lecture #8 street photography - jordahl, photo · street photography was already established before...
TRANSCRIPT
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.
LOUDEN 2
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.
4
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
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
14
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
LOUDEN 15
Brassai: City at Night
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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Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1932
Paris, Gare St Lazare
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Henri Cartier Bresson:
The Decisive Moment
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
22
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
-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
25
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
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
LOUDEN 35
Harry Callahan
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
LOUDEN 40
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
41
Phillip-Lorca Dicorcia
Beat Streuli 2000’s
New York, 2000
Various International Cities, all look the same
- The Globalized International Cities
Beat Streuli
LOUDEN 43
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
44
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
47
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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