Street Photography

                                   

Street Photography Research

In order to find inspiration and ideas for my Street Photography work, I wanted to research photographers who use great human interaction, as personally I feel this genre of photography is more powerful when
artists focus on documenting people through their street photography.

Bruce Gilden

After establishing that I would like to focus on documenting people whilst creating my Street Photography, I found a great example of this sort of work- in photographer Bruce Gilden.


I am inspired by his striking close up imagery, which creates a real sense of capturing the moment. Gilden is most known for his work in Brooklyn, New York City; as you can see in the imagery above. The use of Gilden's flash gun is key in these images as it causes a reaction making the photographs more interesting as the people in the photographs have natural yet striking facial expressions.
Gilden captures people candidly; although in some of his images you can see a reaction to his flash, the images are not posed at all and the people are not aware of the photo been taken before hand. Although these images are created just capturing the moment they have great composition and are in sharp focus.
After exploring some of Bruce Gilden's New York photography, I would like to take some inspiration from his imagery and apply it to own Street Photography and I intend to make my imagery quite close up to show great facial expression in order to make my photographs have emotion without appearing posed or constructed.

           'If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, it’s a street photograph.'
                                                             - Bruce Gilden



Garry Winogrand

Garry Windogrand is another photographer who I immediately associate with Street Photography, like Bruce Gilden; this is because of his striking close up imagery and his human interaction portrayed through his photography. Windogrands Street Photography on a whole is very candid and although he gets so close up to people it could be assumed that he is unnoticed by them. His photographs can appear quite timeless by the location, I can see by the fashion and  vehicles that they were taken around 1960's-70's, meaning that photography was not seen as any violation at that time and Winogrand could photograph freely or without being noticed.
Winogrand's photography expresses the people by the candidness and expressions caught from so close up, but I think it is so effective how the images portray city life too. Winogrands work which is captured in Cities (such as New York City) does not only document the people but also the Cities, which makes the images very dynamic due to all the buildings and shops and streets captured.


Whilst looking at both photographers, Bruce Gilden and Garry Winogrand I have took great inspiration from their work and both their methods of creating close up Street Photography. I am now aware that my approach to Street Photography can be of my preference and I can still create successful Photographs, as Bruce Gilden and Garry Winogrand both have different ways of capturing candid close up Photos which are both successful.