Street Photograpphy in Other Lands

 Street scene in Ataca, El Salvador.

According to Wikipedia, street photography is "photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places, usually with the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by careful framing and timing."

"Street" has always been an important genre of the art and has been done superbly by such monumental names as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Andre Kertesz, Fritz Henle, Robert Doisneau, and too many others to list. 

Street photography continues to be very popular, but honestly, I don't see much that impresses me. Most of the work seems to have no point to it. I believe street photography must reveal some aspect of life, of the human condition, as it says above, "capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment. . ." 

I don't say all this to claim expertise at street photography. I do fairly well in foreign environments, but in the U.S. I don't do well at all. I believe that this is partly because of lack of opportunity. In many cultures, people are out on the street much of the time and I have often found them to be open and welcoming. In this country people are usually found on the street only in large cities, and they often seem very closed. Since I spend very little time in large cities, my opportunities for good street work are limited. On the other hand, I do quite a bit of driving around looking for things to photograph, so perhaps I should call what I do "road" photography rather than "street." But I do enjoy doing street photography in other lands.

The Best Iron Works in Town

Orange Walk Town, Belize

 

By the way, the apparent subject of a photograph need not be a person or people at all. Inanimate objects can often convey a sense of human presence very effectively, as in the picture above.

Here are a few more street photographs from other countries.

 

Wading woman and birds, Madras, India.

 

Four women, Vernazza, Italy.

Puzzled woman, Ahuachapan, El Salvador.

 

About the equipment: The two pictures from El Salvador were photographed with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera with the Panasonic Lumix 14-140 zoom lens. The photos of the iron works in Belize and the wading woman in Madras, India were made with an Olympus OM2n film camera and (probably) the Olympus Zuiko 85mm lens. The film was Fujichrome 100D. For the four ladies in Vernazza, Italy, I used a Canon EOS 20D digital camera and the Canon EF 24-85mm lens.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel     street photography   Canon EOS 2D camera      Canon EF 24-85mm lens   digital photography      Ataca, El Salvador     Ahuachapan, El Salvador     Olympus E-M5 camera     Panasonic 14-140mm lens     Madras, India     Orange Walk Town, Belize     Vernazza, Italy     Fujichrome 100D film     Olympus OM2n film camera     Olympus Zuiko 85mm lens