 |
Street Photography
By Pedro Meyer It
used to be that up to the 80's photographing on the street and walking
around with a camera was a safe practice. If you respected people's
privacy and were gentle in your approach towards the subjects, more
often than not, people were either glad to participate in the ritual
or at worst tolerated it.
I started to notice
a gradual disappearance of what traditionally was called "street
photography". I could not find a suitable explanation for that
until I traveled extensively throughout the United States in pursuit
of fulfilling a Guggenheim Fellowship that I had received; the subject
of the project was to capture street life in the United States.
Two major issues
came to my attention. One was the disappearance almost everywhere of
any downtown life. Those parts of the city had become populated mostly
by parking lots and empty streets, with whatever was left of "life"
taking place inside tall buildings. What used to be a bustling environment
around commerce, had now been displaced towards the "shopping mall"
located in the suburbs. "Street life" changed from being in
a public -city- space to that of a private -corporate- one, the mall.
The malls usually forbid one to walk around taking pictures. I was personally
evicted several times for doing so without permission: I was on private
property,
In this latter
environment, any traditional "street life" worth photographing
has practically evaporated anyway. The second issue that emerged was
safety. In those areas of the city where indeed some life was worth
photographing, it was not such a hot idea to walk around with a camera
hanging from your shoulder or neck. Tough neighborhoods had lots of
life, to be sure, but unless you BELONGED, you would be safer not making
yourself present with such equipment.
In Mexico, which
has always been a bastion for street photography, this practice also
suffered, but here it was more safety related, than from "life"
displaced to shopping malls. Although there are a number of such commercial
centers which imitate the American shopping centers, street life is
still pretty much prevalent throughout the rest of the city. However,
walking around with a camera is not something you want to do so readily,
that is, if you want to avoid being mugged and loose your equipment
aside from any physical danger which might come your way in the process
of such a holdup. Today, walking around Caracas, Rio de Janeiro or Bogota
is not very different from the experience of Mexico City. It stands
to reason that if you are walking around with a camera, amidst poverty,
the provocation to be relieved of your possessions can be understood
as some confused notion of distributing wealth.
All these realities
are in marked contrast to the experience I've had in most of western
Europe, where walking around in the street with a camera does not carry
the same security connotations as in the Americas. In most of Western
Europe they have better safety records as well as plenty of life going
on in their downtown quarters. Compare downtown London or Milan, to
Houston, Pittsburgh or Los Angeles, and you will think that life in
such US cities had been extracted with a technique like liposuction.
There is little life left on those city streets.
The question is
then, given that the Europeans have ampler resources to create "street
photography" images, why is it that not more Europeans have made
it their tradition than what can be observed today. One line of thinking
is that this tradition has been conceptually exhausted. Another is that
such imagery does not sell very easily, it isn't decorative enough I
would venture to guess, and therefore is discouraged as not sellable.
A third possibility has to do with what is being published these days
and therefore might have the possibility to generate income. In reality
there is a close relationship between the decline of "street photography"
with the downward spiral that has been experienced in the photographic
marketplace during the late nineties by documentary photographers or
photojournalists.
Today the images
that sell well are those that depict stars, people that are either famous
or nearly famous, the "wanabes" (want to be: famous). They
come from the world of sports, film or music, or simply because of their
wealth; mind you no teachers, poets, or farmers. The emphasis today
IS on celebrity photographs. I believe this is the outcome of societies
whose values have become more individualistic than ever before. The
celebrity is, by definition, self-centered and narcissistic. The images
of "life on the streets" had to do more with genuine concerns
for the other, a sense of the collective, a more humanistic photography
if you will. Today even those topics which would like to express a degree
of humanity at large, tend to play to the most basic sentimentalism.
Which together with "celebrity pictures" have become the other
great topic of most publications and television presentations. Hard
news which are very close to Soap Operas, that is what sells. And the
distinction between them is ever smaller.
So where do we
go from here? If I was forced to make some sort of prediction, I would
venture to say that the Internet will play a major role in reviving
both the interest and dedication to a more humanistic photography. The
photographic community has always had a very healthy dedication to such
imagery, and I am sure the Internet will provide ways and means to make
such work more readily available again as the risks -from an economical
point of view- will be diminished, and the niche markets will surely
develop to give support to such work.
Digital technologies
will play a major role in all of this happening. With photographers
being able to spin off both video and still images from the same source,
there is going to be a redeployment of what have been the traditional
destinations for such work. Already there are film makers who are using
modest camcorders to create films that are later being upgraded
to 35mm for mainstream cinemas. In the process they can also document
as would a still photographer with such images being used for other
purposes than strictly a film.
Some digital cameras
are today less obtrusive and visible, therefore can be carried around
with less risk. They can be shot from angles that are usually not associated
"with taking a picture". I have been surprised of how many
times I have been able to photograph in situations where the expectations
of me holding a camera to my eyes would have impeded me from taking
the picture.
We can repurpose
videos and pictures towards the Internet in new ways, to do so is obviously
going to be a transition that depends more on the issues of bandwidth
( the speed at which you can access the information) than on the interest
people have for certain topics. With these potential new markets, new
possibilities will emerge for photographers, where content will be the
driving force.
We have had some
experiences at ZoneZero which are encouraging. The work that we show,
as you well know if you are a frequent visitor to our site, is one of
photography with content, all within a humanistic tradition. With the
number of visitors continually on the rise, we sense there is indeed
an interest for such work, in spite of all the opinions to the contrary.
We can imagine
that at some point in the near future, we will be able to support the
site both through advertising, commerce at our site ( the sale of books
for instance is also on the rise) and contributions from sponsors. We
will also be giving courses in everything related to photography, which
we hope will also generate some income. We do not think it is too farfetched
to make the operation self-sufficient, and to be able to support the
work of photographers.
Maybe the tradition
of "street photography", like all else in contemporary life,
will have to find a new way of making images even though the intentions
and the gaze might be similar. With new markets, will come new opportunities.
What I am most confident about is that the need to comment on human
nature and ordinary life, will not fade away, but rather come back with
considerable strength.
Pedro Meyer's photographs are found in the collections of more than 40 major museums throughout the world. He's also authored several books, including Los Cohetes Duraron Todo el Dia; Tempii di America; and Espejo de Espinas. His column appears each month in Camera Works.
|
 ©Pedro Meyer 2001
|
|||||||||||||||||||
