Street Photography: Nick Turpin said “a simple ‘Zen’ like experience, they know what it feels like to take a great shot in the same way that the archer knows he has hit the bullseye before the arrow has fully left the bow.”
Below is from a great website dealing with street photography. Look around their site In-Public for a wide range of really great photography no matter what name or style label!
They are accepting work until the end of July 2009, so hurry!
“Primarily Street Photography is not reportage, it is not a series of images displaying, together, the different facets of a subject or issue. For the Street Photographer there is no specific subject matter and only the issue of ‘life’ in general, he does not leave the house in the morning with an agenda and he doesn’t visualize his photographs in advance of taking them. Street Photography is about seeing and reacting, almost by-passing thought altogether.
Copyright © Nick Turpin
For many Street Photographers the process does not need ‘unpacking’, It is, for them, a simple ‘Zen’ like experience, they know what it feels like to take a great shot in the same way that the archer knows he has hit the bullseye before the arrow has fully left the bow. As an archer and Street Photographer myself, I can testify that, in either discipline, if I think about the shot too hard, it is gone.
If I were pushed to analyze further the characteristics of contemporary Street Photography it would have to include the following: Firstly, a massive emphasis on the careful selection of those elements to include and exclude from the composition and an overwhelming obsession with the moment selected to make the exposure. These two decisions may at first seem obvious and universal to all kinds of photography, but it is with these two tools alone that the Street Photographer finds or creates the meaning in his images. He has no props or lighting, no time for selecting and changing lenses or filters, he has a split second to recognize and react to a happening.
Secondly, a high degree of empathy with the subject matter, Street Photographers often report a loss of ‘self’ when carefully watching the behavior of others, such is their emotional involvement.
Thirdly, many Street Photographers seem to be preoccupied with scenes that trigger an immediate emotional response, especially humor or a fascination with ambiguous or surreal happenings. A series of street photographs may show a ‘crazy’ world, perhaps ‘dreamlike’. This is, for me, the most fascinating aspect of Street Photography, the fact that these ‘crazy’, ‘unreal’ images were all made in the most ‘everyday’ and ‘real’ location, the street. It was this paradox that fascinated me and kept me shooting in the ‘everyday’ streets of London when many of my colleagues were traveling to the worlds famines and war zones in search of exciting subject matter. Friends that I met for lunch would, just be back from the ‘war in Bosnia’ and I would declare proudly that I was just back from the ‘sales on Oxford Street’.”
Nick Turpin 2000
Time is running out!
OUR NEXT SUBMISSION REVIEW WILL BE DURING THE MONTH OF JULY 2009. HERE ARE THE GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING WORK:
1. During the month of July 2009, please email a website link to b@blakeandrewsphoto.com with “In Public Submissions” in the Subject line. Please do not send jpgs. Send a link instead.
2. Your site should feature a well edited selection of 10 or fewer photographs. The photos currently featured on In-Public site give a good sense of what we are looking for.
3. Please keep your site simple, with no music, animation, or video. You can set up a page on an existing site or create a custom site, or use a third-party site like Flickr. Whatever you do, keep it simple and edit well. Let your photographs speak for you.
4. Submissions sent before or after July 2009 will not be considered. If a submission includes more than 10 photographs, only the first 10 will be considered.
5. We will respond to all emails but not immediately. Please have patience.
6. We’re looking forward to seeing your work. Thanks and good luck.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thank you for the mention, I just wanted to point out that submissions after July 2009 will still be viewed, they will just be held over until the next review. We are always keen to see new photographers and their work. I think our submission guidelines wording could be improved, I’ll see to it.
N.