Street Photography Evaluation

Coming from the kind of street photography that’s mostly scorned upon i.e. using your phone to take opportunist snaps as you go about your daily business into our first assignment with a 35mm manual SLR has been a rewarding experience. Both in terms of getting to grips with the technical side of using such a camera and getting to be involved in a tried and tested medium for creating interesting images.

The basic elements that make up the genre have not changed a great deal over the last hundred years. The technological advances have made it possible to be a much more spontaneous with quicker expose times, so the subject no longer has to be stationary and as such doesn't need to be aware.  Prevalent themes from the most recognised are subjects with personality, edge and some humour in their most natural environment from the human element. Strong use of contrast, usually from shadows  and direct sunlight and that extra element of being in the right place at the right time to create a frozen piece of imagery only seemingly  possible once in a life time.

It hasn't come as much of a surprise to see that none of the images from my first developed film have made it into the box. An error made while processing put paid to that. Adding developer into the drum before the stop solution and then the lid coming off while agitating meant I was left with a very cloudy negative. Making most of the images unusable and the rest to be returned to when i have a better understanding of how they can be saved. I was glad to get onto my next two rolls although there was also a problem with one of them. I had reloaded a film accidentally so in effect shot it twice over. This brought some interesting combinations of crowd shots from a daytime music event and a shoot which had intended to be a practice film for the new camera of my daughter and some of her friends on her fifteenth birthday party. The rest of the seven films were developed without much incident and by the book barring a few kinks caused by jamming of the wheel whilst feeding on in the blacked out room. Patients and a better technique at this should prevent it from happening in future 

Getting the most from the images was difficult at first in the darkroom,trying to emulate a certain high black and white contrast look from each negative without taking into full account the conditions the shot was taken in was almost impossible. It was only after experimenting and trying to bring out the individual qualities that my best results were seen. Blurred edges from cropping the image too close to the easel and not holding it down during exposure spoiled early prints  by leading the eye away to a not very aesthetically pleasing border.

Varied locations from across the region Stockton riverside,Hartlepool town center,Middlesbrough Center square,Wakefield  and Sunderland helped to create more interesting backdrops to the images although it has been argued street photography starts right out side your front door. Going to places where I wasn't used to seeing meant i was looking with fresh eyes and more interesting elements of the buildings and structures seemed to appear. Although not ready to commit and say this is the style of street photography as my own,I have found that I am comfortable to try and convey emotion in my images. If there was a theme to the final cut it would be highs and lows in the mediocrity of life and death. 

And the surprise sixth image,after much deliberation and discussion with Jill I felt i couldn't really leave out my favorite image from all seven films shot for this assignment. Conceptually it is exactly as i visioned when shot. The statue,buildings and trees,both real and manufactured reaching up from the near silhouette bottom third into a textured early evening sunset lit partly cloudy sky. The only reason its not in the five is the omission of a first hand human element.