Following on a few weeks later, I watched a documentary called 'Everybody Street' based on New York photographers who had also captured similar images of what was decorating the streets of the city but also photographers who intended to expose the art, culture, fashion and lifestyles of those who primarily bring the spirit and an iconic presence to the streets of New York. Whether this presence includes actions which are lawful or not, these photographers still manage to capture a vision of humanity, reality and the lives of the 20th and 21st century New Yorkers.
Standing behind the lens and facing dangerous, disturbing or chaotic scenarios and crime scenes, Martha Cooper, Jill Freedman and Joel Meyerowitz are just a few photographers among those who take inspiration from their interactions with people and movements on the streets, to expose the emotion and energy that they come across due to this ruthless communication. However, although many of these photographs are intentional, these photographers express that the majority of their best work are those that they find by accident or chance as there is always a greater feeling created from random composition due to finding the unexpected.
Jill Freedman- "Photography is magic. You can stop time itself".
Jill Freedman, a self -taught photographer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is one of the few featured in the 'Everyone Street' documentary. In her work she covers darker imagery of the streets of New York, especially the Lower East Side where she has been known to accompany the NYPD as a witness in search for crime, drugs, poverty and to research the true colours of violence to build a narrative within her photography. Although she takes her work so seriously and chooses such intense subjects to build photographic stories, as a visual artist she still manages to overpower the brutality of the images and replaces it with sensitivity, condolences and in some cases , an ironic humour, in regards to the personalities she has grown fond of by working closely alongside the officers. She sympathise with those who fight the crime e.g. the police force and various other civil services such as fire fighters to communicate an image based on the good people of New York and outweighs the negatives (the violence of various offenders) with positives (the kind gestures of the civil services) after the cruelty she reveals. By doing this she communicates a message to her audience that there are people that will risk their lives in good will of others to take away the attention given to those who conduct these acts of violence. In the documentary, Freedman even referred to these men being "like soldiers, in that they die for someone else but they’re not like soldiers because they don’t kill — they bring life, not death”.
Take a look at some of the images Freedman has captured during the 70s and 80's in New York to portray street crime.
Human Touch
Help me, I'm Sick
Stabbed in the Leg
Martha Cooper
Out of all of the photographers featured in 'Everyone Street', Martha Cooper's work is the most similar to the image I recorded in my 'What am I seeing- Street Art' post about Hockley street art as she concentrates mostly on the aesthetic senses portrayed through raw materials, the art of graffiti and street art. However, she does make a clear differentiation between graffiti and street art. She expresses, "street art is often large and detailed images, while graffiti is generally an ornate wild style interpretation of letters used to write words or names." Both styles can communicate emotion and meanings personal to individuals. However, street art is more likely to cause much more movement, energy and noise without any sound at all. Cooper's photography also explores the graffiti subculture movement represented in underground subways and back alleys; two places Cooper has used as her architectural reference and backdrops for her revealing photographs.
She also states in the documentary that it is not all primarily about the graffiti feature but also about what is going on in the background. As we can see from the top image, Cooper has captured an image of an over ground subway spray painted with vibrant cartoon illustrations which stands out against the stone grey unharmed architectures in the background. What is she trying to represent with this visual contrast? A possible rebellion and destruction of society created by individuals who do not conform to the capitalist ideology in New York?
Although many of these photographers do not directly shoot for the sake of fashion, their work still offers a glimpse into the style on the street of New York from the sixties onwards and how people were adopting their own trends during the previous decades.
Joel Meyerowtiz- New Colour Photography
Below are a few photographs taken by Meyerowitz of the earliest and best examples of colour street photography during a period in time when colour photography was not accepted as a serious form of art. Meyerowitz is arguably classified as one of the most influential contemporary photographers to represent colour image in the sixties and seventies. He has taken numerous images of particularly women's attire on street corners to depict a vision of the iconic fashions during the mid to late 20th century.
Although I have spoken about the art of 20th century photography and the narratives they represents due to the reality these photographers have exposed.....
Has the art of photography died and been replaced by digitally imposed graphics and Photo Shop effects?
During the documentary many of the photographers touch on this subject but has digital editing and graphics taken over the true art of photography? Over time the increase of modern day technology has saw the world of photography plummet from something so artistic and manual to a new era of photo manipulation, digital airbrushing and graphics due to applications such as InDesign, Illustrator and Photo Shop that consequently yet arguably have taken away the authenticity and atmosphere created in photography. Furthermore, through the use of these applications it is possible for anyone to be a photographer these days just by downloading them onto your computer. Have dark rooms completely died a death in the 21st century? Although change is inevitable, the increase of digital applications and internet has destroyed photography and the real relationship photographers have with their subjects. Nowadays the majority of 'photography' we see has either been posed or given added effects such as silhouettes, shadows, changes to facial and body appearances disrupting the originality of photo shoots. In terms of photographs of individuals, we know longer see people as symbols of the world we live in but symbols of what social media and the use of internet has transformed them into by the click of a few buttons. Therefore, reality becomes something we begin to neglect further.
Street Photography for Fashion Advert Campaigns
In terms of social factors we are also seeing more fashion advert campaigns taking on the concept of street photography. Below I have included an advert taken from Miu Miu's Autumn Winter 2015 campaign. Alongside Miu Miu, designers such as Dolce and Gabbana and Armani have also taken to the streets to set the scene for their ad campaigns. However, these are all designers whose brands are ironically perceived as super, luxurious and not clothing that you would typically see being worn in the deprived areas of New York. Therefore, Miu Miu especially has created narrative that is subject to a significant visual contrast in terms of social status and affluence and arguably not something that really represents the economic situation in these areas. Especially since the ethnographic point of view of the lower East side of New York is the complete opposite to the image these garments convey. These fashion garments are apparels that we would normally see geographically in rather upper class areas filled with cultural, social and economic capital.
SUBJECTIVE REALITY for Miu Miu A/W15
Photography by Steven Meisel
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