Street photographer. Street photography - notes about street photography and simple tips. Dress so that your appearance does not cause undue attention of others

Bold in their truthfulness and invariably sincere, the work of street photographers reflects social realities like a mirror. Taking to the streets of the city with a camera in their hands, masters of their craft tirelessly and selflessly create "time capsules", capturing small and large events in the life of citizens on film. Years later, our descendants will turn to their urban landscapes to find out what the 21st century really was. We will get acquainted with the most talented street photographers who carefully preserve our history for them.

Eric Kim

In the world of street photography, Eric Kim is one of the most respected masters. He received universal recognition thanks to the amazing spontaneous shots and the desire to communicate with fans. On his personal blog, the photographer readily shares useful professional information and thoughts on how to find personal meaning in creativity and make own work in demand and popular. Hosted by Eric Kim and YouTube channel, where he not only gives valuable advice in photography, but also conducts master classes.

Lee Jeffries


As part of his Lost Angels project, British artist Lee Jeffreys has presented strikingly deep photographic portraits of the homeless. Working on them, he did not just put life moments into the frame, but established sincere relationships with his models. That is why the work of Jeffreys "have a soul."

Boogie


Street photographer with Serbian roots, Vladimir Milivojevic, better known as Boogie, became famous for his pictures taken on the streets of New York. His works, made in classic black and white, are a frank look at the shadowy sides of life, which a well-fed city dweller prefers to forget about. The heroes of Boogie's photographs are often drug dealers and street children. The depressing and sometimes eerie footage taken by Vladimir Milivoevich serves as a reminder that we cannot pretend that these phenomena simply do not exist in life.

Rui Palha


Photographs by Lisbon master Rui Palhi are made in the style of classic street photography. Capturing, as if furtively, fragments of the life of the Portuguese streets, he paints a portrait of the capital city. "Photography is a very important part of my living space says Rui Palha. “She must open and convey what the heart feels and sees at a certain moment.”

Shinya Arimoto


Tokyo School of Visual Arts professor Shinya Arimoto photographs the eccentric residents of the Japanese capital in his spare time. He wanders around Tokyo for hours and tries to interact with people as much as possible to get really good pictures. The footage obtained as a result of such a "hunt" is capable of destroying all stereotypes about Japan that have ever existed.

Donato Di Camillo


Donato Di Camillo came to photography in an unusual way - while serving a prison sentence. He was released in 2012, and by that time he had already become acquainted with the work of modern masters of street photography - William Klein and Bruce Gilden. Models Donato Di Camillo, as a rule, are people from the marginal strata of society, because he considers himself, in a sense, an outsider. The photographer does not get tired of admiring the person. "All people are different, and I love it, as well as how beautiful we are in our uniqueness. Bad, good, indifferent, they never cease to amaze me. People answer all my questions," the photographer admits. a look or an unusual gait - can make me pick up a camera and shoot."

Konstantin Mashinskiy


Russian photographer Konstantin Mashinsky worked for a year on his project "365 Parisians", studying the faces of the inhabitants of the French capital. However, when it was over, his interest in them did not fade away. Konstantin Mashinsky continued his work and collected an impressive archive capable of telling many amazing stories. In his photo the most different people- from elegantly dressed women to overworked line cooks. All of them are ready to challenge our ideas about the cosmopolitan city of Paris.

Phil Penman


Phil Penman's original black and white photographs capture an intriguing and multifaceted everyday life New York. Being from the UK, he nevertheless calls this city his home. When Phil Penman isn't photographing celebrities for USA Today or People, he's armed with a camera and a bike and hits the streets of New York. "When I leave the house in the morning, my only hope is to come back with a picture that I'll be really proud of," says Penman. "I'm attracted to people who don't try to be cool, but still have their own unique style."

Zach Arias


Atlanta-based photographer Zack Arias is known for his work with music stars and commercial giants like Fujifilm and Coca-Cola. Bold dynamic solutions, gleaned in creative collaboration with them, are applied by the master when he takes the camera to the streets of the city, and as a result creates real masterpieces. The original work gave Arias a reputation as one of the most talented artists and inspired more than one photographer to take their cameras to the city streets.

