Does anyone do Street Photography with LF?

[David A. Goldfarb]

Here are some that I've posted before. These are night shots, so they're with flash and a handheld 4x5" Tech V and a cammed 210/5.6 Symmar convertible--

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/halloween/

[Kirk Gittings]

The master??? Check out East 100th Street by Bruce Davidson.

[Bill_1856]

I've always felt that HC-B sets the standard for street photography.

[Mark Sawyer]

Think Weegee, Stieglitz, and Walker Evans in New York...

Atget in Paris...

Sudek in Prague...

The last presidential election was covered by a couple of photographers using 4x5 press cameras...

How you do something depends mostly on how you want to do something.

[Kirk Gittings]

I've always felt that HC-B sets the standard for street photography.

Yes, and his large format work is something you have to see to believe.

[Sylvester Graham]

T
The last presidential election was covered by a couple of photographers using 4x5 press cameras...
.

A couple? By a couple do you mean one, as in David Burnett? I can't think of any other photojournalists who covered that election, or anything else, with a press camera. He also still uses LF for other projects.

[Dirk Rösler]

Here is some I have done a while back. Some handheld, some tripod, some instant film. It's fun, but challenging, but I would not say it is the "wrong" tool for the job.

[r.e.]

This test shot made me think that street photography with a view camera might be interesting. It's such an odd sight, the wooden camera, that no one pays attention.

In my experience, the larger the camera, the more attention, but also the less nervousness/annoyance about the presence of a camera.

Over the last few months, I've been using an old Leica made in 1955 and a Mamiya 7II to do street photography, by which I mean at a minimum photographing someone in ordinary life (not a crime scene, parade or demonstration) without him or her knowing that he or she is being photographed.

I'm learning that there is a big learning curve to doing street photography. Part of that curve is psychological and part of it is technical. On the technical side, the larger the camera and the longer the focal length, the more difficult it gets. A Leica with a 90mm lens is hard enough, a Mamiya with a 150mm lens is really pushing it. On the other hand, a Leica with a 35mm lens is technically a snap, and a Mamiya with an 80mm lens is more or less manageable. It isn't just a question of zone focusing, but a question of fast and accurate regular focusing.

Then there is the whole question of shooting hand held, light levels, lens speed and pushing development. Someone mentioned Bruce Davidson. Have a look at his New York subway photographs. If one does some light readings in that subway system, one has got to wonder how he managed to make those photographs. My own bet is that most of them were done in above-ground parts of the system and/or when the subway was stopped in a station. His Harlem photos, referred to earlier, are wonderful, but they are not what I would call street photographs. In fact, if I recall correctly, he went through a process of negotiation with the local community before that project was undertaken.

One thing that one figures out quickly from doing street photography is that there are not a whole lot of people actually doing it. The other thing one learns is that there are a lot of people who don't like it. Not a surprise, but something one needs to deal with, on both an ethical and practical level. Such as when someone demands the film from your camera, which has happened to me twice in the last week.

I've decided to do a summer project in which I'll be using a 4x5, the Leica and the Mamiya to photograph my neighbourhood. I'm still working out how the 4x5 is going to fit in, especially since the rule that I've set myself is that there will be people in every photograph, but I do know two things. First, it is completely fantastical to think that the 4x5 can be used the same way as the Leica. Secondly, the 4x5 is likely to generate less suspicion and more curiosity.

P.S. Bruce Davidson is about to do a speaking tour in several US cities. I think that he is in New York in late May. See the Aperture web site.

[Mark Sawyer]

A couple? By a couple do you mean one, as in David Burnett? I can't think of any other photojournalists who covered that election, or anything else, with a press camera. He also still uses LF for other projects.

I remember reading of a female photographer (can't recall her name) also covering it with a press camera, but she had a much lower profile than Burnett.

[jnantz]

street photography is fun with a 4x5 (or bigger) camera ..
on a tripod or handheld, at first people sort of notice
but they have no idea what you are doing and after a glance they just keep walking.

for about 6 or 7 years i documented the streets and city squares of somerville, mass
with a 4x5 (and 5x7 ) camera on a tripod. sometimes early in the am, sometimes
rush hour, sometimes saturday afternoons. i also documented parts of central square
in rush hour, for a few weeks with a 4x5 camera on a tripod. for another library/
archive project ... people don't notice anything, they are just too busy getting to the
next place they have to be ...

in central square ( cambridge mass, a heartbeat away from harvard square )
i even went into some of the shops and offices to photograph that stuff too ...

i guess the shop-stuff was off-street
but the others were on the street