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Everybody Street shows the lives and work of New York’s iconic street photographers and the city that has inspired them for decades. This documentary pays tribute to the spirit of street photography through a exploration of New York City, and captures the rush, and at times immediate danger customary to these artists.
“Everybody Street” explores the careers and influences of many photographers; a number of who have never been documented, featuring: Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, Jamel Shabazz , Bruce Gilden,Mary Ellen Mark , Rebecca Lepkoff, Jeff Mermelstein, Clayton Patterson, Jill Freedman, Ricky Powell, Joel Meyerowitz, Martha Cooper, and Boogie, with historians Max Kozloff and Luc Sante. |
Rebecca Lepkoff
Born August 4, 1916, Rebecca Lepkoff is an American photographer. In the 1940s, she photographed street scenes on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Rebecca grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Working as a dancer at the 1939 World's Fair, she saved enough money to buy a second-hand Borlander camera. Fascinated by the area where she lived, she first photographed Essex and Hester Streets which, she recalls, "were full of pushcarts." They no longer exist today but then "everyone was outside: the mothers with their baby carriages, and the men just hanging out." Her photographs captured people in the streets, especially children, as well as the buildings and the signs on store fronts. |
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School Pictures
Cropping and Shadows/Reflections
Over the Shoulder
EvaluationDuring this lesson we worked in a group to take at 10 or more images based on the subject of 'over the shoulder'. We used a digital camera and iPods but we mainly used the digital camera. It wasn't as easy as it looked to take images over the shoulder, most of the images have a blurry background and the shoulders are mostly focused, but it added a cool effect. It was also hard resisting looking at the images so we had to focus on what we wanted to capture the most.
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School Life
During this lesson had to take 12 or more images? We got to watch 20 mins of 'Everybody Street' and i think the film inspired and gave us an idea what street photography was and what we needed to do to take a successful street photograph. We were given the task of going around the school taking images of the 'school life' anything in the moment such as sixth-formers working and teachers doing their own thing in the school. I wasn't hesitated to ask older students or staff if i was aloud to take a picture of them and it wasn't as hard as i thought it was going to be working independently, but it was hard trying not to look at my images. It was also quite hard trying not to think about what i'd like capture in particular and trying to take anything in the moment. I was lucky enough to capture 2 girls hugging and the different movements of the teachers.
Evaluation
I managed to capture these images of girls hugging and i think it works better as a set of images as you can see, the girl is running over to the other girl and in the next two images you can see them hugging. I think they're my favourites because its not so common you'd get to capture something like that in school and it was a great opportunity to take great images. I was also lucky enough to capture these images before everyone started to.
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Street Photography Project
Triangles
Triangles is a compositional technique used in street photography, mainly for the purposes of adding balance and movement to your image. Although when capturing an image the photographer does not always use triangles to outline composition, the photographer does usually end up creating an image with these three points to create a triangle because its a type of layout that draws people in.
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Harry CallahanHarry Callahan (1912–1999) is regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-war photography. Harry Callahan worked as a clerk for Chrysler before attending a workshop by Ansel Adams in 1941 which encouraged him to take on photography. Although he lacked formal training, his work demonstrates a sustained interest in line and composition which figures strongly in his studies of nature as well as his cityscapes. His work is grouped into three themes which he described in 1975 as ‘Nature, Buildings and People’. His wife Eleanor, which he met in 1933 features in his images often and she became his most photographed subject.
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This image is one of my favourites because Harry Callahan doesn't always focus on the busy life on the streets but he captures the compositional techniques such as line, depth of field and multiple exposures. I also like how he blends his images and the example on the left shows his wife Eleanor and the image of a window projected on her body as if her body does not block the light going through. Also how he frames his image by making his wife very central, and the room looks very isolated and quite empty and there isn't anything in the background that distracts from the subject.
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William EgglestonWilliam Eggleston is an American photographer, he was born, in 1939 Memphis, Tennessee, where he worked and lived. He was widely known as of his acceptance of bold colours in his images. He often focused on elements, such as bold colourful interiors, cars and gasoline stations and people that he encountered on the streets. He would mainly focus on the colours; blue, green, red and yellow as these colours stood out the most.
Some of Eggleston's work: |
I find this image to be really interesting because i like the bold floral print thats on the sofa and then the lady is dressed in a similar pattern with bold colours. It does make you question where was this place.. is this in someones back garden or just a random spot. I think what intrigued him most was the clash of both patterns and that if you walked past it you wouldn't miss it because of such the bold colours that are just popping out.
