On the Streets

 “The man who will go down to posterity is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of everyday life around him”. (Childe Hassam)

Frederick Childe Hassam was an American Impressionist artist (1859-1935). He made a considerable number of paintings of “street life” and day to day urban scenes. It struck me looking at his work and discovering the above quote, that the same might apply to “Street photography”. Often it is the everday, mundane aspects of life around us that make interesting and memorable photographs. Martin Parr once posed this question: “Why do so many people continue to photograph things around us that don’t change, like cathedrals or sunsets, while ignoring the things that do – shops, cars, fashions, our cul-de sac or our High Street… the ordinary things we see everyday which become more interesting with each passing year”. Definitely food for thought?

Films to inspire

Joel Meyerowitz

 

 

 

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