Angelo Ferillo


Once upon a time, Angelo Ferrillo preferred photography to engineering, and since then he has never looked back. He successfully combines the work of a photojournalist with his passion for street photography. Whether Angelo Ferillo is working on spontaneous shots in his native Italy or on a project about the Bataclan in Paris after a terrorist attack, he is a skilled storyteller who can "write" stories on film.

Street photography (or street photography), as a direction, appeared relatively long ago - about 130 years ago. As soon as cameras became portable, and the process of developing and printing was simplified, photography broke out of cramped studios into the streets. Photographers began to document the world around them. In particular, they filmed in urban areas where life moves fast. The desire to capture the changes taking place around was instinctive at first.

The pioneers of street photography can be considered such famous authors as Eugene Atget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Harry Winogrand, Martin Parr.
They laid the foundations of the street photography movement and their work certainly deserves your attention.

A century later, not much has changed in the street photo genre: yes, cameras have become even more compact, and developing and printing have been replaced by graphic editors. Scientific and technological progress has greatly simplified the path of the author's street photo to the viewer. But the idea of ​​this direction remained unchanged.

So what is street photography?

The subject of street photography is mostly people in in public places. More precisely, street photography can be described as a genre in which there is no place for posing and posing, in which the photographer explores and captures modern society and relationships between characters and their environment.

The main elements of street photography are: spontaneity, careful observation and "eyes wide open", the willingness to capture everything that appears in the viewfinder and seems meaningful, exciting, interesting.

Another key aspect of street photography is the feeling that the shot was taken unplanned, without prior agreement. Therefore, photographs taken at public events differ in their sensations from random ones - in the first case, it is rarely possible to take a spontaneous shot. However, they can also be classified as street photography - there is always room for flexibility and experimentation within the genre.

"Okay, where do I start?" you probably ask. In principle, for starters, all you need is a camera, city streets and free time. Discreet clothes and a good mood will not hurt.
“Do I need a special camera or lens?” — absolutely not.

Technical equipment of a street photographer- this is exactly the camera that you have now, and which you can always carry with you. "SLR", "soap box" or even a camera mobile phone- any device that takes photos is worthy of attention.

Of course, "terry" street photographers prefer rangefinders, especially Leica (analogue M7 or digital M9). Mirrorless digital cameras of the micro 4/3 standard are now widely used - especially in combination with the old "film" optics, you can get very interesting results. In any case, for shooting "street" the size of the camera is primarily important, and the smaller it is, the better.

It's time to give you some practical advice.

Digital is everything

Let's say you are a beginner and you don't have a camera yet, but you are very confident in your abilities and want to start your journey with "film". This is a normal desire and I do not undertake to dissuade you in any way. However, there is a saying by Henri Cartier Bresson “your first ten thousand shots will be the worst”, against which you can’t argue. Note also that the quote is from the era of analog cameras, so... if you don't feel like you've crossed the line of at least 10,000 frames long ago - look away digital cameras. Over time, you will understand if you need an analog camera.

Pause

The city is like a living organism, the people in it are in constant motion, it is like a big anthill. And the photographer is also in this flow. But moving and shooting at the same time is not always the best way. It is worth pausing periodically, stopping (for example, at each intersection) for a few minutes and waiting, “scanning” the environment with your eyes. You can, for example, stand facing the human stream and "catch a fish." Surely you will be rewarded with an interesting story at the very first stop - and all you had to do was pause during the walk.

(ss) Mario Mancuso

Focus on the look

Emotion can be hidden, it can be faked, but the eyes will tell the whole truth. If you are shooting a portrait in the genre of street photography, better way than to focus on the eyes of a person, you will not find.


(ss) Dipayan Bhattacharjee

Details

Street photography is not limited to capturing a subject with a set of variables such as geometric, contrast, color or semantic rhythms. Sometimes it’s worth paying attention to details: hands, faces, wardrobe details or lonely standing object- shot in close-up, they can “play” and tell something that simply cannot be seen on the general frame.


