Lecture #8

Street Photography

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Street Photography &

This Lecture • In this lecture I will show you many slides. The beginning slides show a

lead up to modern day movements in Street Photography. – The panorama images show the city from afar. A city that is controlled and easy to see

order. Soon, photographers got closer and closer to the city street, next photographing

from above.

• You will see the first photographs on the street were created by French

Photographer Eugene Atget. The city street was his stage and the

people on the street were his actors.

• As you go through the slides you will see changes and trends occurring

with street photography.

• For this shooting assignment, you can focus on any subject matter and

any approach you desire as influenced by this lecture.

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Louis Jacque Mande Daguerre

“Boulevard du Temple” 1838 Paris

Daguerreotype

THE HISTORY OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

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Street Photography –

Before 1945 (late 1800’s to 1945)

Street Photography was already established before 1945 & WWII. by such photographers

as: Henri Lartigue, Atget, Brassai, Kertesz, Walker Evans, Alvarez Bravo, Bernice Abbott

etc…

Most Notably - Henri Cartier Bresson & his “The Decisive Moment” appraoch:

Around 1945 - Film Movements were Influenced by Street Photography Subjects & Aesthetics

-Raw, gritty documentary style to frame its narrative

- Brought an unshown level of gritty detail to the screen

•Changed the way urban life was represented, not just in film but in photography

After WWII. (1950’s) Street Photography - the Genre as Altered

Urban Environment - Spontaneity & Innovation

- The “humanist” photography of the pre-war years began to be seen as merely sentimental, and artists had a

new way of looking at the world in a more cynical, hard-bitten and shot through irony.

By such photographers as: Robert Frank, William Klein, Gary Winogrand, William Eggleston, Joel Meyerwitz,

etc…

-Robert Frank (1955-56) established a style of shooting, not as a photojournalist on assignment, but Frank

presented the approach of wandering without a narrative.

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Panoramas, 1900’s

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Eva Besnyo, 1931

Street Photographs from Above

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Martin Munkacsi, Germany, 1929

Eugène Atget (1857-1927)

Old Paris, 1890’s-

-Wandered the streets of Paris, before the city awoke

-His photographs preserved the past

Eugene Atget: Enters the City Street

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Eugène Atget (1857-1927) A Proscenium theater is a theater space whose primary feature is a large archway (the

proscenium arch) at or near the front of the stage, through which the audience views the play.

-Atget became an actor, more specifically, a bit player, for a second-rate repertory company, but

without much success LOUDEN 8

Eugene Atget: Enters the City Street

Eugène Atget 9

Eugene Atget: Enters the City Street

Eugène Atget

Daily routines

-Part of the crowd LOUDEN 10

Eugene Atget: Enters the City Street

Alfred Stieglitz, (1864-1946)

New York City

-Idealism of the modern city

1903, Terminal -One of first skyscrapers

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Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz

1935, NYC skyline

-In 1903 Stieglitz abandons the street for the new skyline

-No human presence, the material aspects of the city 12

Alfred Stieglitz

Jacob Riis, (1849-1914)

New York City, “How the Other Half Lives” 1892

-The invisible, underground city

-Images made in the allies

-An attempt to alter housing conditions of the

overcrowded and infested tenements.

-Penetrated the Secret City LOUDEN 13

Jacob Riis

Bernice Abbott - (1898-1991)

1930’s NYC - “Changing New York” 1935

-Photographed NYC as an entire urban space

-Urban iconography

-Renditions of the modern city

-Urban iconography and advertising codes

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Bernice Abbott

Brassaï, (1899- 1984) Paris

“Paris After Dark” 1933

Parisian Nightlife

-City as a surreal event, both bizarre and unexpected: bars, hotels, brothels and clubs

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Brassai: City at Night

Brassaï, Paris

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Brassai

Brassaï, Paris

Lovers in a Café, 1932

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Brassai

Technical Advancements in Photography

Leica Camera - first 35mm camera (1924)

180,000 manufactured 1924-1936

- Allowed for a state of mobility

- Speed, ease of use

- Very quiet shutter

- Small and compact

-Known as the quintessential camera for street photographers.

Leica Camera

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Walker Evans (1903-1975)

-Subway Portraits LOUDEN 19

Walker Evans

Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1932

Paris, Gare St Lazare

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Henri Cartier Bresson:

The Decisive Moment

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Madrid, Spain 1933

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Henri Cartier Bresson

French New Wave (1959-1960s)

Jean-Luc Godard

“Breathless” 1959

“Band of Outsiders”

Italian Neo-Realism

Roberto Rossellini, (Open City, 1946)

Vittorio DeSica, (The Bicycle Thief,

1948)

Cinema Verité - 1960’s -Means literally film truth "fly on the wall filmmaking"

- Ability of video/film to capture real life events as they occur

- When video became less intrusive it was possible to capture more

real-life situations (post WWII. -portable cameras, 16mm film,

Faster film stocks)

-Desire to tell real stories about real people - influenced by Italian Neorealism

-Cinematic in its use of 35mm film

-Natural light

-Actual locations

-Action oriented manner

-Natural light and roving camera

-Spontaneity & freedom

These films had a profound effect on photographers who valued powerful expression more than immaculate prints.

