Street photography is a sub-genre of documentary photography I feel to start building a successful body of work we need to go back to creating a documentary piece of work below is a few ideas I use to stay focussed and on track when creating a body of work through street photography.
Creating a theme
The most challenging task of street photography is to create a body of work that can be taken seriously, personally, I often find myself so excited to photograph interesting characters in an urban environment. I often found that when presenting my body of work to judges and other influential photographers the theme can be hard to get across because apart from the area I have taken the images the subjects are not linked together strongly enough. Bruce Davidson is a photographer that inspired me to start to work with the theme because the street photography will have the main focus to create an interesting story, street photography can easier to understand when I use the documentary style to my street photography I find this helps funnel the impact and main focus of the series.
Bruce Davidson image: 1980
USA. New York City. 1980. Subway.
Bruce Davidson is a magnum photographer he has recently had his subway series re-issued printed this is his first extensive series in colour. Davidson focuses on the Subway riders the subjects are set against a gritty, graffiti-strewn background, displayed in tones that Davidson describes as "an iridescence like that I had seen in photographs of deep-sea fish". Never before has the subway been portrayed in such detail, revealing the interplay of its inner landscape and outer vistas. The photographs move from the menacing to the lyrical, from the soulful to the satiric. Just from this brief over few of the project I was hooked I need to create a documentary street photography style project.
Theme ideas can be easy few ideas below
1 Colours
2 Bikes
3 culture
I know there is not a massive list but these are just to get the ball rolling for you start your own street theme.
This use of a notebook!
For the last few years, I have heard professional photographers use notes books I could not think of anything worse, I just want to create images not write! I thought I would give the notebook idea a go I can honestly say this was the greatest thing I did. I bought myself a nice leather notebook to hopefully encourage the writing process. In my notebook, I wrote about the themes around which I will exploring through street photography but also any experiences I have had within the street environment and any setting for the camera. I have also used the notebook to document any unique subjects I see and the places and times.
I found that having a notebook has made me more productive when starting and maintaining a focus on my theme.
Printing
Over last few years I have found that printing of my body works helpful, a contact sheet has the entire body of images on one sheet of paper, this meant I was able to see all my images and select the best images. Once I had selected the images best for my project I would the print off below is Martin Parr ’s the contact sheet from his last resort series.
finally, once I have selected my images 6x4 size then I place them out on an open space so help put the work into an order that body of work is easily understood by the viewer.
I then created a focused impactful body of work which they will be put on my website to act as a digital portfolio.
Overview
I have had success in my street photography being printed in Digital Camera and Devon life I put this down to create a strong theme throughout my work and the use of a website has also helped create a professional outlook on my work. I felt for a while street photography almost relays on the one perfect image that helps establish how good a street photographer is but often this means that the images as a collection don’t sit well together this why I would encourage street photographers to focus on a theme and work on creating an outstanding body of work.
Quick tips
Look at past professional photographers work to help influence your work.
Take your camera out with you and your notebook everywhere if possible.
Plan your shoot days.
Make prints once you feel your work is something to show the world.
Don’t be afraid to challenge your creative thinking to create interesting photography.
