(Above Image Copyrighted By:Â Jeroen Helmink)
Jeroen Helmink is a Dutch documentary / street photographer. After a corporate career of 15 years, his love for photography led him to a new way of living. It was only two years ago he decided to dedicate all of his time to photography and explore the streets as a full time photographer.
Eric’s Note: Streettogs Gallery is an on-going feature and intiative by Manila-based street photographer A.G. De Mesa. Click here for more info.
A.G.:I’ve been following Lem’s work over at Flickr for quite some time now. He is what I would classify as a classical street photographer with mastery of light, timing, and overall visual design. His terrific use of black and white reinforces that aesthetic especially when he utilizes it to for silhouettes.
I want to emphasize that Lem’s photographs are really good. Although recently, he is posting something that is really unique.
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Eric’s Note: Streettogs Gallery is an on-going feature and intiative by Manila-based street photographer A.G. De Mesa. Check out more info here.
A.G.:Â I always defined street photography as “Photographing people in a public place with or without permission”. Â That is how I go about shooting but when I encountered the work of William Eggleston, my definition shattered.
It seemed that his work doesn’t fit how I understood and read about photography. His photos are so simple, mundane, and very uninteresting. So much so that I think Eggleston’s War with the obvious is the anti-thesis of Bresson’s philosophy The Decisive Moment.
When it comes to street photography, it is essential to capture candid moments of everyday life. This is what sets the genre of “street photography” differently from all the other types of photography out there. Although there are many talented photographers out there who specialize in capturing posed street portraits, I would classify those images as more of a subsect of “posed street portraiture” than “street photography” proper. In this post I will outline my thoughts why you shouldn’t ask for permission when shooting street photography.
Recently I asked the community on my Facebook fan page what blog post they wanted me to write about. Douglas Bain asked me a question about the advantages/disadvantages of using manual or autofocus for street photography which is a fantastic question. I have debated about this with myself when it comes to street photography. Using primarily a DSLR for street photography, I often switch between the both as they both have advantages/disadvantages. However there is often heated debate between both camps (one saying that autofocus is more convenient while the purists say manual focusing is the only way to go). I will do my best of outlining the pros of both manual and autofocus in street photography in this blog post (and will let you tell me the disadvantages in the comments).
So the other day when I stepped out of my office on 3rd street to go take some photos during my lunch break, I was spotted by a group of Christian missionaries handing out fake one-million dollar bills to passer-by’s. They had interesting caricatures of what I perceive to be famous celebrities in place of some of our beloved presidents. As they noticed at me gazing at them, one of their representatives walked up to me and asked me, “If you were going to die tomorrow, would you definitely be sure that you would be in heaven?” Wow–what a loaded question. I then casually responded, “Of course not.” The man then asked me for 2 of my minutes and during that split-second decision I thought to myself, “Sure, why the hell not.”
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