When your watching over the average street photography page on dA or even through the galleries of the yard, you will find a lot of photographs that are mediocre at best. Most of my own shots can be considered mediocre at best, too. But what is it, that makes street so hard? Well, after you've mastered exposure and focusing, you'd think you just have to go out and stalk on all those people on the streets. But it turns out it's not that easy. It's something different watching over the pictures of a HCB or Doisneau. Now what makes their shots so much better? I think there are two things that are, after the technical stuff, hard:

1. composition
2. relevance of moment

Composition makes the image tense. It communicates the idea through our conscious part of the brain directly to the emotional parts. Without it, a photograph is simply an invasion into privacy and thus nothing more than insignificant.
The same is true for the moment you've captured. If there is nothing special, nothing that shows a certain emotion or connection between place and people, people and people or photographer and people, there is nothing you can show. Without something relevant to show, a photograph is irrelevant.

Now as said before, I don't think I have mastered these two parts of art myself (with one or two exceptions in the gallery that are basically a result of pure luck), but most of the times, when I get back a developed roll I'm so enthusiastic about the shots, that I don't notice that they miss one of the two. The memory of the scene when I took the shot is still so alive, that it tricks my mind and makes me think I took a good shot. Then, when sitting back and watching a week or so at the shots, I realize their real qualities and mostly flaws and hold back from posting them. Now if you really want your gallery to be special, I think there is no other way than doing exactly that and hold back shots that are mediocre. That doesn't make me stop trying and it shouldn't stop you. But it will make better galleries.






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BTW:

I'm looking for someone to get to know, to take pictures with. on film. portraits.
you?
maybe?
Berlin.
contact me: mail@cleeus.de