Street Photography
Started: 1890
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THE ART STORY
 | Straight Photography Movement Page |
 | Modern Photography Movement Page |
KEY ARTISTS
 | Henri Cartier-Bresson Quick View Artist Page |
| Henri Cartier-Bresson |  |
| The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson defined the field of photojournalism and created some of the most memorable photos of the greatest world events of his era. He also brilliantly captured "the decisive moment", the split second when an intersting and powerful composition is best photographed. Art Story: Henri Cartier-Bresson Artist Page | ||
 | Brassai Quick View Artist Page |
| Brassai | |
| Gyula Halasz, famously known by his pseudonym, Brassai, captured Paris through his photographs that depicted the seedy underbelly of the city as well as its high society. Art Story: Brassai Artist Page | ||
 | Helen Levitt Quick View Artist Page |
| Helen Levitt | |
| Helen Levitt photographed the streets of New York, first focusing on children's street culture then expanding to the whole of New York urban life. She also worked in film, receiving an Oscar nomination for The Quiet One. Art Story: Helen Levitt Artist Page | ||
 | Lisette Model Quick View Artist Page |
| Lisette Model | |
| Model's work was remarkable for the emotions that she was able to capture; close-cropped raw, candid photos of vanity, insecurity, and loneliness - made her an iconic photographer of New York City. Art Story: Lisette Model Artist Page | ||
 | Robert Frank Quick View Artist Page |
| Robert Frank | |
| Robert Frank's famous photo book - The Americans - explored and documented Frank's travels through the country. Frank moved to the U.S. from Switzerland and in his later career worked in expirimental and documentary filmmaking. Art Story: Robert Frank Artist Page | ||
 | Garry Winogrand Quick View Artist Page |
| Garry Winogrand | |
| Winograd's photographs captured twentieth century American life, primarily in the street of New York City. Winogrand also traveled across the country focusing on prevalent social issues, the relationship between people and animals, and the effect of the media on events and the public. Art Story: Garry Winogrand Artist Page | ||
"I think private moments make the interesting picture."
Summary of Street Photography
Associated initially with Paris, and figures such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï and André Kertész, Street Photography became recognized as a genre in its own right during the early 1930s. While there are precedents, and areas of overlap with documentary and architectural photography, Street Photography is unique in the way it is associated with the photographer's skill in capturing something of the mystery and aura of everyday city living. As such, the human figure becomes the Street photograph's most vivid and defining feature. Street Photographers will sometimes engage directly with their subjects (Brassaï, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand) but it became more common for the photographer to roam the streets with a concealed 35mm camera. The Street Photographer is then often likened to the historical figure of the flâneur: namely someone who mingles anonymously amongst the crowd observing and recording the ways the unsuspecting city dweller interacts with his or her environment.
While the early French pioneers formed close associations with the Surrealists, the improvisational quality that embraces the uneven and spontaneous Snapshot Aesthetic carried across the Atlantic where it lent itself perfectly to the post-war urban experience. Possibly the most important Street Photographer of all, the Swiss-American Robert Frank, raised the status of the Snapshot to art and his influence was to enthuse the next generation of American photographers. The mid-1960s and early-1970s became the "golden-age" of Street Photography when the likes of the Arbus, Winogrand and Lee Friedlander allowed their own sassy personalities to impinge on the images of their subjects. Joel Meyerowitz completed this new dynamic by raising the status of color, hitherto thought of as somewhat artless and vulgar, to a new level of credibility.
Key Ideas
Henri Cartier-Bresson once described his behavior as that of a “thief” pilfering people’s belongings; taking their private moments and their culture. He thought of himself as a pickpocket, stealing through the Parisian streets, helping himself to what he wanted. He even went as far as painting his camera black to hide it from his unsuspecting subjects. His spoils were groundbreaking however, and Cartier-Bresson and his contemporaries' work documented in a new and intriguing way the ordinary lives of the people on the street.
Important Art and Artists of Street Photography | |
 Artwork Images | Place de l'Europe (1932)Artist: Henri Cartier-Bresson Artwork description & Analysis: This iconic image depicts a man skipping (with a true sense of Parisian élan) over a flooded area in the Place de ;'Europe, just outside the Saint Lazare train station. The photograph illustrates Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" technique - described by him as that "one moment at which the elements in motion are in balance" - in the way his camera freezes the exact moment the prancing man touches heels with his reflected image. Cartier-Bresson was inspired by the Surrealists and we see that influence too in the surrealistic preoccupation with the idea of the uncanny doppelgänger (revealed in the man's reflection). The surrealistic mystery of the man's flight is only strengthened by the "floating" ladder from which he appears to have sprung while the shadowy onlooker in the middle-distance merely completes the image's element of incongruity. Gelatin silver print - Museum of Modern Art, New York |
 Artwork Images | Bijoux de Montmartre, Bar de la Lune (1932)Artist: Brassai Artwork description & Analysis: Playing a significant role in creating the bohemian image of Paris, Brassaï photographed the artists, socialites, prostitutes, and philosophers who populated the streets, parks, and bars at night. This image, featured in his famous book Paris by Night, depicts a mature woman - La Môme Bijou ("the urchin Bijou"), or Miss Diamonds, as she was variously known within the Montmartre community - sitting alone in a bar with a wine glass and two stacked small white plates on the table before her. She wears a hat with a flower and a fur-collared coat (despite being indoors) and several strands of pearls around her neck. Described by Brassaï as "the queen of Montmartre's nocturnal fauna [and a] fantastic apparition that had sprung up out of the night," she carries a fading image of a glamorous past. Gelatin silver print - The John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California |
 Artwork Images | New York (Children with Broken Mirror) (1939)Artist: Helen Levitt Artwork description & Analysis: In the 1930s Levitt began taking the photographs of children at play in the streets of New York, for which she is best known. Influenced by Walker Evans and Cartier-Bresson, her photographs combine the objective humanism of Evans with Cartier-Bresson's emphasis on the "decisive moment" and, like Cartier-Bresson, her work was influenced by Surrealism's interest in exploring the idea of the uncanny. Silver gelatin print - Whitney Museum, New York |
More Street Photography Artwork and Analysis:
Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
" Movement Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
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First published on 15 Jan 2019. Updated and modified regularly. 
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