(cc) Liz Kasameyer

High sensitivity

If you are using digital camera, don't limit yourself to low ISO settings. Of course, in the daytime and in clear weather, using ISO 1600 or higher is pointless, but in low light conditions, chasing the minimum amount of noise will not be very reasonable, especially since even strong noise can be “beaten” in street photography - convert to b/w, for example. Another tangible plus from raising the sensitivity is the ability to shoot with a short shutter speed. Sometimes you don't get a second chance, and a blurry image due to shaking can be an annoying misunderstanding.


(cc) takato marui

Long exposure

All street photo subjects are different and require an individual approach. And if in the previous paragraph I suggested increasing the sensitivity so that the shutter speed is shorter, now I will suggest the opposite. It is with the help of a slow shutter speed (for example, 1/30 sec) that you can convey movement in the frame, sometimes this is the only correct option. Even on a sunny day, you can achieve a slow shutter speed - closing the aperture and lowering the ISO will help you. In particularly difficult cases, gray filters can be used.


(cc) Gary H. Spielvogel

Shooting with "wiring"

Do not forget also about shooting "with wiring". Together with a slow shutter speed, it is a great way to show movement in the frame and focus on a moving object, naturally blurring the environment (the amount of blur depends on the shutter speed and speed of the object). Not the easiest way, it requires certain skills and practice.


(cc) Juan José Aza

Closed diaphragm

The "fathers" of the genre made all their famous shots small rangefinders. Have you tried sharpening them? If not, I assure you, it's not for the faint of heart to rotate the lens until the two images blend into one. Considering that many scenes were shot not just quickly - “from the hip”, I’ll tell you how the focusing problem was solved: the aperture was closed and hyperfocal sharpness was set. So if you want to get an old school street photo, it's not enough to make it black and white, you need hyperfocal sharpness and aperture values ​​​​of 5.6 and higher.


(cc) Bärenger ZYLA

The plot without a person in the frame

Street photography does not require the presence of a person in the frame. It is not so much about people, but about human nature itself, so you can not get hung up on the presence of people in the frame. It happens that the urban environment itself gives us food for thought and offers excellent stories in which people, by the way, can also be present: on posters, posters, posters. Also, a photo of the city without the presence of a person in the frame will help to better reveal the urban spirit, and the presence of a person will be somehow traced in such works.


(cc) Chuck Cocker

Of course, these recommendations cannot cover such a multifaceted and vast world of street photography. I hope I will have the opportunity to return to this exciting topic and continue our conversation. And that's all for today. Run to the streets, shoot!

Often photographers looking for interesting subjects become perfectionists. They immediately want to capture the perfect shot, without unnecessary details or a cluttered horizon.

Yes, these technical issues (usually quite fixable) will be important at the stage of selecting the best personnel. But when you go on a photo hunt, it is better to free your brain from unnecessary thoughts that can kill the ability to notice and quickly capture interesting stories.

The advice is simple: enjoy. Be spontaneous, trust your instincts. The less you worry about the quality of the photo, the more good shots you will make. In the pictures of many famous street photographers there are cropped legs and a littered horizon, but this does not spoil their work at all.


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In search of interesting subjects, photographers sometimes walk for several kilometers, hoping to find that very magical place where they will take a masterpiece shot. But the beauty of street photography is that you can take a good photo anywhere.

Ask yourself as you cross a boring square or street why you think there are no interesting stories here. Instead of wasting energy walking, slow down and look around.

3. Don't be afraid to take bad photos


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Even the most successful ones have bad shots. It is important to accept such pictures, and not be upset because of supposedly crooked hands and lack of skill. Bad photos will help shade good shots. Think of it as a practice for capturing truly rare and precious moments for photo masterpieces.

4. Pay attention to the light


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If you follow the advice to avoid street marathons, you will be able to better understand how to work with light. Pay attention to its sources, how objects are illuminated, where there are contrasting areas. It is the light that will tell you how best to frame the frame.

5. Notice people who are far away from you


weber-street-photography.com

Observe passers-by, evaluate them appearance and emotions. You can notice a bright interesting character from a distance through the viewfinder (especially if you have a lens with a good zoom). In this case, you can prepare to take an interesting picture in advance, before the person comes closer to you. Experiment, create your own scenarios and plots.

