“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson
While most people today use digital cameras, there are some valid reasons for photographers who use analog cameras and film, in particular black and white film. “The first photographs ever taken were generally done in the streets. So, the start of photography was the start of street photography” (Kim). Photographers first used black and white film out of necessity and over the decades have come to use it out of tradition. Even when color film was introduced in the 1930s, street photographers continued to pay homage to the past by using black and white film to take their photographs. Whether a street photographer uses film or digital, they are relentless in capturing the street culture of our world.
One of the first street photographers was Eugene Atget. He literally took photographs of streets and not people. The equipment was large and bulky and not conducive to taking candid photographs as we have come to define street photography today. He photographed Paris in the 1800s and 1900s. He wasn’t shooting architecture; he was shooting the actual streets where people lived. In 1877 the first book was published on street photography titled, “Street Life In London” by John Thomson. The photographs were all posed as, once again, the equipment of the day didn’t allow for candid shots.
One of the first street photographers to capture candid shots was Samuel Colthurst in the late 1800s. He disguised himself as a street vendor and took photographs without people knowing it. He realized that what he was capturing were moments in time that possibly wouldn’t be there in the future like an organ grinder for instance. Weegee was a street photographer in the early 1900s who was drawn to the more grotesque aspects of life on the streets, like homicides. He wasn’t there to shoot the dead body; he was there to shoot the bystanders and the looks on their faces while they viewed the dead body.
So, when street photographers argue endlessly about what is the proper way to shoot the streets, the possibilities are great. Roy DeCarava photographed the people living in Harlem during the 1930s and 1940s. Garry Winogrand photographed New York during the 1960s and 1970s. The common thread is to print a history of what was happening during a specific time in the culture of these cities. They worried little about angle, lighting, and style as their goal was to get a photograph of real people going about their normal life.
Street photographers are a breed apart from photographers who shoot portraits, architecture, and high society. Many street photographers debate about the aesthetics of the art, like approach and style, and have angst about what street photography is and isn’t. They ponder if they should use flash or if they should they be seen or discrete. Maybe these photographers should debate less and shoot more. One might think that a street photographer goes searching for that one great shot, snaps a photograph, and goes home. Not so with street photographers where the common thread is to take hundreds or even thousands of pictures for that one great photograph. When Garry Winogrand died, in 1984, he left about 400,000 frames that were undeveloped, developed but not printed, or contact sheets, with a total of 5 million photographs in his archives.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was considered a genius of candid photography for 50 years. When he died, he accumulated 500,000 negatives of his work. He once went on an assignment with novelist Truman Capote and Capote said this, “I remember once watching Bresson at work on a street in New Orleans — dancing along the pavement like an agitated dragonfly, three Leicas swinging from straps around his neck, a fourth one hugged to his eye: click-click-click (the camera seems a part of his own body), clicking away with a joyous intensity, a religious absorption” (Oliver). This is not uncommon with street photographers. Many get caught up in the experience and stop worrying about everything else. “Enjoy yourself when shooting on the streets, but at the same time still stay energized and focused and try to capture those decisive moments as small as a smile, a certain look, or a certain expression someone may give with their hands” (Kim).
Street photographs should not only capture the cheery moments on the streets but also the suffering on the streets. Walking the streets of any city will eventually bring you to a homeless person. This is the moment the street photographer has to decide whether to take a photograph or not. Some street photographs don’t care to intrude upon people already in distress and maybe even see it as disrespectful.
Great street photographers take their time knowing an original photograph might only come after taking thousands of shots. They may not like the work they are producing and put the negatives away for a time, sometimes years, before looking at them again from a different, more mature, perspective. Unless you are trying to make a living doing street photography, take the time to hone your craft. The more a photographer is out in the streets shooting the better they will get and come to understand what they are looking for in their work.
A street photographer can capture the important historical issues facing people on the streets. Subjects like integration, racism, war, and black lives matter need to be documented in photography. When needed, the street photographer takes photographs with a deeper meaning that describes the social issues of the time. These photographs help inform people about what is going on and can help to show what needs to be corrected in society. Lewis Hine was such a street photographer. “In 1904, Lewis Hine photographed immigrants on Ellis Island, as well as at the tenements and sweatshops where they lived and worked. In 1911, he was hired by the National Child Labor Committee to record child labor conditions, and he produced appalling pictures of exploited children” (Biography). The camera was a tool for him to help bring about social reform.
Street photographers aren’t all that interested in sharpness in their photographs. In general, the technical aspects of photography go by the wayside. What is important is the content of the photograph and the effect that it has on the viewer. Even an out-of-focus photograph can be a great photograph. Street photographers are never distracted worrying about the shots they take. They just go out on the streets and let the camera work on its own, not thinking about it, just shooting.
One of the reasons street photographers continue to use black and white film is it captures the abstract images on the streets like shadows and forms. If they use color the street photographer will always be looking for color to enhance the photograph. Street photographs also experiment with film and equipment to maintain creativity. They try different approaches like posed and candid, different lighting, and different processing methods. “But try to remember no camera or lens in itself will make you more creative. It will only be your passion and ingenuity which will do so (and the equipment will help you achieve that)” (Kim).
Street photographers study art history, paintings and read books such as Bystander: A History of Street Photography by Joel Meyerowitz and Colin Westerbeck, considered to be the bible of street photography. Most important is that great street photographers shoot the streets for the love of it. By now, everything on the streets has already been done before, so street photographers aren’t bringing new methods to the table. The content might be new, but the methods have all been done. Going out on the streets and using their gut feeling and lots of heart will get them what they are looking for.