Street Photography
I am quite interested in the topic of street photography; one of the biggest reasons is because in most cases street photography is very real. Street photography is all candid images, they are not posed, they are not set up; but they are real, they are in the moment and most of the time the artists are so stealthy about the way that they capture the photographs that no one really ever knows that they are even taking the photographs. There are a few photographers that are very important to street photography that I would like to talk about; Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus and Winogrand. These are photographers really created what people might consider to be the face of street photography, you can think of street photography without thinking of one of their works. Personally, I am very fascinated with street photography. I believe it to be very beautiful. In my opinion street photography seems to be a lot similar to photojournalism, in the way that both of the photography styles are extremely, I do not know if I would use the word ‘candid’, I am not sure if that would be exactly the right way of putting it, however maybe the right word would be more like, well a phrase really, both of the photography styles of both photojournalism and street photography are really quite in the moment, they are not set up, instead of making the shot perfect, finding the camera angles and waiting for just the right moment to make that image wonderful and amazing.
By definition street photography is art that shows human beings in different conditions, good or bad, around public areas. It is believed that street photography originated in Paris. The city of Paris helped to define street photography as a genre. In the Unit...
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...riedlander was on display at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.” (Diane Arbus) Born on March 14th 1923, and died on July 26th 1971. Diane Arbus, she was an American born photographer, most well known for her taboo type style of picture taking. Photographs featuring all sorts of ‘taboo’ type people, such as people who were considered dwarfs, nudists, performers of the circus, people who are transgender, giants, or even people who have simply been considered or and viewed as ugly. Arbus was well known by many people as ‘The photographer of freaks’. In the year of 1971 Diane Arbus had killed herself. Which happened one year prior to Arbus having her photographs at the Venice Biennale, Diane Arbus had been the first American to have her images on display at that location.
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
The difference in the approach between Margaret Kilgallen and Julian Schnabel can clearly be seen on the canvas. Ms. Kilgallen preferred to paint images that were flat yet striking; she favored street art over the main stream types of fine art. Street art is considered graffiti by a large number of people, since it is frequently placed without the property owner’s knowledge.
Practiced by thousands who shared no common tradition or training from the earliest days of taking photos, the first photographers were disciplined and united by no academy or guild, who considered their medium variously as a trade, a science, an art, or an entertainment, and who often were unaware of each other’s work. Exactly as it sounds photography means photo-graphing. The word photography comes from two Greek words, photo, or “light”, and graphos, or drawing and from the start of photography; the history of the aforementioned has been debated. The idea of taking pictures started some thirty-one thousand years ago when strikingly sophisticated images of bears, rhinoceroses, bison, horses and many other types of creators were painted on the walls of caves found in southern France. Former director of photography at New Yorks museum of modern art says that “The progress of photography has been more like the history of farming, with a continual stream of small discoveries leading to bigger ones, and in turn triggering more experiments, inventions, and applications while the daily work goes along uninterrupted.” ˡ
Street art and graffiti has the capability to change lives, as is seen in documentary “Exit through the Gift Shop.” In the film the audience meets Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant currently residing in the United States, and learns an odd habit he acquired at a young age. He always had to have a video camera rolling; he was constantly documenting his life. He was obsessed with remembering everything that happened in his life so he got every part of his life recorded.
Street art is a classic example of how art can express a 'zeitgeist', art as immediate expression of feeling and rage. Rage against the meta-narrative, rage against lack of opportunity and rage against the dead hand of conformist art leaving mediocrity as a handprint. Both Banksy and Basquiat form part of this virtually neo-anarchist emergent art discourse. Basquiat used challenging social commentary to “springboard to deeper truths abo...
"A photograph is not merely a substitute for a glance. It is a sharpened vision. It is the revelation of new and important facts." ("Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History."). Sid Grossman, a Photo League photographer expressed this sentiment, summarizing the role photography had on America in the 1940’s and 50’s. During this era, photojournalism climaxed, causing photographers to join the bandwagon or react against it. The question of whether photography can be art was settled a long time ago. Most major museums now have photography departments, and the photographs procure pretty hefty prices. The question of whether photojournalism or documentary photography can be art is now the question at hand. Art collectors are constantly looking to be surprised; today they are excited by images first seen in last week’s newspapers as photojournalism revels in the new status as art “du jour” or “reportage art”.
Is street art a true art form? Does it provoke the same emotional impact that museum art has? There are many people who disregard street art as a form of vandalism and something that should be subject to punishment. However, after watching the film Exit Through the Gift Shop, I began to question why street art is not considered a true form of art by a large portion of the art community. Street artists convey messages in their work that cause us to think critically so that we can truly understand the meaning, just as fine art in museums do. The temporariness of street art does not necessarily take away from the emotional impact that is intended by the artist. What makes art, art, is not what it looks like, but how the viewer perceives it. I believe that you cannot put a boundary on art, no matter if it is in a museum or on a street corner, as long as the creativity and authenticity is there, and the viewer is challenged to think.
