Continuing my research of American street/landscape photography, I found a lot of inspiration in Joel Sternfeld’s work. First of all, he is brilliant at weaving these two categories together, blurring the line between what is essentially considered two different genres (although both having ‘space’ in common). This is how Sternfeld summarizes his views on human-altered landscape:
“I’ve worked primarily with the American landscape – my approach has to be look at the landscape to find a kind of beauty as it truly exists. Looking at landscape about what it reveals about the human moment, past, and the present human moment. I mean this is the surface of the earth, and what we do with it tells us an awful lot about ourselves”.
His approach to street photography teaches a couple of important lessons, such as not giving away too much information about the shot or its purpose, since personal meaning that an author assigns to his/her images should not stand in a way of viewer’s interpretation, but rather let it unravel freely.
Another thing that I try to pursue with my own work is sustaining recognizable look of my photographs by color grading them in a particular style. This is something that Sternfeld also pointed out:
“A photographer must choose a palette as painters choose theirs”.
It also appeals to me that you don’t see a lot of people in Sternfeld’s photographs. It is a good reminder that street photography doesn't have to be populated, and for me personally it’s always a real struggle to try and include living souls in my shots as the genre (probably) suggests. However, there are not strict definitions of what is right or wrong in photography when it becomes a form of art.
Sources:
Sternfeld, J 1987, American prospects: photographs, Times Books, NY
Sternfeld, J 2008, Oxbow Archive, Göttingen, Steidl
Sternfeld's quote on photographer's needing to choose their colour palette, just as painters do, is one that I struggle with. While I agree that photographer's do have to choose their colour palette, I have issues with associating this with the way that painters work. A painter starts with a blank canvas and builds from there, whereas a photographer starts with the world, and they must deduct from it that which they do not wish to frame. So in a sense the photographer must choose their colour palette by deducting what they wish to not include. A painter on the other hand does the opposite.
ReplyDeleteWhile I question his choice in analogy, I do not wish to discredit his work (or his colour palette for that matter).