Truman Prevatt • Forum Pro • Posts: 14,268
Re: What is your favorite focal length for street photography?
In reply to Ray Sachs • Jan 12, 2017
There are as many approaches to street photography as there are masters who have students.. There is the Cartier-Bresson school where the photographer becomes invisible and stalks and hunts somewhat like how a sniper develops his target. The photographer waits for the "decisive moment" to develop. First and foremost the photographer is unobtrusive even to the point of covering the chrome in the camera with back electrical tape. HCB believed the observer should the photographer should be an observer of the scene not interacting but recording. HCB only used one lens for his own work - the 50. By using one lens the camera became an extension of his eye. The 50 allowed him sufficient distance from his scene that he was truly an observer. HCB felt it unethical to pose a shot or interference in any way with the scene.
W. Eugene Smith believe the photographer needs to have a purpose for his photography. That probably goes back to Smith's time as a war photographer where to get a shot it might mean risking his life. Smith like HCB believed that the photographer should be a respectful observer and not intrude in the the subjects. Street photographers often catch people in intimate moments and Smith believed the photographer should be respectful and not intrude into those moments when he captured the moment. Unlike HCB Smith would from time to time pose a photograph.
Smith believed first and foremost that the photographer should tell a story with his photographs. He did not take one or two shots and move on. He developed a story and in doing so developed the concept of the photo essay for which he was the master and was acclaimed. Smith mostly used a 50 on his Leica during his war days since traveling light was critical. He carried two identical cameras, Leica's with a 50 mm lens. One some of his photo essays, Country Doctor, and Dream Street come to mind he used multiple cameras - anywhere from a 4x5 to his trusty Leica to a SLR and multiple focal length lenses.
Then you had Gary Winogrand. Winogrand. He would get in the middle of a crown on the streets of NY and fire away. He had a spray and pray approach - even before digital. Unlike HCB who was patient and wait for the decisive moment to develop, Winogrand just keep shooting - hoping he could find it on the contact sheet. He had thousands of undeveloped rolls of film and as many unanalyzed contact sheets at the time of his death and an amazing number of negatives. He would immerse himself with the crowd - become part of it interact with it and photograph it. He was not the hunter tried to remain unobserved. If HCB was the hunter and sniper waiting patiently for the shot - Winogrand was involved in hand to hand combat with his scene - always with a smile to those he was photographing. His equipment was a Leica with an 28 mm lens which mean close contact with his subjects.
Whereas HCB wanted detachment with his subjects - he was the observer, Winogrand wanted intimate contact with his. Smith was somewhere between.
As much as anything how one approaches street photography has as much to do with personality of the photographer and how one choses to interact on a personal level than anything else. HCB was somewhat reclusive. My advisor in art school, knew W. Eugene Smith well. Richard met his when he (Richard) was a Navy photographer in the Korean war and met Smith who was working for Life photographing the conflict. As a result several time Smith visited Richard's classes which ended up in closing down a local pub at 2 AM as Richard's students picked both Smith's and Richard's brains. Smith was an extreme private person but a very caring person who cared deeply about people and particularly about social injustice and the horrors of war. His lifelong goal was to expose both through his images. Smith viewed the role of the photographer to not only record the moments in people's lives but to use those recordings to promote social justice and humanity. To him the story he told was to promote that cause.
Winogrand on the other hand recorded his interactions between the scene and himself. He was part of each of his images.
Who has the right approach - neither. Who has the wrong approach - neither. It is whatever works for the individual.
BTW for those interesting in street photography - the genre where that tells the story of the people, their society and culture where the buildings are irrelevant, check out Eric Kim's website. It is a wealth of information.
Ray Sachs wrote:
A little late, but a subject near and dear to my heart...
There's obviously no right answer to which is BEST - it depends on the types of street images we like to make and the shooting process we enjoy most. I don't buy any single definition of street photography - street portraits with a long lens can be street, so can ultra-wide context scenes with a 20mm or even wider - I've even played around with a fisheye and gotten a few really cool shots. To me the only requirement to make it street is it has to be more about the people than the buildings!
For me, both the images and process I like best are done with something in the 24-35mm (EFL) range, with 28mm as a bit of a sweet spot. There's a real improvisational dance with those wider angles, where you get into the crowd and you have to be hyperaware at all times of human moments developing around you, and always moving into position to shoot them as just the right moment. There are almost always more misses than hits, but the hits are worth the misses! And for me personally, this is just the zone where shooting on the street is the most enjoyable. Which, if it's not fun, why do it?
When I shoot with anything from about 50mm up, I feel like I'm doing more street-portraiture than street context shooting. I like a lot of those shots quite a bit, but I don't enjoy the process as much. I feel more like a sniper than a dancer, shooting people unaware from a distance. And I just enjoy the process of dancing more than sniping. I don't judge those who prefer longer lens shooting - I love the results, just don't enjoy the process as much personally.
I've done a lot of street shooting with Fuji with the X100, the X-Pro 1 and the 18 back in the early days, and then through the X-T1 with both the 18 and 14 (which I loved for it's zone focus ring more than the extra width). I got away from Fuji in 2014 except for a brief flirtation with the X70 when it first showed up about a year ago.
My favorite street cameras ever are the little 28mm efl APS cameras from Ricoh, Nikon, and then Fuji that started showing up in 2013. The GR, the Coolpix A, and then just last year the X70 are awesome little street cameras if you like the wider angle approach. Garry Winogrand shot primarily with a 28 and I'd bet he'd have loved these cameras if they'd existed in his day. I like the feature set of the Coolpix A best of all, but if I was buying today, with the Nikon out of production, I'd go with the X70. The GRII is one key feature (in it's auto-ISO minimum shutter speed area) away from being all I'd ever want, but without that it loses out to the other two for me.
Here, just for the hell of it, are some example shot with various focal lengths from 15mm fisheye out to 150mm, just to demonstrate the different options...
Fisheye
-Ray
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We judge photographers by the photographs we see. We judge cameras by the photographs we miss - Haim Zamir
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20889767@N05/
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