He wrote in his diary.
Far off, amongst the walkers she stands out like a golden pheasant in a hen house. She approaches I’m shy trembling a little. Twenty meters ten meters eight six and Click! The shutter of my big camera makes so much noise that the lady jumps almost as much as I do. It doesn’t matter a bit, except to the man with a loud voice accompanying her, who with a furious look starts to get hold of me. What does it matter though, all that counts is having the pleasure of a new photo.
The original Sartorialist!
Street photography can never be simple, but it is an invaluable tool for giving us a glimpse into the past. What may seem mundane today, can take on a whole new meaning tomorrow.
The Street & Studio exhibition on at the Tate Modern was a joy. To see photographs by Lartigue and many many other in the flesh is always an education. Sadly the catalogue was not and so I left disappointed.
4 comments:
Oh I MUST see this. I hate taking photos of people without their permission, but hate asking them even more. Need to be braver!!
It is gut wrenchingly difficult. But as we see with these and the Sartorialists pictures, the rewards are priceless
Lucky you -- sounds like a wonderful exhibit. I was similarly struck, looking at the Paris exhibit of André Zucca's street photos taken during the Occupation. Here streetwear was clearly an important historical index, reflective not only of the deprivations experienced by many, but also of the relative normalcy of many aspects of life in those conditions.
Also really interesting for me to see, in that exhibit, shoes with a wooden, very sculptural, high, platform, a platform that extravagantly outlined a central cut-out -- these shoes were an obvious model for some of the playful and extravagant footwear hitting the runways last year. So the streetwear photographs also serve as an archive of fashion inspiration.
Googling him as I write! sounds really interesting. I am very much moving away from still life photography at the moment, because I think, of my increasing interest in this genre of photography.
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