Several years ago, just as I was starting out in photography, I had no clue what street photography was. Whilst I recognised that I was most content when roaming freely and making photographs of everyday life, I couldn’t put a name on it.
I recall asking one of my earliest tutors, “What kind of photographer am I?” With a slight smile on his face, he replied, “You’re a street photographer. Just not a very good one!” He was right: I was terrible.
There was a part of me that already knew my standard, hence why for many years I didn’t share any of my photographs publicly. I didn’t want the world to know how bad I was. Even today, after seven years of shooting street, I only have two or three images that I would take to a desert island with me. I wish the same could be said for all these new street photographers.
3‘Elswick Kids’ – Extraordinary Photos by the Late Tish Murtha
Tish Murtha believed that photography could change lives for the better, but sadly died of a brain aneurysm in 2013 before her dream of a book could be realised. In 2017 her daughter Ella ran a Kickstarter campaign in collaboration with Bluecoat Press to publish Tish Murtha’s acclaimed photographic essay Youth Unemployment. The book was an amazing success, selling out as limited edition hardback within three months.
Ella writes about these photos and her mother:
The new book is her work centred around Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, in the late 1970s, when she first returned from college in Newport. Her images capture the joy and freedom of childhood at a time when it was normal to play out in the street, in a way that has been largely lost today.
The landscape may be rough, but the kids are making the most of what little they have. They have a humour and resilience that shines through in every image. I have always loved this series, and the feedback I have received from people visiting the exhibition, is that these images are very special.
4Imagining a Photo Archive of the American West When Mexico Ruled the Land
Photojournalism is supposed to document history as it unfolds, but what happens when artists retroactively apply this genre to a time before photography existed? And in re-staging the past, how can artists attest to the veracity of their work as an addendum to the dominant narratives of a history so often written by the victors?
Tomas van Houtryve is one such artist attempting to reconstitute our idea of the American West. His new series of conceptual photographs, called Lines and Lineage (2017), aims to restore public memory of the Southwest region of the United States when Mexico ruled territories from California to Texas before the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, which lasted from 1846 to 1848. For the past year, Van Houtryve has connected with people whose families lived within the original boundary line between the two countries that existed before the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo shifted it about 700 miles south to the Rio Grande.
5How Street Photography Makes You a Better Photographer
Being out in the urban jungle gives you limitless opportunities to photograph — from fashionable pedestrians to snazzy street shops, commuters in transit to unique landmarks, and everything in between. Aside from being perpetual eye candy for Lomographers, the city streets are also amazing learning grounds for training your eye and developing your style. How so?
6Why You Should Start Taking Street Photography In Color
Street photography has been highly popular in black and white format. There is a reason for that, shooting on the streets is hard due to its lack of control, therefore composition can be extremely difficult – there are just some colors that simply don’t get along nicely with others.
But that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to get some really great color photographs on the streets, it just means that it is harder.
