A study on aesthetics in the Streets

[Stefan]

Hello Everyone,
 
Thanks for reading my post.
 
I see a lot of regular street shots that tell a story or that have an interesting subject but so often at the cost of composition or aesthetics. I decided to go out one morning and focus on aesthetics, using colour, light subjects, objects and angles. Taking a note from Cartier. 
 
Please share with me your thoughts, and please share some of your more aesthetically orientated street shots, I love to see them.
 
Thanks again.

 

[Paul Crespel]

Nice work Stefan

I have a few, but aesthetics isn't really what I go looking for... but here are are a few.... you may find others on my Flickr page or website.

Loggia del Consiglio Verona by Paul Crespel, on Flickr

 

@ by Paul Crespel, on Flickr

 

Innsbruck Shopping Mall by Paul Crespel, on Flickr

 

Night Train by Paul Crespel, on Flickr

[Stefan]

Very nice love the first 2 shots.

[Paul Crespel]

They all fall into many categories, the first three might be aesthetic, but also street, architecture, even possibly a bit abstract.... different things to different people.  We all see the world in different ways, which means we all produce images that are very different to each other... except in camera clubs, where sadly many people can end up shooting the same photos as everybody else.  I feel a bit of a fraud posting images here, because I was a photoreporter for 23 years, and my photos were used in newspapers all over the world, but hopefully I can encourage younger photographers to think and use their brains when they take photos.... you don't seem to need that encouragement, Stefan   You're doing great.

[Paul Crespel]

Stefan, I'm not sure if this one fits your idea of aesthetics... the lines are all there... just 3 teenagers hanging out in town.  It was the girl's boots that attracted me to take the photo

Young Italians by Paul Crespel, on Flickr

[Stefan]

Thank you Paul, that means a lot coming from a photographer as yourself. If I had my life over I would have liked to start out as a photojournalist. I hardly find the time to shoot these days keeping my day job, but photography is the one thing I still seem to find the energy for. I look forward to growing and developing the art form. 

[Stefan]

There is are some nice leading lines and triangles, very hard but contrasted by the organic bodies, grass and soft clouds. Also old and new. I like it

[Paul Crespel]

.... again, I'm not sure if this is valid... aesthetics aren't something I really "see" when I take a photograph, so maybe this one doesn't qualify here:

 

Infinity by Paul Crespel, on Flickr

[Stefan]

Well what makes it appealing is is the repetition, which is a design element. 

[CRAusmus]

They all fall into many categories, the first three might be aesthetic, but also street, architecture, even possibly a bit abstract.... different things to different people.  We all see the world in different ways, which means we all produce images that are very different to each other... except in camera clubs, where sadly many people can end up shooting the same photos as everybody else.  I feel a bit of a fraud posting images here, because I was a photoreporter for 23 years, and my photos were used in newspapers all over the world, but hopefully I can encourage younger photographers to think and use their brains when they take photos.... you don't seem to need that encouragement, Stefan   You're doing great.

I for one would welcome your input and support Paul.  As I'm sure anyone on the forum would.

 

For that matter, I welcome any and all input or support on any image I post.  Sometimes it takes another eye to show us what we can't ourselves see. And sometimes just a little thing can make a photographer see entirely differently.

[Paul Crespel]

Hi Clinton.... have a read of this.... it was published last year, and created quite a bit of controversy, I'm on a lot of people's hit lists as a result... but nobody actually argued with what I stated.  The article is not to insult, but rather to provoke people to start thinking instead of just snapping away at anything they see.

Give it a try   It was only written and published to provoke thought and discussion.

 

PAUL CRESPEL PHOTOGRAPHY ARTICLE

[Tom H.]

Hello Everyone,

 

Thanks for reading my post.

 

I see a lot of regular street shots that tell a story or that have an interesting subject but so often at the cost of composition or aesthetics. I decided to go out one morning and focus on aesthetics, using colour, light subjects, objects and angles. Taking a note from Cartier. 

 

Please share with me your thoughts, and please share some of your more aesthetically orientated street shots, I love to see them.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

1, 2 and 5 stand out! Nice work!

[thesaltyfog]

Excellent work, Stefan.  It's unfortunately rare to see well composed street photos and even rarer that they are in colour.  These make a very nice set.  I'm really liking the man on the train - wonderful expression, a nice simple and graphic composition, and some perfect light on his face.  Wonderful.

 

You've managed to actually USE the colour to your advantage here, which is what is often missing from other colour street photos, I find. A lot of us shy away from it in "street" mode, I think, as it's often not the focus of or detracts from the focus or story of the photo. (And holding up the B&W tradition, blah blah blah.) Colour can be pretty random in an urban environment and clutter up an otherwise good photo.  Instead, here you've done a great job of making the colour part of the photo.   I've historically avoided that, myself, but am now starting to embrace it and attempting to put that extra dimension into effect. (The mythical "Fuji colours" are helping in that regard, too.  Heh heh.)

 

I bristle a tiny bit at the suggestion that street photography and aesthetics are somehow unrelated.  The photos by both you and Paul in this thread prove that it can be done to great effect.  I'm always striving to find both that story and aesthetics that make for a photo that is not only beautiful but meaningful (and vice versa).  One without the other is totally fine, but both together, well... then you've really got something.