Influence of Filmmaking

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Robert Frank

“The Americans” 1950’s

-An unsparing look at a different America

-Aimless wandering that was different than photojournalism, became part of art photography 23

Robert Frank

Robert Frank

“The Americans” 1950’s LOUDEN 24

Robert Frank

Robert Frank

“The Americans” 1950’s

-Frank’s work created a new paradigm that largely

challenged and replaced the emphasis on composition and fine print quality

that characterizes the work of photographers like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston

-The wandering was aimless but the editing (choosing of

images)

Was important in Frank’s book, “The Americans”

-The sequencing of the images began to resemble film

narrative

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Robert Frank

Robert Frank

“The Americans” 1950’s

-These images expressed a despair covered by a thin layer of patriotism.

-Written that: Never before have I seen such a shattering picture of humanity in the mass, individuals barely distinguished from one

another, all aimless as if in a vacuum.” - Gotthard Schuh

-Frank refused to put his work in the service of a specific agenda (such as the work of Dorothea Lange, Walker

Evans: propaganda for social reform) that enraged many of his critics. 26

Robert Frank

Gary Winogrand (1928-1984)

-The ironies of contemporary life

-The weird circumstances of everyday American life LOUDEN 27

Gary Winogrand

Gary Winogrand

-Direct/ confrontational approach LOUDEN 28

Gary Winogrand

Gary Winogrand

-Wide-angle lenses LOUDEN 29

Gary Winogrand

Gary Winogrand LOUDEN 30

Gary Winogrand

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Sebastiao Salgado

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Sebastiao Salgado

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Sebastiao Salgado

1970s - New Interest in Color

-Color was always thought of as being for photojournalism and not art photography

Harry Callahan (1912-1999)

1940s-1980s

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Harry Callahan

- He tried every technical experiment--double and triple exposure, blurs, large camera and small

Harry Callahan

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Harry Callahan

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Harry Callahan

Joel Meyerowitz (1938-) 1970’s-present

-The banalities of the street

Joel Meyerowitz

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Joel Meyerowitz (1938-) 1970’s-present

- World Trade Center

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Joel Meyerowitz

Jeff Wall

Mimic, 1982

How to make a new body of work within the “street” tradition? – Staged photographs, setup to look real. -Displayed as a large light box - made with large format camera, optical clarity, wide-tonal range

-1980’s photography - came as a comment on itself

-Underlying world of suppressed violence LOUDEN 39

Jeff Wall

Jeff Wall (1946- ) 1970’s-present

Man in Street 1995 -Not a document but a staged construction

-Photographer as director

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Jeff Wall

Phillip-Lorca Dicorcia 1990’s - present

-Seem like staged scenes but there are no predetermined compositions

-Use of large format camera and strobe system to make street photographs of people walking by.

Naples, 1995

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Phillip-Lorca Dicorcia

Phillip-Lorca Dicorcia 1990’s - present

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Phillip-Lorca Dicorcia

Beat Streuli 2000’s

New York, 2000

Various International Cities, all look the same

- The Globalized International Cities

Beat Streuli

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Beat Streuli 2000’s

New York, 2000

-Sequence of images rather than one single image, like film, presents it like wallpaper or as a slide show, overrunning the

exhibition site

-Subject momentarily separated from the crowd, but image refers to the generic streetscape of big cities, and globalization

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Beat Streuli

Beat Streuli New York, 2000

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Beat Streuli

Beat Streuli Various International Cities

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Beat Streuli

Matt Siber

40”x50” Archival Digital Prints

- Take text off of his street scene photographs and puts it on a separate image.

Matt Siber

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Matt Siber 40”x50” Archival Digital Prints

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Matt Siber

Matt Siber

40”x50” Archival Digital Prints

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Matt Siber

Matt Siber 40”x50” Archival Digital Prints

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Matt Siber

Open City, Street Photography Since 1950 Editor Rob Bowman

Essays By Kerry Brougher & Russell Ferguson

Moma Oxford/Hatje Cantz Publishers

2001, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford

Chapter 5, “The City in Photography” Clarke, Graham. The Photograph, Oxford University Press,

Oxford, New York, 1997.

Sites, Columbia College Chicago, 2004.

Books About Street

Photography

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