Don't Forget: Thursday...

...Is International Street Photographers Day. (Henri Cartier-Bresson's birthday, August 22nd. He would have been 105.)

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Coronation of King George VI, London, 1937

Plan to take your camera down to the street sometime during the day!

Mike
(Thanks to Jan Kwarnmark)

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Herman Krieger: "The Decisive Moment: Documentary and Street. Juried by Christopher Rauschenberg, Black Box Gallery, Portland, Oregon."

Mike replies: Congratulations on your inclusion Herman. I remember that shot of yours.

Bear.: "Take your camera down to the street. But don't shoot into open windows!"

Gill: "you might be interested in this selection of street photography, from the 1870s...I stumbled across these photographs from the London School of Economics Digital Library and thought they are an absolutely fascinating historical insight. The LSE even has a PDF of the book in which they are published available for download."

Photograph by John Thomson

Mike replies: Thanks Gill. A famous and historically significant book. Maybe for those who don't get out with their cameras tomorrow—not everyone is a street photographer or even wants to try—an online stroll through Thomson would be a good alternative way to celebrate the day.

cb: "...But not in France any more."

Mike replies: Yes, but funnily enough, my response to that Lens piece was that photographing angry people objecting to having their picture taken in France would be a good idea for a project. Of course, you might need to wear a nose guard (my brother actually got punched in the nose in France once).

Comments

[Richard]

This has the makings for another TOP contest.....or it may encourage "grab-shooting".

[Jeff]

If everyone follows this advice, we should get some nice pics of each other.

[Hans Muus]

And please, no more 'serendipitous findings' of billboards & passers-by.

[John Robison]

(Heavy sarcasm alert)

Take you camera down the street but don't dare take a picture. Because, as we all know, everyone taking pictures in public must be "terrorists"

[Bryan Geyer]

The Cartier-Bresson grab shot that's shown is exceptional, but the technician in my head keeps repeating "better in vertical aspect". Question: Did (virtually) all of the "rangefinder era" 135 format street-shooters adhere to horizontal capture? And did the advent of the 35mm SLR serve to change this habit?

[Hi Brian, the answer to your first question is "no, they didn't." May I recommend the book "Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer" from NYGS as a good addition to the core of any photobook library. It is finally out of print but still available used at not too great a penalty. --Mike]

[D.C. Wells]

Many thanks to Gill for alerting me to Street Life in London. It's one of the more revelatory books I have come across in recent years, at least as much for the accompanying descriptions and interviews (in the pdf version) as for the wonderful photographs.

[Andrew Molitor]

I am going to take this moment to plug a video I have no connection with, but which (among other things) nailed Cartier-Bresson so precisely, concisely, and beautifully, it's like a poem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zwk3YFknyNA

Watch the whole thing. It is such a wonderful antidote for all the rule of thirds golden everything stuff we photography types have inflicted on us. And he deconstructs several HCB photos so beautifully and informatively.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Although it's off-topic I second Andrew Molitor's recommendation to watch the presentation at B&H Photo given by Adam Marelli. It encapsulates key skill and cognitive elements of design education that most amateur photographers lack and consequentially suffer from.