6. Think ahead


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An important strategic point: try not to take what is happening around you for granted. Think about how your photographs will be perceived 50 years from now. What will go out of fashion, what will seem strange? Will a person sitting on a bench with a tablet be interesting?

Mark key milestones, signs of the times. This way you will give your pictures more story value.

7. Be consistent


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street photography with apparent simplicity - a rather difficult genre. In order to improve your skills, you must act consistently, have a shooting schedule.

Maybe you will spend half a day on street photography once a week, or 30 minutes a day during your lunch break, or after work. Perhaps you will shoot non-stop, interrupted only for lunch.

In any case, by doing this constantly, you can not only improve your pictures. Over time, you will develop your own style, and interesting stories will find you themselves.

8. Use your camera as a key


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A huge plus of the camera - it is the key to getting new experiences. Thirst to do nice shot makes you go outside when everyone is watching popular TV shows, take pictures at night, in rain and blizzard. You will be able to visit places where you have never been before.

In addition, you will definitely make new friends. The camera helps to break the ice in relationships, and the portrait you made will open a person from a different, unknown side.

9. Catch gestures and emotions


erickimphotography.com

The task of the photographer is to call the viewer who will consider the picture. Try to determine what meaning your photo carries, whether it will please or make you empathize. Think about what emotion the gesture or look of the person you photographed evokes. You must make sure that the viewer himself received answers to all questions.

10. Study photography books

Look for new sources of inspiration. Take pictures during the day, at night, study books by famous photographers, preferably working in different styles. You will get a huge number of ideas that will help you rise to the next level.

  • Anton Vershovsky, “Street photography. The opening of the plane. A book by a St. Petersburg photographer who started taking pictures at the age of 7.
  • Brian Peterson, How to shoot masterpieces with any camera. The power of exposure "and" In search of a frame. Idea, Color and Composition in Photography". The photography instructor explains the basics of working with a camera.
  • Lee Frost, Black and White Photography. Easy ways to get artistic shots", "Night and evening shooting". Practical Tips famous English photographer.

Street photography today has become a full-fledged genre of photography, and maybe even art. One can argue with the last statement, but you must admit that this is precisely the art - to be able to get a frame that will appeal not only to the author of the photograph, but also to tens or even thousands of people.

So hundreds of people wander around cities and countries, armed with cameras of varying degrees of advancement. Someone has an ordinary soap dish, and someone carries a camera with them, the cost is comparable to a quite good car. They look like hunters stalking their prey. The booty of a street photographer is a freeze frame of your life, your emotions, an important or not so important event. It is possible that those who were photographed by the photographer will already forget about the fleeting fact in his life in minutes, but everything will remain in the picture.

Tip one: Street photography is democratic and absolutely undemanding to technology. It doesn't matter what camera you have. The main thing is what and how you shoot. You can do street photography without having a camera at all. Modern smartphones allow you to take good pictures.

What does a street photographer shoot and what is the street photo genre about

If you do not talk for a long time, then street photography is about people's lives and people themselves, with their joys and sorrows, with their thoughts and experiences. These are streets, but the streets are not empty, but filled with people, movement. About movement - when we say the word "movement", we most often imagine someone walking or something that is riding, flying. In fact, movement is a broader concept. Thought is also movement. Only inanimate objects are static in themselves. Like death, it is also static.

In the last century, there was such a fashion - to photograph deceased relatives, giving them living poses. Such photographs look creepy - this is an imitation of life and it is unnatural. Death does not move - it is the end, a complete stop. Every life is dynamic. Any living object is in dynamics, even if it just stands and smokes:


Street photography - Moscow 2016

Sometimes street photography refers to any pictures of the city. This is not true. There is a very clear division between urban landscape and street photography. The urban landscape, which I will talk about in the next article, is a separate genre of photography, where the hero is the city itself, its architecture, landscape. Street photography is all about people. It does not matter whether a person is walking, riding a bicycle or a car, just standing there, thinking - the person is the main character of street photography. There is a difference, as you can see. In one case, the main plot is the creation of man, in the other - the man himself.


