street_photography_for_the_purist.pdf

Street Photography – For the Purist

words & photos by Chris Weeks

forwards with photos by: Severin Koller – Austria

Michael Kaiser – Germany

Matthew Craig – United States of America Rainer Pawellek – France

Deborah Delasio – Italy

Errol Lyons-Rainey – United Kingdom

Darren Abate – United States of America

Massimiliano Mortillaro – Czech Republic

Bernhard Wolf – Austria

Patrick Kahn – Los Angeles/Paris

Forward by Severin Koller – Austria (edited by Chris Weeks)

When I started photography about two years ago I had a compact digital camera with no mentionable resolution. I soon started to focus on structures

and abstract photography because anything else wasn't possible due to the low quality.

It soon led me to architectural photography, which turned out to be the subject and style I master the best. It also makes my living at the moment.

With that small digital camera, street photography were just ridiculous attempts that never turned out as they should have. As I investigated new

photographic gear about a year ago, I still had the opinion that digital is the way … the future. Last summer I got the Canon Eos 1Ds Mark II, which

I use for my commissions and some conceptual and architectural work. I used it for personal work sometimes as well. The moments you want to

make should be personal, intimate, close and unobtrusive photos … you can throw these 7000 bucks in the rubbish bin !!

My point is … I fell in love with street photography the moment I started analogue photography. I never took portraits. I never did journalism. I

never dared to do street photography the classic way. Why? Because it's not possible with a digital... the feeling is missing. You can see the photo

right after taking it, which destroys the whole flair. You don't have real black and white film and you will never be able to see the beauty of a fiber

print. You don't have to wait until it's developed, which is another pity. You lose all the joy of the darkroom. Digital cameras are too big, too loud,

… they’re simply too flashy. Small digital ones don't offer any useable quality when it comes to print; digital street photography simply doesn't look

like a street shot. Street is about life and digital is lifeless.

Today I'm using digital for my work and I never carry that big tank around with me, if I don't really have to.

I'm thankful I discovered the joy and passion of street photography, which includes spontaneous portraits, capturing moments, capturing joy,

capturing anger … it's life and it's a good feeling to shoot and look at your results … later.

I need that sort of photography as some balance. It's so different than my commercial. It's great to do both but without street photography I wouldn't

have half the joy of photography. It helped me to fall in love with that art form again.

It's relaxing in a way. You don't have to capture something. You simply can if you want. Nobody assigned your time. Nobody tells you what

photos they want. You just sit there or walk somewhere and take a photo and no matter if it's great or normal in the end … making it is just a good

feeling … something I want to keep my whole life.

Street photography can also be challenging and exciting. Be it a spy shot or a photo right in front of the (human) subject... both give me an

adrenaline rush. My finger is itching and my heart is beating … then I decide to take the photo, no matter what will happen. As long as you stay

unnoticed, it works wonderfully.

The best you can do is taking a photo without having any influence on the scene at all, then you have a real street shot and therefore you need the

right gear as well. The rangefinder was built for it and is still the number one choice.

Something else I enjoy about street shots are when the person (be it in main focus or someone else in the frame) is looking at you or at the camera. I

like these photos when you don't see that the person realizes the camera but just looks in your direction. That happens when you're so quick that you

take the facial expression and look of the eyes before the person realizes that you take a photo. It's a question of seconds or even milliseconds!

In short … street photography made me love photography even more and that's why I'm so thankful that I went analogue. Because of street

photography I can enjoy my work more, since it is more balanced. I have a counterpart to my commercial work.

You can capture with your mind or with your heart. Sometimes with both.. but mainly street photography and analogue is with my heart and displays

my feelings. Work is a technical challenge and conceptual or private architectural photography is a challenge for my mind... but the heart, the

heart is street photography and when I write this, I realize it more and more.

Severin (=kinderschokolade)

Blog: http://severinkoller.blogspot.com/

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