History Street photography

1 history

1.1 nineteenth-century precursors
1.2 twentieth-century practitioners

1.2.1 united kingdom
1.2.2 decisive moment
1.2.3 europe
1.2.4 america


1.3 individual approaches in later twentieth , twenty-first centuries

history

depictions of everyday public life form genre in every period of world art, beginning in pre-historic, sumerian, egyptian , buddhist art periods. art dealing life of street, whether within views of cityscapes, or dominant motif, appears in west in canon of northern renaissance, baroque, rococo, of romanticism, realism, impressionism , post-impressionism. type having been long established in other media, followed photographers pursue subject technology enabled them.

nineteenth-century precursors

louis daguerre: boulevard du temple (1838 or 1839)

in 1838 or 1839 first photograph of figures in street recorded louis-jacques-mandé daguerre in 1 of pair of daguerreotype views taken studio window of boulevard du temple in paris. second, made @ height of day shows unpopulated stretch of street, while other taken @ approximately 8:00 am, , beaumont newhall reports, boulevard, filled moving throng of pedestrians , carriages solitary, except individual having boots brushed. feet compelled of course, of course, stationary time, 1 being on box of boot black, , other on ground. consequently boots , legs defined, without body or head, because these in motion.

charles nègre first photographer achieve technical sophistication required register people in movement on street in paris in 1851. eugene atget regarded progenitor, not because first of kind, result of popularisation in late 1920s of record of parisian streets berenice abbott, inspired undertake similar documentation of new york city. city developed, atget helped promote parisian streets worthy subject photography. 1890s 1920s photographed architecture, stairs, gardens, , windows. did photograph workers people not main focus.

john thomson, scotsman working journalist , social activist adolphe smith, published street life in london (1877) prior atget. thomson played key role in making capture of everyday life on streets significant role medium.

twentieth-century practitioners
united kingdom

paul martin considered pioneer, making candid unposed photographs of people in london , @ seaside in late 19th , 20th century in order record life. martin first recorded photographer in london disguised camera.

mass-observation social research organisation founded in 1937 aimed record everyday life in britain , record reactions of man-in-the-street king edward viii s abdication in 1936 marry divorcée wallis simpson, , succession of george vi. humphrey spender made photographs on streets of northern english industrial town of bolton, identified project s publications yorktown , while filmmaker humphrey jennings made cinematic record in london parallel branch of investigation. chief mass-observationists anthropologist tom harrisson in bolton , poet charles madge in london, , first report produced book may twelfth: mass-observation day-surveys 1937 on 2 hundred observers

the decisive moment

henri cartier-bresson, 20th century photographer poetic style focused on actions of people in time , place. responsible in 1950s idea of taking picture @ termed decisive moment , when form , content, vision , composition merged transcendent whole . idea of decisive moment espoused in book images à la sauvette (1952) (the english-language edition titled the decisive moment) inspired successive generations of photographers make candid photographs in public places before approach per se came considered déclassé in aesthetics of postmodernism.

europe

window cleaner @ kottbusser tor, berlin, elsa thiemann c.1946

cartier-bresson associated post-war humanist school photographers found subjects on street or in bistro. worked in black‐and‐white in available light popular small cameras of day, discovering writer pierre mac orlan (1882-1970) called fantastique social de la rue (social fantastic of street) , style of image-making rendered romantic , poetic way of life of ordinary european people, particularly in paris. between 1946-1957 le groupe des xv annually exhibited work of kind. street photography formed major content of 2 exhibitions @ museum of modern art (moma) in new york curated edward steichen, 5 french photographers: brassai; cartier-bresson, doisneau, ronis, izis in 1951-1952, , post-war european photography in 1953. steichen drew on large numbers of european humanist , american humanistic photographs 1955 exhibition family of man, proclaimed compassionate portrayal of global family, toured world, inspiring photographers in depiction of everyday life.

america

alfred stieglitz: terminal (1892)

walker evans worked 1938 1941 on series in new york subway in order practice pure record method of photography; candid portraits of people unconsciously come range before impersonal fixed recording machine during time period . recording machine hidden camera , 35 mm contax concealed beneath coat, strapped chest , connected long wire strung down right sleeve . however, work had little contemporary impact due evans sensitivities originality of project , privacy of subjects, not published until 1966, in book many called, introduction written james agee in 1940. work exhibited walker evans subway photographs , other recent acquisitions held @ national gallery of art, 1991-1992, accompanied catalogue walker evans: subways , streets.

helen levitt, teacher of young children, associated evans in 1938-39. documented transitory chalk drawings part of children s street culture in new york @ time, children made them. in july 1939, moma s new photography section included levitt s work in inaugural exhibition. in 1943, nancy newhall curated first solo exhibition helen levitt: photographs of children there. photographs published in 1987 in street: chalk drawings , messages, new york city 1938–1948.

the beginnings of street photography in united states can linked of jazz, both emerging outspoken depictions of everyday life. connection visible in work of new york school of photography (not confused new york school). new york school of photography not formal institution, rather comprised groups of photographers in mid-20th century based in new york city. robert frank s 1958 book, americans, significant; raw , out of focus, frank s images questioned mainstream photography of time, challenged formal rules laid down henri cartier-bresson , walker evans , flew in face of wholesome pictorialism , heartfelt photojournalism of american magazines life , time . mainstream photography community in america fiercely rejected frank s work, book later changed nature of photography, , how . stepping stone fresh photographers looking break away restrictions of old style , remains perhaps influential photography book of 20th century .

individual approaches in later twentieth , twenty-first centuries

inspired frank, in 1960s garry winogrand, lee friedlander , joel meyerowitz began photographing on streets of new york. phil coomes, writing bbc news in 2013, said of interested in street photography there few names stand out , 1 of garry winogrand ; critic sean o hagan, writing in guardian in 2014, said in 1960s , 70s, defined street photography attitude style – , has laboured in shadow ever since, definitive photographs of new york.

crufts dog show 1968 tony ray-jones

returning uk in 1965 had met winogrand , adopted street photography, tony ray-jones turned wry eye on surreal groupings of british people on holidays or participating in festivals. acerbic comic vein of ray-jones high-contrast monochromes, before premature death popularised creative camera (for conducted interview brassai), mined more martin parr in hyper-saturated colour.