Moscow - May 2016

The main feature of street photography

Street photography is complete absence staging. You don't prepare the stage, you don't force your models to stand there, take such and such a position, smile or cry. You don't even know who will be your model and what he or she will do in a second. Maybe he will cry, or maybe he will laugh, or maybe he will notice you and send you to hell, and even chase you with very bad desires.

Tip two: When shooting outdoors, use telephoto lenses or compact cameras with high magnification. The main thing in street photography is naturalness, and what naturalness when you know that you are being photographed. You are always waiting for a bird to fly out. This is at best, and at worst, people may be vehemently opposed to being filmed. Therefore, it is better to shoot from afar, armed with good optics.


Victory Park - May 2016

Who to shoot and what events to capture

Who to film? A complex and at the same time simple question that can be answered unequivocally - people. People, person, woman or man, children or one child. It doesn't matter who. What matters is how and when. So we come to the most important thing - at the time of shooting. When to push the button and when not to. Here the question is not only in the shooting technique, but there are also aesthetic and ethical aspects. There are a lot of questions, and most of them do not have a clear answer. Each photographer decides for himself. Whether to shoot people at the funeral, heartbroken or not, whether to shoot the expression of feelings of love, rage, aggression or not to shoot. What all street photographers agree on is that you can capture moments of joy and happiness. And is it worth filming the joy of an alcoholic who has bought a bottle or just got drunk, or the satisfaction from a job well done by a hostess who has just slaughtered a chicken for dinner? Difficult. I repeat once again - each photographer decides for himself what is acceptable and what is not.

Tip three: If you want to get a strong shot, then it is best to shoot at holidays or some kind of event. People in such moments are more emotional and hold themselves back less. Watch people at street parties - they are liberated, they think less about how they look. More emotions - better photography.


Hermitage Garden - a feast of food

When to shoot

Any time of the day. You are limited only by the technical parameters of your equipment. You can shoot during the day, morning or night. It does not matter. The main thing is that you can see what you want to shoot. But in general, it's better when there is good lighting- it can be the sun, street lights. Otherwise noise can ruin your photo. Although, sometimes noise is added on purpose. But, still, it is worth remembering that the less light, the longer your shutter speed and higher ISO. And also remember that the less light, the more noisy or blurry your picture will be, and maybe both will turn the picture into an incomprehensible mess, a mess. You can, of course, later say that this is such an idea, and they say this is how I see the world. But we are not talking about painting, but about photography, which captures the event. An event, not your state of mind.


Evening Arbat - July 2016

Color or black and white photography - which is better?

Different photographers have very different ideas about color. Someone thinks that street photography should only be black and white, someone admits that street photography can be in color. Actually, the color doesn't matter. Color is not an end in itself and not a canon. What matters is the plot and what you want to emphasize. Let's talk about what color is. Color is our subjective perception of the reflection of the light flux from objects. For a person, there are no identical colors - everyone perceives colors differently. Pink or red - this is understandable, but there are details. Are the details important or not? The devil knows. There are only two colors that we perceive in the same way - black and white. Even color blind people do not confuse these colors. That is, if you want all people to see the same picture in color, then black- white photography preferable. But it's not even about how we perceive color, but about the plot and what we want to convey. I'll give you an example. We film a weightlifter during a push or hold. The veins tense up, the face turns red, the eyes pop out of their sockets, the whole face is tense. What do you want to convey? If only emotional tension, then a black and white version is better. The viewer's eye will not be distracted by the complexion or hands of the athlete. And if you want to convey physical tension, then a color picture would be more appropriate - the color perfectly conveys our physical state.


Street basketball - tension is conveyed not only in movement and emotions, but also in color

I noticed that strong open emotions are better conveyed by color photography. A black and white photo, on the other hand, reveals what people sometimes want to hide. It is possible that this is an erroneous impression, but there is something in it, in my opinion.

Tip #4: Shoot in color. Then, when processing a photo, you will figure out which is better. When you take pictures on the street, you can’t immediately understand what you shot. But when processing a photo, there is already time to consider and think.

