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Street Photography 2 – Fashion!

So, Wednesday 8th of September came and it was the day we were to meet the college Lecturer, Scott at the famous cone headed statue of the Duke of Wellington (look it up, I won’t spoil it), or outside the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art – or GOMA.    We were about to head into the busy shopping precinct of Buchanan Street, which is full of high class shops and the very stylish Princes Square Shopping Mall.

Our Task was to stop a complete stranger who we found interesting style-wise and take their portrait.   Glasgow is a very diverse city and has loads of people returning to the shops after restrictions are slowly being lifted.  That the sun was shining was a bonus, giving us students the perfect light to get our shots.  All we needed to do was ask to get them. Yeah sounds easy. 

I’m pleased to say we approached many as a group so we didn’t look as though we were just out taking pictures – with identity theft on the rise people are a lot more suspect of someone on their own coming up and asking to take  a picture.  I managed to pluck up the courage to ask people on my own eventually though and that stands me in good stead for the next round.   Wish me luck.   Oh and the memory to remember to pick my camera bag up which I left outside the GOMA for an hour… luckily it was still there when I returned.

My memory is shocking.

Ronpics Photography

Street Photography in Glasgow

One thing I find most scary when it comes to photography is Street Photography.   There are many ideas of what actually constitutes what the term actually means.   For some it is the deliberate in your face, get a candid shot and show the bare bones of the human condition.  For others it is the somewhat voyeuristic look of watching people off guard.  Me?  I like it to be somewhere in between. 

 

Environment

Environment in Street Photography is the actual whole point of street photography, I think.  It is about not only capturing the subject, but subjects. There needs to be more than one thing to look at if it is a street photograph for me.  “Lived in” faces are fine, but they do not tell the whole story of that face. Indeed there are some who would argue that street photography does not actually need to have any humans at all, but then where is the reactions and interactions, and the body language that makes the picture? I think it is basically all about how you see it.  Which is why photography is so subjective.

Reactions/Interactions/Body Language

I think the pictures above represent most what I think Street Photography is, reactions can be passive interactive or even unknown.  The first pic is definitely in the ‘unknown’ because only one of the subjects can see the advert in the bus shelter.  The next picture shows passive where the 3 subjects are walking along the usually busy Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow.  The last shows a bit of reaction as this US police car sits on St.Vincent Street and is noticed by the man passing by. 

Street Photography can be daunting, but isn’t the current climate much the same?