Street Photography...
My friend and mentor, Homer Page (1917-1985) taught me just about everything I know about photography. One of the reasons he stands out as a giant in photography (as obscure as he is to the modern viewer) is because Page's work was the only work in the 1940s-50s to bridge the gap between two major schools of photography in the USA... the "straight" documentary of the first half of the 20th century, and the flamboyant reportage of the latter half.
In every sense, Page's work was innovative and bold. He received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949 to "document the human condition as people relate to the urban culture." He chose New York City to do this year-long project. His work was among the first show of photography at the new Museum of Modern Art in the early 1950's.
I was never a real strong street photographer. I have my reasons for the hesitancy to engage in it and it mostly involves my own trepidation of confrontation with people who don't want their photos taken by a big, bearded stranger and the ensuing argument over it that has sometimes unfolded. One has to blend in - I don't blend well. But, I have worked to get over that for 50 years.
I am never going to come close to Gary Winogrand or Lee Friedlander, but occasionally (like so many photographers) I get the itch to go out and photograph the street. Street photography is in and of itself a special genre. It requires an unbelievable amount of skill and precision, and the more skillful the artist, the more it appears to be easy to do. It's not. In fact, it's remarkably hard to get good and meaningful images from the street. Partially, this is because there is so much street photography out there and many people have become inured to it all... it takes a lot of special stimulation to break through the artistic boredom that many people have for street images. It requires a lot of what Barth described as "punctum"... something in the image that penetrates into the core of a person and resonates with something larger than just the image itself. I strive for punctum in all my work, but, frankly, rarely achieve it. Yet, this is the very challenge that we often look forward to having. I offer these up as a peek into the enormous files I have of street photos over the years and will add to them as I find them in the archives and increase the amount of work I do.
These photographs show the new attempt at capturing life as people publicly live it. Page used an old Leica IIIG which is the great grandfather of my small and barely visible Lumix/Leica: I hope he would be proud of how street documentary can now work in my life.
In every sense, Page's work was innovative and bold. He received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949 to "document the human condition as people relate to the urban culture." He chose New York City to do this year-long project. His work was among the first show of photography at the new Museum of Modern Art in the early 1950's.
I was never a real strong street photographer. I have my reasons for the hesitancy to engage in it and it mostly involves my own trepidation of confrontation with people who don't want their photos taken by a big, bearded stranger and the ensuing argument over it that has sometimes unfolded. One has to blend in - I don't blend well. But, I have worked to get over that for 50 years.
I am never going to come close to Gary Winogrand or Lee Friedlander, but occasionally (like so many photographers) I get the itch to go out and photograph the street. Street photography is in and of itself a special genre. It requires an unbelievable amount of skill and precision, and the more skillful the artist, the more it appears to be easy to do. It's not. In fact, it's remarkably hard to get good and meaningful images from the street. Partially, this is because there is so much street photography out there and many people have become inured to it all... it takes a lot of special stimulation to break through the artistic boredom that many people have for street images. It requires a lot of what Barth described as "punctum"... something in the image that penetrates into the core of a person and resonates with something larger than just the image itself. I strive for punctum in all my work, but, frankly, rarely achieve it. Yet, this is the very challenge that we often look forward to having. I offer these up as a peek into the enormous files I have of street photos over the years and will add to them as I find them in the archives and increase the amount of work I do.
These photographs show the new attempt at capturing life as people publicly live it. Page used an old Leica IIIG which is the great grandfather of my small and barely visible Lumix/Leica: I hope he would be proud of how street documentary can now work in my life.