About composition in street photography

When we shoot in a studio or take a family photo, we create, build reality and cram people into it. That is, we create reality according to our ideas about how it should look. Street photography is different. We do not create the world around us, but we only observe it and record events in the real environment, which does not depend on our idea of ​​it. A street photographer is not a builder, he is an observer. Attentive, endowed with imagination, but an observer. I note that when thinking about the plot, we can choose a place, a shooting point, adjust the focus - sit in an ambush.

There are two categories of photographers. Some can be compared to an ordinary hunter who wanders through the forest and looks out for game on the branches. It is possible that he will come across only a couple of crows, or a valuable fur-bearing animal may also come across. The main thing is not to fox. Others are snipers, carefully choosing the place from which the shot will be fired. In the first case, a successful composition is a matter of chance, in the second, sooner or later someone will fall into the chosen framework.

And what is better - wandering around the city in search of a plot or choosing a place and time, and waiting? It is hard to say. It all depends on what is happening around. Let me explain. You have decided to replenish your portfolio with photographs of the newlyweds, and everyone does not invite you to the wedding. Fine. We think, where are these newlyweds found? There are several places in Moscow where you will definitely catch a couple of weddings at the weekend - the Patriarchal Bridge and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior itself, Tsaritsino, Kolomenskoye, GUM. Now we decide what kind of environment we need. Then it's a matter of technique - we arrive at the place and choose a shooting point - sooner or later, but the young will fall into our frame. The photographer will only have to press a button when a couple of newlyweds or a whole fun wedding approaches the point that we have chosen for shooting.


Patriarchal bridge - Moscow - 2011
Work wedding photographer— 2011, Moscow

What is better for shooting - open space, highway or brick walls around. It doesn't matter at all.

Some people think that street photography is zero processing and no cropping. In my opinion, this is wrong. You can crop a photo, and sometimes you need to. Good street photography has a story. Let not invented and not directed, but the plot is present all the same. Life itself gives subjects for our pictures. And there is nothing wrong with the fact that we cut off the excess that does not fit into our plot. The main thing is not to cut off something important that will emasculate our photo and make it featureless.


Street photography - good luck with your shots

That's all for today. Thoughts are over. But this is not the end, but only the beginning and to be continued.

Ilya Shtutsa is not just a talented street photographer. Photography for him is a way of interacting with the world, a kind of game, the rules of which he shares with pleasure.

A few years ago, when I just discovered street photography, and at the same time photography in general (school experiments with Smena 8m, apparently, cannot be seriously considered a photographic experience, there was no awareness there, besides, after I abandoned " shift”, there was a break, no less than 20 years old), I happened to be among the participants in one of the photo quests in Vladivostok, just at the moment when they were given tasks. The tasks were quite diverse, 12, it seems, themes, one of which was "through the looking glass".

It would seem, what is easier - open your eyes wider and go to the city, seize the moment and bring great shot. But… almost all of these people chose to take a staged shot. And for this they had to be wildly perverted - I heard the conversation of the participants who were going to buy frozen chicken, put it in the toilet, light it red and do a few more strange manipulations, I don’t remember the details anymore - and all this instead of just going and seeing that the dear universe will offer to the existing request.

Actually, the main buzz of street photography is that it is an extremely addictive game for two players - the photographer and ... the world? Cities? Environment? The easiest way, of course, is to say that the game goes with the world, and it goes on an equal footing - if you, with wide eyes, go out into the city, as if into an enchanted forest, firmly knowing that unknown miracles await you around the corner, then peace will surely be for you. will show miracles.

It looks like a fairy tale, but the very principle of street photography is best expressed just by ... a line from Russian folk tale“Go there, I don’t know where, bring something, I don’t know what.” You can, for example, tell the story of a photograph in which a cardboard box with legs is chasing a fleeing girl.

