Hints On Survival In Street Photography
I’ve called this “Hints On Survival In Street Photography” to pay homage to the essay “Hints on Art”, which I will quote throughout this piece. “Hints on Art” was originally published in 1889. You may think that is a long time ago to still be relevant to photography today. You may be right. You may also be surprised. I will admit, some of the quotes I am taking from the piece are almost certainly bent out of context. Yet, they remain useful to push us forward in our discussion.
Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936) was a huge proponent of “the photographer [choosing] his subject matter from life and photograph[ing] his subject matter as he found it.” Even though, for him, this was a pushback against the sentimental studio “genre” photography of the age, the sentiment fits nicely with the tenants of street photography today.
Emerson himself eschewed the continuous essay in his piece “Hints on Art”, stating “practical hints for working cannot be woven into a continuous text, we will give them separately.” I will follow in this tradition.
“Never compete for prizes for ‘set subjects’, for work of this kind leads to working from preconceived ideas, and therefore to conventionality, false sentiment, and vulgarity.”
Uniqueness – Emerson is correct. When you chase after a prize for a particular contest or create work with a certain exhibition in mind, you will, ultimately, do so at the expense of your own imaginative creativity. You will, as I like to say, produce Oprah Winfrey work. By this, I am referring to the generation of writers who tried to write books that would capture Oprah’s particular bent of literary interest and thereby be featured on her show. Being on Oprah certainly bestowed commercial success on such novels, but what of their writers and their creative integrity? Good art must break rules and fit into no box. It must do things that have not been done before or it will not survive as good art. You may get compliments today, or commercial success now, but what of your work in fifty or one hundred years? Make the art that you must make. Then, if you wish, find a contest that accepts your vision. Street photography is plagued by work that is repetitious and narrow in aesthetic vision. Work against this trend. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest things plaguing art in the 21st century. Editors, curators, and critics are used to seeing and applauding the same kind of art. So they do so, over and over again. This leads to more of this art being produced and the cycle continues. We are now to the point where it is very hard for truly unique art to gain rightful attention. This is a sad situation.
“The chief merit of most photographs is their diagrammatic accuracy, as it is their chief vice.”
Copyright ⓒ Michael Ernest Sweet
Balance – Here Emerson is saying that well-composed photographs that strive to attain the highest level of technical competence are the best and the worst photographs. This is true. Here we have to strike a balance and be aware that we are in pursuit of this balance. To award merit only to those who can wield the camera in the most technically savvy way would, undoubtedly, lead to a lot of boring photographs. Others, myself included, go after more unique subject matter (and even sentiment) but at the expense of the technical matters. The result here are photographs that can sometimes be let down by their lack of technical prowess. Ideally we find both in a truly good photograph. So, when editing your work, think about not only one or the other of these aspects but consider both. Do not send photos into the world that are sorely lacking in either aspect. They will come back to haunt you.
“If you decide on taking a picture, let nothing stop you, even should you have to stand by your tripod for a day.”
Persistence – This is good advice. Too often we settle for the image we have or we give up entirely on capturing the vision in our head. Wrong. If you see a photo in the mind’s eye, go after it, chase it, and be relentless. Patience and dedication are key. Jon Ortner, an American landscape photographer and friend, often gets up at 4 AM and hikes in sweltering heat or blistering cold to the most remote location to try and get his shot. Sometimes he fails and has to try again the next day. He persists. He doesn’t merely “take photographs” he conquers them. How much of that do we have in street photography? Some, we know we’ve seen this kind of dedication from time to time… but more of this would not go amiss.
“Do not call yourself an ‘artist-photographer’ and make ‘artist-painters’ and ‘artist-sculptors’ laugh: call yourself a photographer and wait for artists to call you brother.”
Humility – Well, it has been a long wait, eh? I guess photographers in the 1960s and 1970s experienced a moment where they were included in this exclusive club. Where they were called brothers. That’s over. Photography is no longer an art, it is now a language. You may well be a writer, a poet, or a preacher (a.k.a., TikTok influencer), as a street photographer, but you will not be an artist. You will not make or sell art. Those who try will struggle and fail and become forlorn. The most successful street photographers today do not make prints. They have no art for sale. They do not even publish books. No, they understand that that particular emperor has no clothes. Photography, particularly that is made in the public space, is now our language – perhaps more so than any actual language. It is universally spoken and reaches across oceans and borders alike. So, be humble. Don’t try to be an artist. Leave this to the painters. Be a photographer – a small part of something big – a new language. You are part of something that is still unfolding – that is coming into being – and you will need to be humble and wait to find your place in this new visual world. We don’t yet quite know what the new rockstars of street photography will look like, exactly … but they won’t be peddling photographic prints or hanging pictures on the walls at MoMA. Street photographers have an important role to play but it is a different role from those who make art.
