Studio6or7: street photography

June 15, 2011

Civilized Protest

In keeping with my Spain theme for the week... These are photos I took in Madrid a couple of weeks ago. The protests were (and are) still going on when we arrived with the main square in Madrid being full of tents and daily speeches. It was all very civilized. At the first speech that we heard everyone was waving flowers in lieu of clapping and at some of the other speeches we saw the crowds would quietly wiggle their hands in the air instead of clapping. That sort of reserve could never be found in this country with our loud opinions and love of clapping but it was fun to watch.

While traveling throughout Spain we saw similar protests and smaller tent cities in nearly every city that we visited.

January 13, 2011

Take it to the Streets

Last year was the year of Impossible. This year it seems to be the year of street photography. The twitterverse, Facebook world and blogosphere are all singing the praises of Vivian Maier- the amazing street photographer whose negatives were recently discovered. You can read all about her here or do a quick google on her name and find loads of blog posts written about her work.

The great thing about street photography is that it captures realistic moments in time. They aren't the contrived, set-up photographs that we so often see in advertising or formal portraiture, but rather caught or stolen moments of real people living out their daily lives. I think this is what gives them magic and resonance. And without street photographers, we would be missing a lot of our history and our ability to get a glimpse into the daily realities of those that lived in the past.

Street photography is beautiful, important and historically illuminating. So grab your camera and get out there. What's happening on your streets today?

A quick search on flickr will find you lots of other great street photography like those found below.