I am often asked if this is a performance. No, of course, no staging. It happened in Blagoveshchensk-on-Amur, in June, there was a forty-degree heat, I was returning home at night and suddenly I saw a cardboard box near the bus stop, from the window in which a cigarette light looked out. Leaning down, I found a grubby face in the slot, and took a picture - with a flash, because it was very dark. Three guys ran up to the flash from the darkness and said - wait, he will scare the girls now, you take it off, it will turn out cool. I stepped back into the darkness, and a couple of minutes later, when two unsuspecting girls walked by, chatting nonchalantly about something, the box quietly got to its feet, ran up to them and began to push in the ass. The girls turned around, squealed, and ran away. Then the situation repeated itself with another passerby. After taking a few photos, I asked the guys - why are you doing this? And I heard in response - ah ... still do, it's boring.

Of course, it’s not enough to see something interesting, you also need to be able to show it to others, that is, in fact, to take a good photo. But here I will not discover any America, almost everything good photographers They advise the same thing - shoot a lot and select very carefully, ruthlessly rejecting 99 percent of the shot, and look at a lot of other people's good photos. Start with the Magnum website, for example. By the way, it’s better not to limit yourself to photographs alone, it’s also useful to go to museums, watch good movies and generally cultivate visual literacy in yourself. But these are all common truths.

The “go there, I don’t know where” mentioned above is the perfect instruction for a street photographer. Ideal, but, of course, far from the only possible one. Of course, it's great to just casually wander down the street in search of a unique, impressive moment, relying solely on your nose, but shooting something on a given topic is very useful, if only as an exercise.

For example, I was very lucky three years ago (that is, almost at the very beginning) to find and connect to the Street Photography Now Project. The project was launched in mid-2010 by London's Photographers Gallery with Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, authors of Street Photography Now, which almost immediately became something of a bible for a new generation of street photographers. During the year 52 famous photographer, for example, Alex Webb and Bruce Gilden of the Magnum agency, Matt Stewart and other members of the In-public collective, and others gave each week some kind of instruction that everyone could try to follow simply by uploading a photo of themselves taken during this weeks, to the corresponding group on the Flickr photo hosting.

Why do I say I'm lucky? First, it was, in fact, a free one-year street photography course from the best craftsmen genre, and sometimes the authors of the instructions actively commented on the work of the participants - what else can a beginner dream of? It is also important here that, since about 500 people took part in the project, their common intention to carry out the next instruction created a huge flow of force, which greatly facilitated the task. For example, my photo of women rolling a piece of tree trunk down the street was taken in response to Gary Alexander's Surrealism Today instruction.

I then had a particularly busy week, there was absolutely no time to wander around the city with a camera, and I was able to allocate only three hours to complete the instructions. That is, in three hours I had to go and find some kind of surrealistic scene. The task seemed impossible, but I was sure that something would turn up - and now, having wandered for two hours in vain, I turned into another alley and saw this.

Secondly, a friendly community has formed from the permanent participants of the project. These people did not want to stop the game after the official end of the project - and continued it on their own for the second, and then the third year! The only difference is that it is now called Street Photography Now Community and instructions are given half as often, which is why the flow is somewhat weakened, but not critical. A side effect of the continuation of the project was, in particular, the creation of the international collective of street photographers Observecollective.

Photographers who lived in the pre-digital era never dreamed of such a thing. The Internet offers incredible opportunities for extremely fast learning, but this also has a downside (there are no free cakes - my head of the department at the institute liked to repeat). When thousands of pictures flash before your eyes every day, you quickly begin to realize that most of them exploit a rather small set of the same stamps.

This also applies to your own photographs - what until recently seemed like a good find, suddenly turns out to be another stamp, worn out before you by hundreds, if not thousands of people from all continents. What to do if you run into this wall? There is no definite answer to this question, but I think that we should just keep shooting, catching the buzz from the process itself (otherwise what is all this for?), Perhaps postponing the photos for a while so that we can return to them later with a fresh look. One of the instructions of the above mentioned SPNP project, which was given to the participants by the wonderful Indian photographer Ragu Rey, sounded something like this: “Until the supernatural comes into play, the picture is just information.” It means that nice picture must have some kind of magic.

It's hard to explain, but sometimes something happens, some kind of click, and something passes through you, breaking the tight cage of clichés and mental constructions. Such pictures, strictly speaking, cannot even be called our own, they are presented by some forces that are greater than us, and the one who held the camera in his hands is, at best, a co-author. But only they, by and large, matter.

 

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