Street Photography- Inspired by Walker Evans

Over the last few weeks i have become increasingly interested in Street Photography and Photojournalism, quite a change considering i started the course wanting to be the next Mario Testino! I was aware that my interests would probably change as i progressed with the course and my photography but didnt think it would happen this quickly.

I like the work of Walker Evans and after seeing the Subway portraits from the collection Many Are Called, i was intrigued by the idea of capturing the private expressions on peoples faces.

 Here are some examples of his work.

Photograph by Walker Evans

Photograph by Walker Evans

This is a link to an article in the Guardian about Walker Evans' Subway portraits.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/sep/14/art

When he took these photos in the subway, "photographing without a police permit was illegal" according to Geoff Dyer in his book the ongoing moment, luckily for me- it is no longer illegal, not that it would have stopped me!

I went to London for Vision 09 and wanted to have time to photograph in the tube stations so i got the 1.30am coach to London to make sure i was there for 6am, giving me 4 hours before Vision started.

I wanted to try a similar approach to Walker Evans in that i didnt want posed photographs and wanted the expressions only possible when someone doesnt know they are being photographed; instead of hiding my camera (this would have been very difficult) i decided to hold the camera in my hands at waist height and try to appear as if i was simply holding the camera and catch people unaware.

One thing that i noticed was that my minimum aperture F4 restricted my photography in the lighting conditions of the tube stations, i had to use a shutter speed of at least 1/125th in order to avoid movement blur and with the minimum aperture set to F4 i had to use very high ISO's of above 1500 which i knew would make the photographs very grainy.

I decided that even though i would have preferred not to use such high ISO's and avoid this grainyness (noise), in a way it actually suited the images. To have a lens with the ability to go down to F2 for example, would have given me much more creative control and i could have then achieved the grainy effect later on Photoshop if necessary.

F4, 1/125 Sec, ISO 1600, handheld, edited in Lightroom.

This was taken in the tube station from the platform just before the tube departed.

This image has just been heavily cropped in Lightroom and changed to Black and White. The high ISO has meant that the image isnt very clear and has a lot of noise but i like it, it has an atmosphere and quite a dramatic feel to it.

F4, //125 Sec, ISO 1000, handheld, edited in Lightroom.

This was one that i took on the tube, the man with his hands crossed seemed quite suspicious of me and kept looking at me but also looking around like he had something to hide, i wanted to try to capture the shifty look he had, and in contrast the man next to him; totally unaware i was even there and content reading his paper.

I have cropped this in Lightroom and changed to Black and White. I also applied a Vignette and feathered this so it was very subtle.

I tried lots of different crops out with this and cropped tighter and tighter to isolate a particular part of the image, but i felt that this one worked best.

F5.6, 1/125 Sec, ISO 1600, handheld, edited in LR.

 

This was taken through the window of the next carriage on the tube. I liked the way the people were all engrossed in their papers and magazines, or even asleep. It has always fascinated me whenever i go to London, how people can sleep, read books etc when on the tube as it goes at such speed you are never on it for very long. I also like the different characters here.

I have edited this in lightroom by changing to B&W, cropping and also played around with it to get an effect i liked, i put the fill light and the blacks up to 100% and found that this increased the definition in the image and created more of a contrast and gave it a newspaper like feel to it.


These attempts gave me the confidence to take some other photographs whilst moving up the esculators without hiding the fact that i was taking the photos, this was as i was going up and people were going down the other side, i felt more confident as there was little chance of them grabbing my camera!

F5.6, 1/160 Sec, ISO 2000, Handheld, edited in LR.

This was cropped, vignette added, the fill and blacks increased and the vibrance and saturation decreased.

F5.6, 1/160 Sec, ISO 2000, handheld, edited in LR.

This was cropped, fill and blacks increased, vibrance and saturation decreased.

I have noticed this seems to be a pattern when edited this type of 'street portrait' i have used a similar process for all of the images on this post, mainly because i really like the effect.

I have also developed an interest in photographing the people on the streets, be it homeless, beggars or people selling something, i thought London would be a good place to try out these sort of photographs. I feel that these people are interesting to photograph, they seem to have very distinct characters that are quite transparent to the camera.

F5.6, 1/60 Sec, ISO 1000, handheld, edited in Lightroom.

I came across this man on London Bridge and i gave him some money then asked him if it was ok for me to photograph him, he was very polite and didnt seem mind at all. I took this photo just as the sun was starting to rise so it was quite low light so i still had to use a fairly high ISO here.

I edited this in LR by cropping it, adding an antique greyscale preset and playing around with the dark tones and also reducing the exposure slightly, i also applied a feathered Vignette to help frame the picture.

F4.5, 1/160 Sec, ISO 320, handheld, edited in LR.

This was cropped, a vignette applied and the fill light and blacks increased, vibrance decreased.

I think the editing has given it a cold dark feel, which i think is appropriate for the subject.

F5.6, 1/160 Sec, ISO 320, handheld, edited in LR.

I saw this man near the London Bridge tube station and took his photograph, a lady walking past commented to her friend about the fact that i took this, she was obviously appalled but clealry didnt understand my reasons for taking it.

This was cropped and the fill light and blacks increased. Previously (on the above photos) i have often decreased the vibrance and saturation, i wanted to try this without decreasing the vibrance, i think it makes it more 'real' in one sense rather than dramatising and creating a sad atmosphere, it is as it is.

I thought though that in contrast, i would also show the decreased vibrance version for comparison.

This definitely has a more depressing feel to it which i suppose is more apt for the photograph but i like the previous more vibrant image as it almost makes it so real that it seems like it is normal to live this way, perhaps symbolising our attitude toward homeless people and beggars and the way the majority of people just walk past because they are de-sensitised to this kind of image, these people are an expected part of the streets of London.

F4.5, 1/160 Sec, ISO 320, handheld, edited in LR.

This man was sat just a few meters from the man in the sleeping bag, although his situation isnt funny, ar first i found it quite comical that he was able to sleep this way and had his mouth wide open. After thinking about it, my feelings were the opposite, for him to be able to sleep this way, in the cold with hundreds of people bustling past was perhaps an indication of how deprived he was, how it is dangerous to sleep at night, in the dark and so to sleep with all these people around could be his only and safest option. 

This was cropped, a vignette applied and the fill light and blacks increased, vibrance decreased. I also applied a graduated filter to the bottom left to help draw the eye in.