Further to the idea of humility, Emerson later in the same essay speaks about “placing” criticism and how it will be “one of the stock jokes of the twentieth century.” What he is referring to here are those lists of “who’s who”. You know, “The 10 Best Street Photographers of All Time” and the like. Avoid this crowd. Do not covet such false acclaim. I, myself, have written these articles and compiled these lists when I was with The Huffington Post. Indeed they are meaningless. Unfortunately, they did not pan out to be the joke of the twentieth century but rather a running joke that is, seemingly, still ongoing.
“Pay no heed to the average photographer’s remarks upon ‘flat’ and ‘weak’ negatives. Probably he is flat, weak, stale, and unprofitable; your negative may be first-rate, and probably is if he does not approve of it.”
Copyright ⓒ Michael Ernest Sweet
Resilience – A thick skin is needed in street photography. Here Emerson is essentially saying that jealousy and worse will reign. Indeed it does. I will not recount here the nastiness that one bears witness to in the forums on street photography. One can use their imagination, or perhaps their own experience, to fill in the scene. The point is that, for whatever reason, street photography does engender a lot of jealousy and animosity between photographers. We are all chasing that one elusive bone. To really succeed and endure, you will have to bury the negativity and steer clear of those who intend only to detract and tear down. Indeed, pay no heed to what the average street photographer says about your photographs. Better to ask the dentist or the barber.
“Most people think they can play tennis, shoot, write novels, and photograph as well as any other person – until they try.”
Confidence – Maintain confidence in your ability to refine your craft and make an impact. Today, more than ever, people feel this sentiment toward the camera – everyone has one in their pocket afterall. But that does not make everyone a photographer. You will need to maintain confidence in a sea of imitators. A recent poll found that 1 in 5 men under the age of thirty identified as a street photographer. That’s a lie. I made that up. But the idea holds. You are working to create an identity as someone with skill and talent in a pool with millions and millions of others vying for a spot in the same sandbox. Some are real and others are not. You will need confidence, by the barrel load, to maintain the ability to even declare that you are a street photographer and do so with a straight face. This needs to be balanced with the humility mentioned above. Quite the balancing act, I admit. No one said it would be easy.
“Remember every photograph you publish goes out for better, for worse, to raise you up or pull you down; do not be in haste, therefore, to give yourself over to the enemy.”
Patience – Don’t rush. Today, many eager would-be photographers grab a camera and take a few snaps – open a social media account and publish the images – and sit back and wait for fame and success. It rarely comes. And if it does, it is but a ship in the night. Patience is key here. Make work. Sit on it. Think about it. Ditch it and re-make the work again – even better. Refine your vision, your signature, and your process. Wait for the best of the best to show up before you run before the masses looking for “filthy lucre, or for metal medals.” I am guilty of this one myself. I have published work that I dearly wish I could retract and destroy. We don’t live in that world. Your “early work” will always be just that, your early work, which, by the way, is often what you will be tested against the most. Be patient. Edit your work and then do it all over again. Be ruthless with your own images. When in doubt, throw it out.
I believe a lot of wisdom can be gleaned from Emerson’s essay. He was not speaking of street photography, mind you, but the sentiments and advice hold up. In my fifteen years in street photography – both writing and making photos – I have seen countless photographers come and go – rise and fall. Many of them, if not all, were blind to the wisdom of Emerson. You may elect, of course, to go forward and seek whatever your heart desires – which may be but a moment of false fame – but if you truly want to leave a permanent mark in the annals of street photography, these bits and bobs may bring you one step closer to that achievement. Survival in this game will not come easily. Burnout rates among street photographers are worse than those among teachers and nurses combined. I made that up. Or did I?
Comment
A brilliant article – thanks. Great points throughout.
Your last sentence got me – I was a nurse and a teacher and now someone who takes photographs in the street!! How long have i got?!
Pat Wood