Street Photography: Andrew Kochanowski and Don Hudson

Photo by Andrew Kochanowski

Andrew Kochanowski left a late comment to the "New Pentax" post yesterday, which reminded me that it had been a long time and I should catch up a little with his recent work. I turned to Burn My Eye, the collective of which he's a member. There, you can see his Featured Gallery. I particularly like the one with the gun. And that last one, very subtle.

A street photograph is easy to love, if you love it. If a particular example happens to work for your eye/mind and your taste, it can seem like it's somewhere on the spectrum between lucky and miraculous. On the other hand, if a particular street photo doesn't grab you, it can seem haphazard, lame, even puzzling—it can be difficult to see what the photographer saw in it. It would be my guess that most street photographers have to shoot an awful lot to unearth that occasional gem that works for them. And it can be the same way for viewers, too—you have to look through a lot of what seems to you to be dross to find the ones that (again, to you) are golden.

I spent some quality time at Burn My Eye and looked at a lot of the Featured Photos. Check out Don Hudson's picture of the fans all reaching for the fly ball, the Photo of the Month for last January. That's one, for my taste, that has got it all goin' on—love it love it love it. Truly deserves the overused compliment "nice capture" (or as he says, a nice catch). At Instagram he is @Don Hudson. Doesn't hurt (yet again, just for me—you're getting that, right?) that it's historical and also B&W....

Photo by Don Hudson

Andrew has photos in a lot of places around the web. Fortunately, he also has a pretty good "Internet name"—he's pretty searchable. Try "Andrew Kochanowski photographer" and it will lead you to a number of street sites. Here's his website.

Mike
(Thanks to Andy and Don for permission to use their photos)

Book o' this Week:
Accidentally Wes Anderson, the group-sourced book of the Instagram trend, endorsed by the director. <—This is a portal to Amazon; also available at the Book Depository for global delivery with free shipping.

Original contents copyright 2021 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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

Gordon Lewis: "Thank you for pointing me to Andrew Kochanowski's work. It was delightful. The number of people who call themselves 'street photographers' is countless these days. Andrew is one of the few who has a distinctive enough style and eye to reward those who take the time to explore his photographs, collectively as well as individually. Anyone who thinks what he has accomplished is trivial or easy has clearly never tried it themselves. It takes not just luck, but extraordinary vision, skill and timing."

[Ed. note: Gordon wrote the book on street photography.]

Kenneth Tanaka: "Bravo Andrew! I have admired his work, and that of the Burn My Eye group, for years. Skilled, patient, insightful, often ironic. Browsing their work induces more DIWITT spasms from me than nearly anything outside of a browse through a book of Haas, Leiter, Herzog, et al. A touchstone to remind us all that the pinnacle of photography is vision and capture reflex.

"DIWITT = Damn, I wish I took that."

Andrew Kochanowski: "Thank you Mike for a nice surprise! In case you want a brief note on my thinking about street photography, and even if you don't, let me add one: There is too much of it that doesn't grab my interest because in my view, the genre is too focused on the single, grabby shot. The easy, cheap snap, and the instant Instagram gratification, are addictive. If you make it dramatic, if you make it complicated, if you play with reality, yes, there are a lot of likes out there. Thousands of photographers (several Instagram street photo aggregators have followings of over 100,000 people) essentially copy each other over a few tropes to get that shot before a big aggregator and get 5,000 likes. It's a very different world from Joel and Gerry and Helen and, you know.

"I prefer the essay form to show street photography. I find that I unconsciously look for a few things and when I think I have enough, a photo essay springs to mind. I've put up a number on my site, www.akochanowski.net. While you're right, I can be found all over, I prefer that the viewer look at my work in the context that I present. Thanks again, and thanks for featuring Don Hudson as well. We're both Michiganders, disproportionately represented in our international group Burn My Eye. —Andy."

Blake: "Street photographers are a funny breed. A lot of chest-pumping and declarations, and arguing over what is or isn't street or which ones are good or bad or this or that.... Maybe this happens in other types of photography too, I'm not sure. But street photography seems especially prone.

"Anyway, for contemporary street most of the action is now on IG. I would recommend browsing there to get the lay of the land. Websites are OK too but more static and less relevant in my opinion. Wherever you browse, caveat emptor. It's a minefield of mixed quality, age, style, and promotion. But if one is patient there is much to see. Andy and Don's photos are among the best."

Comments

[George Housley dba Nature Lover]

"if a particular street photo doesn't grab you, it can seem haphazard, lame, even puzzling" Thank you. As a 'Nature guy' some photography is not just off my radar but in the next galaxy and some is just fantastic. Maybe because it's my realm, but I do not feel I have missed the point of most nature and landscape photography although it might...not be very good. (Moi?) I worry about missing the boat when I travel away from nature images. Thank you for 'allowing' my cluelessness while being expert. Oh about 50% of Mr Kochanowski's click with me.

sorry about the SSL I am low-medium tech and cheap

[Brian Stewart]

It would be my guess that it's not just street photographers have to shoot an awful lot to unearth that occasional gem that works for them, but it may be relatively more true for street.

