Photography

Photography can furnish evidence of the world around us, shared with the public in the photographs used for news reports in the press, television or social media.

Those images, which can provide the essence of a news story, may be crude and technically poor, but they may also have considerable artistic value, as for example in the work of US-American photographer Dorothea Lange who had worked as photojournalist for the US Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Depression-era, committed to the documentation of the harsh life of migrant farm workers

One of the unfortunate side effects of the street photography craze is the plethora of people trying to make a living from "teaching" the genre to all the eager newbies. Indeed, some do seem to paying the bills from this endeavor - at least for the moment, mostly because those newbies are coming by the trainload. The problem comes in the form of unqualified teachers making up stupid content to teach. Enter street photography rules.

Have a glance at the photostream of Hakim Boulouiz and you notice the elements of street photography that make an image exceptional: the drama, action (a frozen one), character(s) and a dash of color complementing the shadows. Street photography in itself a difficult genre owing to natural fears, challenges, and lack of vision. …

This week for Crit My Pic I’m going to be looking at a street photo by Phil Barnard. This photo was sent into us by Phil during the time when Crit My Pic was on a break, so as such it doesn’t have a title. This is the penultimate photo submission we had when Crit My Pic was off-air, so I’m now at a stage where I’ve almost got up-to-date. Thanks for your patience everyone! As per usual, the street photo submitted by Phil will be analysed over the categories of point of view, focal point, composition, exposure, subject matter and mood. I’ll describe my reactions to the photo based on how it performs in these criteria, and I’ll make any suggestions I can for ways in which I think it can be improved. If you have a street photograph of your own that you’d like me to ‘Crit’, take a look at the submission rules at the bottom of the page and then get it touch with us!

Vicky Roy’s childhood flashes before him like a film: Born to a poor family in Purulia, a city in West Bengal, he was raised among six siblings. His father worked as a tailor and it was his dream to see Roy educated. Thus, Roy was sent to his maternal grandparents’ home in the hopes that they would be able to afford tutoring for Roy—but the talented boy had other plans.

After quite a few suggestions from you, the StreetHunters.net Readers, this post has been updated. We have re-written the previous DOF paragraph. It is now about Image Quality. DOF is irrelevant. Thank you very much for all your support and your suggestions. We are on a journey of photographic self awareness that would not have been possible without your valuable participation.

I am excited to announce my new free “open-source” e-book: “Learn From the Masters of Street Photography.” This book is a compilation of all the lessons I’ve distilled from my “Learn From the Masters Series” on the blog, in a convenient PDF for you to read, learn from, edit, remix, and share.