never take a perfect photograph technically brilliant in every way. I don't care if nobody else ever delves into doing this too.
I don't care because I felt something quite powerful about giving pleasure to people for free, giving away shots, letting excited children hit the shutter when mum 'n' dad were in front of the Rollei, and watching people embrace something they don't usually like. I had coffee's bought for me, I met a friend of a friend who's a street photographer in Liverpool & he stayed to watch things unfold with people coming to the camera instead of being hunted by it.
I had phone numbers & email addresses given to me, to pass on the images when the films are developed.
I know I'm not changing anything or doing anything 'radical'. But seeing & feeling what a camera can do, how it can give smiles to friends & couples, excitement to children who want to see the pic of themselves on the touchscreen that isn't there, and how much fun people have, is for me the single best reason to enjoy owning an old film camera!
Fifteen rolls of film spent in three days, many shots will be forwarded to those who asked me to. It's cost me money & it's been worth twice as much or more.
The only thing I don't like about this, is how long it's taken me to find it!
That's all. was thinking out loud folks.
There seems to be some unwritten rules applied to street photography....
Blend in to the environment
Use a quick camera
Use a small camera (to help blend in).
You need to be ready to shoot at all times.
It's similar to the advice an apprentice assassin would hear on their first day at killer school!
Mr Cartier Bresson didn't like to be noticed, so much so he painted his cameras all black to avoid them being seen! And his god like status among street togs has cemented the notion that to be good, you have to be invisible.
Personally, and I'm gonna stick my neck out here, I think an unhealthy portion of this thinking is cr@p. Utter cr@p in it's purest form too!
My own view, and it is only my personal view & many will vary, is that Bressons shooting style & tactics (which have been copied to death) were employed to suit the times he lived through & places he found himself. He operated in different times among people with different frustrations.
Back in the day, many folks didn't have a camera of their own, so more motive for robbing a photographer. People weren't used to being photographed. Anonymity was a given & streets weren't filled with lamp posts, police cars, shop cctv etc etc ALL taking your picture!
Candid photography is going on wherever there's an electricity supply & a human being. People are so sick of being photographed candidly from control rooms, that the opportunity to voice their objection to the cameras operator when they've access to him, is understandably often taken up.
So I went back, and just spent three days shooting the streets getting noticed as much as possible by as many as possible. The absolute opposite of candid & what you're supposed to do!
I took a tripod, TLR and very obvious camera bag into town to shamelessly photograph shoppers & shop staff. There's not much 'candid' about welcoming children & parents to check out an old camera! There's something incredible about strangers stopping to talk, then striking up conversation with the next person to stop, then they unite for a brief moment & have their photograph taken together. Total strangers man!! I was enthusiastic about what I wad doing & it showed in those who involved themselves, that they wanted a piece of this. They were having fun being photographed with friends or family, or even a stranger.
In the age when everybody has a camera in their mobile phone, we're all aware that photographs are shot every minute & digitally fired straight onto facebook or twatter or whatever your guilty pleasure is.
So how refreshing & welcome I found it to watch people bored & pi$$ed off with constantly being photographed, to enjoy being photographed! Enjoy smiling with friends while they became part of a novelty act for a moment. Enjoy meeting a new person or people.
I don't care of this comes across as over romanticised. I don't care if I never take a perfect photograph technically brilliant in every way. I don't care if nobody else ever delves into doing this too.
I don't care because I felt something quite powerful about giving pleasure to people for free, giving away shots, letting excited children hit the shutter when mum 'n' dad were in front of the Rollei, and watching people embrace something they don't usually like. I had coffee's bought for me, I met a friend of a friend who's a street photographer in Liverpool & he stayed to watch things unfold with people coming to the camera instead of being hunted by it.
I had phone numbers & email addresses given to me, to pass on the images when the films are developed.
I know I'm not changing anything or doing anything 'radical'. But seeing & feeling what a camera can do, how it can give smiles to friends & couples, excitement to children who want to see the pic of themselves on the touchscreen that isn't there, and how much fun people have, is for me the single best reason to enjoy owning an old film camera!
Fifteen rolls of film spent in three days, many shots will be forwarded to those who asked me to. It's cost me money & it's been worth twice as much or more.
The only thing I don't like about this, is how long it's taken me to find it!
That's all. was thinking out loud folks.
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