The theory of photography originated from the discovery of the camera obscura phenomenon – light that enters a darkened chamber through a small hole is projects an identical inverted image on the interior wall of the outside scene. The first recordings of scientists recognizing this concept was in the writings of Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384 – 322 BC).
an article on a writer named Taki 183. Graffiti is just about anywhere you look, from subway stops to tall skyscrapers. A lot of artists use spray paint cans and chalk to make their graffiti on. ``Art in the Street`` unrolled at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, California in 2011. This exhibit shows the works of U.S and international artists including Shepard Fairey, Margaret Kilgallen, Banksy, and JR. Jean Michel Basquiat's works are shown in a special gallery dedicated to 1980`s artists. In the last few decades, Graffiti art has even made its way into some of the most famous art galleries. People use graffiti as a way to express themselves and show their perspective of the world (youthvoices.net). Everyone has their own opinions on what graffiti is to them. Some people like it and other people hate it because they think it is a crime or it ruins the urban environment they live in ( Liz Gogerly). For some people, Graffiti is a powerful way to preach a point or share their opinions in a hands on way ( Liz Gogerly). The Cyber Bench documents New York City by saying that political activists use it as way to express their ideas and street gangs use it as a way to label their territory (www.at149st.com).
In conclusion, although Arbus was given a lot of public attention and criticized for being exploitative, she changed how the world viewed photographs. She created a unique depiction of the city with her unusual images, showing the world how mad and beautiful the people of New York were in the 1950’s and 60’s.
The rise of photography began in the early 1830’s in France, and wasn’t very popular as most artists preferred a paintbrush and canvas to a new contraption that wasn’t popular and wasn’t manufactured locally or globally yet and that was fairly expensive to try to produce, and since this time it has been debated if photography deserves its place in the art world. Through the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s it grew in popularity and throughout time photography went from being badly received to a new form of art though people around the world still debate if it is indeed “art”. Photography has a long history from the first camera obscura in the 18th century to the latest Nikon or Canon camera in the 21st century.
Modern street art and graffiti are undeniably tied together. Graffiti could be considered the forefather of street art in many ways- it has paved the way for the development of modern street art. Yet, while both are still hotly debated topics, street art is seen in a more positive light while graffiti is still considered to be a negative term. Graffiti is associated with the vandalism that the government desperately wanted to erase. Graffiti has played a huge role in the development of street art that we all know today. Conklin notes this in her paper. She describes graffiti as an exclusive world that only those inside the group are privy to. However, to Conklin, street art is made accessible to all in that it is not necessarily exclusive and that anyone can understand street art, as it is supposed to be a way to communicate with their community. The very form of street art and graffiti differ from one another, as do their messages and end point. Graffiti is a tag of sorts- it relies mainly on text and is used to announce an individual. While some graffiti artists, like the Mission School did plan out their works, graffiti is more about the actual form of rebellion and establishing oneself than it is about the message that it is trying to get across. If it was more inclusive, it would be understandable to people outside to graffiti culture. Street art, on the other hand, takes its surroundings into consideration. Conklin herself notes that the term "street art" was supposed to be in an attempt to portray the work and other similar works in a more positive light. It should be noted, however, that street artists and graffiti artists have often clashed over a difference in opinions.
What really makes a picture considered a piece of art is that it provokes a certain feeling. It stands for something and has a meaning behind it. There is always a purpose behind an artwork and reasoning as to why an artist creates a piece to look the way it does. The street is composed largely of surfaces and objects owned by the city and other people; the artistic use of these surfaces is normally an act of vandalism. This fact forces many street artists to be anonymous or to use pseudonyms. Many street artists are notoriously unidentifiable and difficult to contact. Also due to the illegality, and partially as a result of exposure to the forces of nature, street art is highly ephemeral some of it exists for only a couple of hours before it is buffed out, scrawled over, or naturally
Photojournalism plays a critical role in the way we capture and understand the reality of a particular moment in time. As a way of documenting history, the ability to create meaning through images contributes to a transparent media through exacting the truth of a moment. By capturing the surreal world and presenting it in a narrative that is relatable to its audience, allows the image to create a fair and accurate representation of reality.
Art has been around as long as humans have. It has been treasured by every race and respected for many generations. It is the universal language that has no barriers; people of all different ethnicities and languages can interpret the same piece of art. All art that is created shares two common parts; it has a purpose and it is an original piece. Original in this context means that the creator did something that no one has previously done. For example, Bansky, a famous international street artist, created stencil art on the walls and sidewalks of cities. In addition, the purpose of art is for the creator to express ideas, feelings or get the audience to react to a piece. This can be seen in Banskys street art since he expresses his political agenda through humorous works of art. Anyone can decide what art is as long as it communicates an idea and is an original piece.