Based On A True Story...: 11 Ways To Lose At Street Photography

Thursday, September 29, 2016

11 Ways To Lose At Street Photography

Well, what did you expect after last year's 10 Ways To Lose At Street Photography? Now, to be clear- the winners at the Lens Culture Street Photography Awards are all deservedly grand- truly le creme de la creme! Seriously, great stuff there- and sorry, no, I do not have an inflated sense of my own self worth. I am not Trump, I do not think myself the be all and end all... "Trust me!" And many have been the times I've written just how utterly embarrassed I am to even be seen camera in hand while in the presence of truly great photography!

On the other hand... to say that not one of these is even worthy of one of a hundred "Honorable Mentions," dang- yeah, I do have a problem with that. Not one!? One!?!?

Again, I applaud the winners- but all these fuckers ain't exactly rejects...

Photo: © S. Banos

Now, the above ten were grouped together under the general theme of "Taking or Posing for Photos," and I guess it didn't help that one of the winning portfolios was on... people taking photos. And you can jump up and down that that was indeed the better group of photos- and I still won't argue with ya! But even if you chuck all these out baby, bath water and all- c'mon, ya honestly gonna tell me that even this last one (submitted separately as a single) isn't worth an Honorable? Goddamn, really, shit, c'mon...

4 comments:

Raghu KuvempunagarSeptember 30, 2016 at 9:38 PM
Stan, no matter what judges have to say, the street photograph that you submitted as a single is exceptionally good; something that I feel is at least as good as Winogrand's classic http://www.atgetphotography.com/Images/Photos/GarryWinogrand/winogrand_19.jpg. Keep up the good work.
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Stan B.September 30, 2016 at 11:27 PM
Oh, my god, no!!! Raghavendra, my photo is but 1/10 of that- one of THE greatest photos ever to be made- Ever!
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Eric RoseOctober 1, 2016 at 9:44 AM
Your stuff is fantastic Stan. Screw the judges, they obviously have doodoo between their ears. Do like the rest of them, start your own competition so you and your buddies can be winners.
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Stan B.October 1, 2016 at 10:03 PM
Thanks guys...

Raghavendra- That last photo was a moment of fortuitous serendipity- so was Winogrand's shot... except his moment was eons in the making, transcending time and art into a heightened reality of its own making!

Eric- Sometimes (like once, maybe?) it's just kinda nice if someone in "officialdom" gives ya the nod.

Guess everyone deserves that at least once in their lives...
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Grandmaster Flash- A child is born with no state of mind, blind to the ways of mankind.

Goethe- The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

African Proverb- The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.

Ann Landers- Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Edward Snowden- I had been looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is about being the first to act.

Mohandas Gandhi- Poverty is the worst form of violence.

Zapata- La tierra es de quien la trabaja con sus manos.

Milan Kundera- The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.

Voltaire- Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Chris Hedges- Civilizations in the final stages of decay are dominated by elites out of touch with reality.

Christopher Hitchens- I have always found it quaint, and rather touching, that there is a movement in the US (Libertarians) that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.

Claude Chabrol- Intelligence has its limits while stupidity has none.

Carl T. Rowan- It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home.

African Proverb- The foreigner sees only what he knows.

George Orwell- The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.

Elliott Erwitt- I don't believe that photography can change the world, but it can show the world changing.

Gilles Peress- I don't care so much anymore about 'good photography.' I am gathering evidence for history.

Yogi Berra- You can observe a lot just by watching.

Dorothea Lange- A camera is an instrument that teaches us how to see without a camera.

George Bernard Shaw- A photographer is like a cod, which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity.
Henry David Thoreau- It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
Robert Dosineau- If I knew how to take a good photograph, I'd do it every time.

Pentti Sammallahti- Everything I've photographed exists regardless of me, my role is only to be receptive. The most important thing is the luck... behind every good image there is the good luck too. Sometimes when you are in a right place in the right moment, you'll feel that the image is a gift and even that it doesn't matter who's behind the camera.

Duane Michals- Never trust any photograph so large it can only fit inside a museum.

Lisette Model- Photography is the easiest art, which perhaps makes it the hardest.

Paul Watson- A person without regrets is a person who has not lived a life of diversity of interests and cause.

MLK- Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Prof. Ivan King- Can we really claim to know anything about the nature of the universe if we don't know the properties, or even the nature, of 90% of its material?

Dr. Wernher von Braun- It is as impossible to confirm them (UFOs) in the present as it will be to deny them in the future.