Street photography.
“Everybody Street illuminates the lives and work of New York’s iconic street photographers and the incomparable city that has inspired them for decades. The documentary pays tribute to the spirit of street photography through a cinematic exploration of New York City, and captures the visceral rush, singular perseverance and at times immediate danger customary to these artists, covering nine decades of street photography"
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Jeff Mermelstein.
Jeff Mermelstein is an American photographer who was born in 1957, New Brunswick, New Jersey and lives and works in New York City. He takes photos on the streets of new york and has been said to "capture the spirit of this city like no one else, with both humor and tenderness". He is drawn to quirky scenes or people which makes his pictures slightly comical. Once described as “an absurdist with a sense of humour” his images capture the diversity and tiny details of New York fantastically.
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This is one of my favorite pictures of his. I like the overall composition with the subject in the center. The colours are all calm blues and greens with a pop of pink in the centre.
If I was to name it I would call it "Pink Lips" as I think they stand out the most in the picture. I am interested in fashion photography and I like that he has captured the more chaotic and less glamorous side of fashion week. |
I like the reflections in the glass as it gives you more information about where and at what time the picture was taken. It was part of a series he did whilst fashion week was on in 2010. This particular picture was taken in Milan. I find all of the pictures in this collection interesting and put some more below.
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“I was able to create this work because I am an outsider,these pictures are not about fashion but rather my way of seeing and responding.”
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WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE FILM "EVERYBODY STREET"
- How do street photographers behave?
- What kind of equipment do they use?
- What kinds of subjects interest them?
- Why do they like photographing on the street? They like photographing on the street beccause they like to find meaning in chaos. They also like capturing moments that may never be repeated. It's fun and creative and a form of self-expression. The hazards of it are becoming adicted to a cirtain lifstyle, becoming adicted to drugs or being drawn into a world of crime are all risks of being a street photographer. If photographers are hanging around with gangs in rough places there is a high risk of them getting hurt if some one gets angry at them for taking a photo. Spending days taking pictures but not getting anything you like is also a risk street photographers take. I belive a street photograph is successfull when the image captures a scene or emotion that you will never be able to recreate.
Photo Challenge #1 - Ways of Seeing
We had totake a look at these examples of street photography. Our challenge was to respond to these examples by creating images of our own that borrow these viewpoints, subjects and compositions.
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LOOKING DOWN |
SHADOWS AND REFLECTIONS |
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OVER THE SHOULDER |
CROPPING |
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WALK ON BY |
SURFACES |
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MY FIRST SET OF PICTURES
In these I focused on the composition of each shot looking at the examples above for insporation. I enjoyed doing it but I don't like many of the photos as I find the location dull as there aren't many interesting subjects to photograph. Next time I would like to go to somewhere with more people so the pictures have more interesting subjects and are more engaging. I would also like to ether edit the images or find subjects with better colour.
MY FAVOURITE PICTURES.
This is one of my favourite pictures I took. I like that its looking over her shoulder at where she is going. I also like the feel of momentum and traveling forward. It also is one of the busiest images I took as lots of people were walking past. I prefer the pictures with more people in as I find them more interesting as they capture lots of detail. Next time I hope to take a picture with lots more people in it.
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This is another of my favourite images I took. I like the contrast of the black door against the brightness of the light in the room. I also like how the door frame cuts out the rest of the class and only lets you see a few people. I would like to try and take more pictures through the doors as I think they could make them much more interesting by capturing more peoples faces.
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Photo Challenge #2 - Diagonals
The idea for this challenge came from Eric Kim's great street photography site. Street photographs are often about dramatic situations or view points. Drama is created in pictures in lots of ways but using strong diagonal lines is one technique often used by most street photographers. It makes chaos and drama and overall creates more interesting and dynamic images. |
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MY IMAGES WHITH THE THEME OF DIAGONALS. I don't like many of these as I had to take them around school. I was more focused on taking pictures of objects with diagonals than scenes with them.
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PICTURE 1 This is one of my favourite pictures I took. I like the contrast between the darkness of the stairs and the lightness of the sky. I really love the silhouette of the tree against the clouds. When I go and take some more I would like to revisit this with a better camera. I think this is one of my favourites as you can see the location as well as diagonal lines. |
PICTURE 2 This is another of my favourite pictures I took. Again, I like this one as you can see the location and not just a pattern. I really like all of the different lines in the shadow as it creates natural diagonals without having to tilt the angle of the camera. Next time I will try to capture more landscapes than small objects with diagonal lines on them. |
Photo chalenge #3 rule of thirds
The Rule of Thirds (which is actually more of a guideline than a rule) is an imaginary grid that can help you make better photographs. As you can see in this diagram, your image is divided up into 9 segments by lines placed one third and two thirds across the surface. Some cameras have the option to turn these grid lines on in the viewfinder.
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These are the pictures I took on a iPod touch. I quite like the way they came out as I like the effects but the camera is not very good quality which I find annoying. |
I much prefer the quality of the image on the canons but they are less easy to take a quick photo with. I do like both of these images as I like the light in each one. |
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photo chalenge #4 comparing images
SIMILARITIES:
Both images are taken of objects lower to the ground, focusing on the activity next to peoples feet. One of the things I like is that they captures the details of a scene by cropping only the main features. They are also both comical as they capture scenes that
you would never expect to see on a street. They also both use unusual looking animals as the main object of interest in the image which I really like. I think that the animals make the pictures much more interesting to look at. Both of the pictures also divide the image into three main verticle sections. In the first image the three sections are the woman wearing black, the reptile, and the woman in pink. In the second image they are divided into the little dog, the street, and the womans feet. They both also use focus to emphasise the main objects in the pictures. In the black and white picture the back round out of focus so that you focus on the foreground but can still see the location.
DIFFERENCES:
One of the main differences is that one uses colour and one is in black and white. The first image is rich in colour with the hot pink in the top right corner and the greens browns of the back round. The black and white image looks older than the left one from the clothes and cars in the back round, this surgests black and white camera was the only kind that the photographer could use. Even though it is in black and white it has alot of tone which makes it interesting to look at. Another difference is that the one on the right shows the street it has been taken on but the left one only shows the pavement.
Both images are taken of objects lower to the ground, focusing on the activity next to peoples feet. One of the things I like is that they captures the details of a scene by cropping only the main features. They are also both comical as they capture scenes that
you would never expect to see on a street. They also both use unusual looking animals as the main object of interest in the image which I really like. I think that the animals make the pictures much more interesting to look at. Both of the pictures also divide the image into three main verticle sections. In the first image the three sections are the woman wearing black, the reptile, and the woman in pink. In the second image they are divided into the little dog, the street, and the womans feet. They both also use focus to emphasise the main objects in the pictures. In the black and white picture the back round out of focus so that you focus on the foreground but can still see the location.
DIFFERENCES:
One of the main differences is that one uses colour and one is in black and white. The first image is rich in colour with the hot pink in the top right corner and the greens browns of the back round. The black and white image looks older than the left one from the clothes and cars in the back round, this surgests black and white camera was the only kind that the photographer could use. Even though it is in black and white it has alot of tone which makes it interesting to look at. Another difference is that the one on the right shows the street it has been taken on but the left one only shows the pavement.