What's the point of photographs like this though?
(philosophical question)
(philosophical question)
(photographical question)
Are you saying it is impossible to verbalize the 'point' of photography?
Regardless, sometimes photographs capture remarkable events or spectacular scenes, in which cases the point could be easily understood as 'seeing things you would have liked to have seen but didn't get the chance'
Now in this here collection, almost all the photos are just of strangers on the street. Something you can see everyday with your own eyes. So what is the point?
There was a fun essay once where someone pointed out the value of photographing everyday objects. Tools, cars, clothes. These are the things that you'll most wish you'd photographed, because they are the most ephemeral. The Grand Canyon looks much as it did in Ansel Adams' day. People look only a bit different than they used to. But the objects are gone. The streets and the buildings are gone.
Here black and white images of everyday urban life have been selected as subject matter. Why? (obviously the images are well framed, but is that all there is to this art? Mechanical_Fish's answer above is reasonable, though)
- The capture of the preciousness of everyday life. So many of us wake up, trudge to work, trudge home, go get our groceries, etc etc all without ever noticing the little things in life. Part of why I do street photography is to catch and expose the fact that there are amazing things happening in the most mundane situations - that there are a million interactions and emotions crossing between people, even if, at the surface it's just a bunch of people on a subway train or a crowd walking down the street There are sparks of incredibly deep interaction, ephemeral and fleeting as they may be, all around us every minute. I like to capture and bring them out.
- Documentation with thought. We all have point and shoot cameras, and the prevalence of drunken pictures on Facebook is testament to the human desire to document. Most pictures though, aren't very well composed, and only convey the technical details of the event, and not the emotion that is undoubtedly embodied within. Part of why I love street is that it doesn't have to be extraordinary - sometimes you fall back to a role strictly that of the documentarian, but you can do it with more skill and thought than what most people can do.
Incidentally, was going to comment that the story reminded me of a great Swedish film from a couple of years ago:
(socratic question)