Street Photography (Essay Sample)

Street Photography In 1960’s Students Name: Affiliation: Street Photography In 1960’s Introduction Street photography is an example of street art. Street art are all forms of art that are made in public areas. That is why it is referred to as ‘street art.’ In street photography the city which is a public location that is free to all, is an essential working environment for the photographers. Street photography was able to reveal the lifestyle of those who lived in the arts and the photographers captured vivid images that explained various aspects in the city. In the 1960’s New York was the main city where street photography took place. Some of the prominent practioners of street photography during the 1960’s included; Lee Friedlander, Joel Meyerowitz and Barry Winogrand. The art today faces various opposition which results from people who complained that their privacy was compromised of terrorism threats and also pedophilia. Street photography was made possible by change in the form of cameras which were reduced in size and made portable. The photographers were able to carry their cameras around and captured the kind of life lived by those in the cities. The photographers mainly used the natural light that is produced by the sun. The start of the street photography was marked by the actions of William Klein and Robert Trank. They both produced confrontational pictures which revealed the life in the city. In 1960various street photographers followed their footstep. This included Diana Airbus, Joel Meyerowitz and Garry Winogrand who were all based in New York. They had great passion for their work and their goal was to create a story of people’s way of life just by the use of an image. Roberts Frank’s photography book known as ‘The Americans’ in 1958 and William Klein’s photography book produced in 1956 known as ‘Life Is Good and Good For You In New York’ altered the way people carried out photojournalism and documentary photography. In the Americans Frank used 83 photographs to show how American citizens lived their lives. Since he was not an American he was not bias in his work, he pointed out the bad parts in the society of Americans that people were not aware of through his photographs. The Negative aspects of the American society that were evident in his photographs included; racial discrimination, the division of Americans based on their status that is the rich and the poor and mass consumerism. This was his personal work and therefore he dictated what message he wanted to convey through his work. The main aim of Frank was to produce emotional photographs and for that reason he did not do what was expected from him as a photographer that was to produce images that neat, well exposed and quite sharp. Instead he used blurred grains in his prints; some images were printed on top of each other and others had prints that were distorted with different styles he used in his photographs he was able to show his personal perspective on the American society to anyone who viewed the photographs. His work marked the genesis of street photography especially in New York City. The photographs in 1960 emulated his style of work to also show their personal view of different places in New York City using their photographs. William Klein’s photography book titled ‘Life Is Good and Good for You in New York’ also greatly influenced street photography in the 1960’s. Through his work he was able to give some street photographers on steps to take in their photography work. He also did not follow the basic styles that were used in photography giving his work a personal feel. According to Klein when doing street photography the photographers needs to know how to work with various focal lengths. He is known to use lenses with wide angles between 21mm and 28mm. His use of wide angle lens made his photographs appear to be distorted. Street photographers in 1960’s also had a “Photographic Diary”. This was learnt from Klein’s work. A photographic diary is very essential for all street photographers since it enabled them to capture various street images that caught their attention. His work also taught photographers in the 1960’s to use grain and high contrasts in their photography. Street photographers should also ensure that their images focuses and shows the culture of people in a given city, in his case the city was New York. The works of the two greatly contributed to what defined street photography in the 1960’s where the photographers were able to personalize their works and bending some rules in photography so as to pass their message through their images. Garry Winogrand, a street photographer in 1960 he studied with Alexey Brovitch who greatly influenced the works of Robert Frank. His photography works included ‘The Animals’ which was published in 1969 and others. He also had the privilege of having his work exhibited in the museum of modern art in 1967. Some of the photographs by Winogrand that are well known include: A photograph that showed a peaceful demonstration that was held in the central church while it was raining another one was on a girl that was fairly young who was lost in her own dreams and she was smiling while crossing a street that was crowded. The pictures showed his perception of the life in New York City. Diana Arbus who was also a street photographer in New York had several works of her own during 1960’s. She also studied with Alexey Brovitch. Like Robert Frank her work did not follow the general laws used in photography. From 1960’s she became well known for her square photographs which were captur...