Street photography

Monday night and I was at the Cambridge Camera Club again. It was a judging evening for PDI 3, the final part of its competition whereby members submitted three images, one for each round, for external judging and with no constraints regarding subject matter.

There were some exquisite photographs, mainly birds and bugs. They were all technically excellent but somehow they left me cold. There were exceptions but most of them left me thinking ‘so what?’.

The member sitting next to me had an entry and fair to say it did not score highly. He described it as ‘street photography’ (Street) and he expressed some frustration that the genre wasn’t given due recognition. In fact of the 48 entries just five would perhaps qualify as Street and none of them made the final cut. One was even criticised for the inclusion of a person in the foreground!

I’ve got a lot of sympathy for my neighbour. I like my photographs to prompt a question or to stimulate some emotion. I’m sorry but a perfectly in focus and properly exposed picture of a butterfly doesn’t do it for me.

So what is Street? I’ve taken this definition from Wikipedia (there’s some editing) which seems about right.

Street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places, usually with the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by careful framing and timing. It does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography

The important elements to this definition are that it’s photography of ‘unmediated chance encounters’ that aims to capture ‘decisive or poignant moments’. Despite its name it doesn’t have to be in ‘a street or even the urban environment’.

Because I aim to capture photographs which help me to chronicle my life much of what I do might be regarded as Street and I’ve pulled together a selection. Click here to check this out.

By the way I did not enter this competition, it started before I joined the Club. However I have submitted entries to another competition which runs over five stages but requires photographs to respond to a theme and is judged by the members. After three rounds I’m pleased to be sitting in 7th place out of 34.