Street photography is real big now. All photographers do street photography. Everybody talks about it. But this is really getting on my nerves. I mean, these trivial shots of everyday life covered with fine-art pretensions given by a bland conversion to black and white — it’s really unnerving.
I am looking right now at 35mm Street, which is a very good example of this trend (for other similar examples just visit the countless examples of similar stuff on various Google+ groups or other similar venues).
I have to say, I should not rail so much against Derek Clark, who must surely be an intelligent human being and he’s certainly a good photographer (who the fuck I am by the way? Can I judge other’s work? Or better, may I judge?… even if I’m not in anybody’s circle?). Anyway, nothing personal against Derek; at least he does not pretend to be a master teacher like that kid that calls himself “International Street Photographer”.
But man, this 35mm Street! What I see are plain, boring, uninteresting pictures taken with no other intention than to grab a boring, plain moment in life of somebody else (the fact that these most recent shots I’m looking at are from an exotic place like Hong Kong does not make them interesting per se).
I see too many pictures of people watching intently their mobile phones, which is so cliché that I would rather see that other magnificent cliché of the homeless person.
I see shots stolen within the crowd featuring nobodies doing nothing interesting.
I see unsharp, barely focused pictures and too many references to the hipster camera that was used to grab the shot.
I see captions that look like they are written by a 15 years old willing to show off how clever he is (“These next two photos show how you stand your ground, even when spotted by your subject. You can see that in the first photo, I’m busted. I took the shot then kept the camera to my eye. She turned round to see what I was shooting, then goes back to her phone convinced it wasn’t her. Click”). And these pictures he’s talking about are not even that good — once again, they are snaps of a lady watching intently her phone.
But I don’t want to be too harsh. Judge by yourself. He surely loves his work. Good for him.
Now, let me post here some photographs I’ve taken recently. They were all taken in the streets. Quick portraits of total strangers. No black and white (I am definitely not an artist).
Just tell me if there’s one picture of an homeless guy. Or somebody curved over his phone. Or some confuse mass of people where it is left to the viewer to decide what’s the fucking point of the photo.
You may like them. You may not. Whatever. Just please don’t label them as street photography.