I think his images are mostly more realistic rather than surreal because he does consider what to capture but its on an everyday basis; someone asked him what he was going to capture and he said "life today". He doesn't always look to find the most outrageous things. Another thing is that he tends to find things that make a bold statement, for example the bold contrasting colours that compliment each other and just make that image THE image. |
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is a grid made up of 9 sections and two lines going vertically and horizontally, these act as guidelines of placing elements of an image that would consider points of interest in as you frame your image. The rule of thirds is used to split up a photograph and ensure the elements in the image are evenly spaced out, using the rule of thirds helps to produce balanced images. It often acts as a focal point within the image.
During this lesson i learned how photographers would use the rule of thirds to balance out their images. Also realising that composition is really important in your images and just the positioning of the elements within your images will make it stand out more. |
Diagonals
Diagonals are a compositional technique in photography. There are 3 main lines: horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, you can use them to create a impression of movement. All images are created with lines some vertical, horizontal and others but, knowing how to place them affects the mood and composition of the image.
Photos By Myself: |
Surfaces |
Compare and Contrast
Similarities
The similarities of these images are the two obvious that they're in black and white and captured on the busy streets. They both seem to capture the street life of the children, but also mainly focus on the body of the children; close up. As both images show the children in the images as wild kids hanging around in the corners of neighbourhood streets. In both images they are also pulling some sort of face as to pose for the camera. There isn't much background to the images as the main focus is the children in both images, as the composition in this image has taken up the full frame because it is clear the photographer's wanted focus on the children.
Differences
I think William Klein captures what type of life roams on the streets,how free most children are but also the hoodlike atmosphere of the children and their care free attitudes. But also Helen Levitt manages to capture more of the free atmosphere in the streets, where it appears to less aggressive and a friendly neighbourhood within and the children looks as if they have lack of maturity of what some of the items are and playing more childish like instead with weapons, etc. Whereas Klein's image portrays the boy's as scruffy and not smartly dressed and where the boy looks very aggressive posing and pointing a gun at the camera. It looks very surreal as you wouldn't think a young boy would be playing with such an realistic item whereas you would think it would be a piece of wood or plastic imagined by their minds. Levitt's image looks more playful
Rule of Thirds
One of the successful parts within this image if that i managed not to include the rule of the thirds which was the task. I like that i've captured the two boys messing around and one of them jumping over the other. I think it just makes it really eye catching
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This image doesn't apply the rule of thirds because the three boys are standing at different positions.
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This image also doesn't apply the rule of thirds because the image isn't subjected and everything seems scattered
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This image doesn't apply the rule of thirds, although the two boys are focussed within the image, they're also placed distorted in the image, making this one quite successful
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This image doesn't apply the rule of thirds, because of where the girls are standing they wouldn't fit into the position in the grid.
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This image hasn't got the rule of thirds within the image, because the image has a depth in the background stretching back and you can't really identify the subject because it all seems scattered.
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Final Pieces & Evaluation
1st image- This was one of my best and favourite images that i still admire towards the end of this project. I love how i've managed to capture her reflection in the window and all of the detail within, because of the bold figure and colours and you could just about see the shadow depth in the face features. I took this image with my iPhone and just thought it was a really successful image.
2nd image- This was one of my favourite images that i took recently for a task that we had to do which was to try and not include the rule of thirds in our image. I really liked the composition in this image because of where the trees were cornered and also the two boys and one of them jumping over. I thought it captured some life in this image and because everything seems quite bold and subjected it made the image intriguing. The boys may have been the only thing that captured people's attention in the image but others may see something different as there are quite many things to interpret within this image, with the background wall of the windows, as within this image the composition has different options because you question what the main subject of this image is.
3rd image -
2nd image- This was one of my favourite images that i took recently for a task that we had to do which was to try and not include the rule of thirds in our image. I really liked the composition in this image because of where the trees were cornered and also the two boys and one of them jumping over. I thought it captured some life in this image and because everything seems quite bold and subjected it made the image intriguing. The boys may have been the only thing that captured people's attention in the image but others may see something different as there are quite many things to interpret within this image, with the background wall of the windows, as within this image the composition has different options because you question what the main subject of this image is.
3rd image -