Context & Narrative Blog, HNC Photography, Part 1: The Photograph as a document, Project 3: Reportage
COLOUR AND THE STREET
Do some research into contemporary street photography. Helen Levitt, Joel Meyerowitz, Paul Graham, Joel Sternfeld and Martin Parr are some good names to start with, but you may be able to find further examples for yourself.
What difference does colour make to a genre that traditionally was predominantly black and white?
Can you spot the shift away from the influence of surrealism (as in Cartier-Bresson’s work)?
How is irony used to comment on British-ness or American values?
Make notes in your learning log.
Street photography was traditionally in Black and White and with the exception of Joel Meyerowitz, who produced street photographs in colour from the late 1960’s, most street photographers, including William Klein, Lee Friedlander, Robert Frank and Gary Winogrand did all their work in black and white until the mid/late 1970’s. In fact, in the street photography, world colour at that time was frowned on. Why would the be?
At this time Colour would have been technically more difficult as the best film, Kodachrome, was only available in ISO25 & 64. Obviously, this was way behind black and white, which could be pushed to ISO 1600/3200 which resulted in the signature contrast and grain of the genre. Those of us who have used colour slide film know it is notoriously unforgiving on exposure and therefore in those days being able to achieve a perfect shot in the frenetic world of the street, as Joel Meyerowitz was doing would have taken great skill and practice.
Until Stephen Shore’s landscapes, ‘Uncommon Places’ in the 70’s there was little acceptance of colour in the art photography world, colour photography was only for fashion, advertising and travel. Shore wanted to show the reality of the landscape, as opposed to Ansel Adams who wanted to show its beauty.
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES COLOUR MAKE?
Robert Frank said ‘Black and white are the colours of photography’. However, this view changed as the use of colour film grew – the public liked the reality that colour brought, Black and White seemed dated to them, most film and TV by the 60’s was in colour, especially in the USA. Only Joel Meyerowitz was leading the colour revolution, shooting the New York streets in colour since 1962
Colour introduces complexity, by adding different colours, shades, and hues (which can make or break your photo) (Kim, n.d.).
The main difference I see between Black and White and colour is that colour introduces reality and transform the banal into art. Whereas Black and White is all about the shapes and the form with the frame. As Eric Kin says Colour introduces a complexity to street photography due to how it can dominate a scene – it is much hard to nail a colour street photograph than Black & White.
CAN YOU SPOT THE SHIFT AWAY FROM THE INFLUENCE OF SURREALISM (AS IN CARTIER-BRESSON’S WORK)?
In Photography: A Critical Introduction Liz Well says that while Surrealism is the attempt to replicate the world of dreams this an oversimplification of real intent and was also a challenge to the existing art establishment. (2015)
Cartier-Bresson was a contemporary of many surrealist and much of his work stands out as having surrealist overtones. As can be said of many of the traditional black and white street photographers with their use of juxtaposition, overlapping, floating bodies etc (Kim n.d.). And while as a movement surrealism in art said to be from 1924 – 1966 you can see within Cartier-Bresson’s work moved away from it from World War 2 onwards and also it less prevalent with the introduction of colour by Joel Meyerowitz in the 1960’s.
However, it has never completely gone away while there is banality and reality in modern Street photography there is still reliance of juxtaposition many other traits of surrealism.
HOW IS IRONY USED TO COMMENT ON BRITISH-NESS OR AMERICAN VALUES?
Dr Biljana Scott in ‘Picturing Irony: the subversive power of photography’ states that there is two kinds of irony that can be encountered in photography: Word-Based and more subtle Echoic Mention.
Word-based is fairly obvious it involves the juxtaposing or a billboard or some other form of text with the other elements of the photograph. As in this image below by Dorethea Lange:
© Dorothea Lange
These men clearly are unable to afford the train they are perhaps unsuccessful hitchhikers and the billboard seemly sarcastic in its statement.
Echoic Mention is much more subtle and involves the ‘mention’ rather than the outright ‘use’. She uses the below image by Robert Doisneau to illustrate:
© Robert Doisneau
And describes is thus:
[…] an arrogant looking man in hat, tie and pinstripe suit, cigarette in mouth, dog at his heals, stands in front of a shop. Judging from the awning, the shop is called ‘Merode’, but because the man’s head obscures the letter ‘O’ from the name on the shop front, the remaining letters spell out ‘merde’ (‘shit’ in French). Doisneau uses this coincidence in order to pass an ironical judgment on the man: he may think he’s hot, but we see him in another light, and unbeknown to him, he has been labelled as such. In the terms of echoic mention theory, the man’s body language is a genuine statement about himself (use). This same body language is signalled as a pose (mention) by the photographer, whose critical (echoic) attitude is reflected in the text of the shop name. (Scott n.d)
This type of irony is seen in the work of Martin Parr in how he captures English is not necessarily juxtaposed again something physical, but against their normal British reserve – for example his “last resort” series.
© Martin Parr
Bibliography
Scott, B. (n.d.). PICTURING IRONY: the subversive power of photography. [online] Diplomacy.biscott.co.uk. Available at: http://diplomacy.biscott.co.uk/publications/PICTURING IRONY.pdf [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
Gruyaert, H. (2015). Banality Can Be Beautiful – Photographs by Harry Gruyaert | LensCulture. [online] LensCulture. Available at: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/harry-gruyaert-banality-can-be-beautiful [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
Kim, E. (n.d.). How to Shoot Color Street Photography. [online] ERIC KIM. Available at: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/color-street-photography/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
Open Walls (2016). STREET PHOTOGRAPHY ∙ FROM EARLY MODERNITY TO STREET ART. [online] Open Walls Gallery. Available at: https://openwallsgallery.com/street-art-photography/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
Kim, E. (n.d.). Surrealism in Street Photography. [online] ERIC KIM. Available at: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2017/12/24/surrealism-in-street-photography/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
The Art Story. (n.d.). Surrealism Movement, Artists and Major Works. [online] Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
Cartier-Bresson, H. (n.d.). Magnum Photos Photographer Portfolio. [online] Magnum Photos. Available at: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
Gross, T. (2018). Todd Gross. [online] in-public.com. Available at: https://in-public.com/photographers/todd-gross/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
Parr, M. (n.d.). Martin Parr. [online] Martinparr.com. Available at: https://www.martinparr.com/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].