I never really thought much about this expression until a few years ago at a local Leica shindig. After releasing the M9, they couldn’t produce enough to meet demand, so they created a roadshow to allow the faithful to fondle the merchandise. Whilst groping the guest of honour with the ridiculous 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux, I heard a guy say, “Oh yeah, I shoot street.” I looked at him. He was a youngish man with a beard and tattoos, wearing a toque and one of those “photographer’s vests” that only Bruce Gilden can really pull off. I realized that I didn’t understand what he was talking about, and yet I wanted to strangle him for some reason.
I start from the premise that words and photographs are opposites. Words are primarily concrete and photographs are primarily abstract. It is the essential abstraction of photography that makes it worthwhile. The viewer is presented with an apparently accurate depiction of a slice of time and space, that is nevertheless unreliable.
A photograph is by nature confrontational and, to at least some degree, disorienting. The viewer will attempt to relate it to their own experience, will most likely fail, and will then quite properly rely on their imagination. But put a line of text in a photograph and the viewer will latch onto it like drowning man to a lifeboat.
Titles, locations, descriptions are all a kind of treason to a photograph. The further one goes down this road, the less the photograph exists in its own right, and the more it becomes a mere illustration of the accompanying text.
As an amateur, I have the luxury of shooting what and when I want. Nobody cares what or if I photograph—it’s total freedom. As such, I don’t feel the need to conform to a particular style or aesthetic, or to encumber what I do with a name. I agree with Mr. Waugh who said, “It doesn’t matter what people call you unless they call you pigeon pie and eat you up.”
Garry Winogrand, the poster child for Street Photography if ever there was one, said, “I hate the term. I think it’s a stupid term, ‘street photography’. I don’t think it tells you anything about the photographer or work.” Who am I to disagree?
From a practical point of view, I never engage in street photography because it’s incredibly dangerous here. You’d get liquified by a bus in a heartbeat. The sidewalk is much safer.
In conclusion, I offer below what is undoubtedly a street photograph. On December 14, 2013, I found a strip of colour negatives in the gutter on the northwest corner of Homer and Helmcken. I carefully dried it in restaurant napkins, then took it home and washed it, lovingly bathed it in Photo-Flo® and scanned it. If it looks familiar—too bad. Finders keepers.