[c.d.embrey]

Reading about street photography reminds me of something I saw in the Los Angeles Times many moons ago. The food critic was writing about rosé wine, which had recently become all the rage. "Ain't red, ain't white ain't wine."

[HR]

I see that Gordon Lewis commented. Coincidentally, I posted a link a few days ago to an old article he wrote and that was published here (I had saved the link some years ago):

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/65000529

I also included a link to his book.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64651036

[ChristianH]

Street photography is not my cup of tea, Always felt one shot street photos because they lacked artistic talent. Sorry, but they can be some of the most uninteresting photos I ever see.

[Not to be harsh but..."your loss"! Up to you, though. --Mike]

[Weekes James]

I believe that it was G.B. Shaw who opined that photography is like the cod which lays a million eggs so that one will reach maturity.

[James]

Some comments are a little surprising to me.
Whether taken in the street or out in the wilds, photos are photos.
I love looking at 'found' shots, and I love looking at 'planned' shots.
If they are good, then they are good.

[xf mj]

An example maybe of how a “lucky” street photo can hit some and not others is probably the one in the featured portfolio with people on the sidewalk and with the woman being pushed in the wheelchair. As a person who likes to take this kind of photo when traveling alone, sometimes seeking what it was like to be in a place, on the street, wanting to catch people “going about their business,” I’m struck “technically” by this photo. When you are in the zone of seeing people/strangers in the world, and they all line up, don’t obscure each other, have their faces all bathed in varying but good light, each seemingly in a pose and expression that is truly candid, it feels like a magic moment somehow. It’s not really of anything special in particular. But to see it and nab it with a *click*... well, my photographer brain finds that very satisfying.

Its kind of moment is happening all the time. They are the norm, if only someone could be in the right place to happen to catch it. The captures feel like a certain kind of athletic feat, speaking as a photographer, having a photographer’s mindset. But it’s not special. There is nothing striking about the moment other than the arrangement, the timing, the capture itself.

I’ve been listening to and watching a lot of comedy this year because of the pandemic. There are observational comics, comics’ comics, and so forth. You can watch comics interviewing other comics, or comics in roundtables, all talking about comedy, it’s technical form, what it takes to phrase a joke, to make an observation about something that’s normal sound recognizably funny. They all talk about how best they must arrange those words, time them, to reveal some truth about life that strikes them funny. They make it sound like a gift, a curse, that it’s real work, and not fully appreciated by others.They’re right, probably. But I’m tired now of listening to comics talk about comedy. A year in, I’ve had enough. They all are saying the same things, about everyday stuff, trying too hard maybe.

Street photography can work in the same way. Too much of it can be too much, or just not that striking. Why are these folks trying so hard to capture these things, maybe separate themselves from our everyday reality, make a constant (and technically sharp) commentary about us? “What is the deal with these street photographers?” (said in Jerry Seinfeld voice)

I like good street photographs and Kochanowski’s are excellent. But as a person that tries to capture the same I’m suspicious that it is photography for photographers, photographers like me.

[Stan B.]

There are so many so called “street” photographers today and so much awful to worse examples of “street”photography that you really do need a guide to separate those who actually excel from the torrent of hustlers, wannabes and video clowns. These are sterling examples of what can be achieved... exemplary photography.

[c.d.embrey]

Is this street photography?

I don't think so.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

The people in this collective (not just the ones you mention) do seem to like reflections more than I do. Even so, I found the occasional reflection photo that was really effective; notably Andrew Kochanowski's photo of the bus with reflections (of the building behind the photographer I presume, which may be a parking ramp) giving the windows a highly unexpected appearance.

Andrew's first photo would have been enough to make me stop looking, if I weren't stubborn; it has flaws I'm intolerant of, and didn't get me to notice anything beyond them. But photographers, like all artists, need to be judged by their best work, not their worst (and that photo probably is well-loved by lots of other people, anyway, not just Andrew). Heaven help me if people judge me by the photo of mine they like least!!!!

[Steve Rosenblum]

I have long admired Don Hudson’s work, especially the photos from around Michigan where I live.

[Blake]

Street photographers are a funny breed. A lot of chest-pumping and declarations, and arguing over what is or isn't street or which ones are good or bad or this or that...Maybe this happens in other types of photography too, I'm not sure. But street photography seems especially prone. Anyway, for contemporary street most of the action is now on IG. I would recommend browsing there to get the lay of the land. Websites are ok too but more static and less relevant IMO. Wherever you browse, caveat emptor. It's a minefield of mixed quality, age, style, and promotion. But if one is patient there is much to see. Andy and Don's photos are among the best.