REVIEW: LONDON STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBTION

guest post written by:  Sian

So… me myself and I went down to the London museum to check out the London street photography exhibit,  opened last month and continues to run on until the 4^th September 2011. It was an insight of the movement, the diversity and consistency of the most multicultural city in the world…LONDON of course!!

The instantaneous approach of the London Street Scene, it was pioneered in the 1860’s; by the 1890’s a forthright of street photographers capturing unaware Londoners became the new fixation.

Street photography is regarded as a style of urban documentary photography. Most images displayed were all captured through roll film cameras original Black and white imagery at its finest which I LOVED…so I was right in my element of inspiration. However the stumble block of today’s culture is we are more alert  but suspicious of street photography, we currently live in surveillance society , more people are  more reluctant to taking street captions .Their more concerned to who the actual photographer is working for than the simplicity of photography.

It then it got me thinking walking through the exhibit…. is these new digital cameras making us lazy to what we define as good photography and I’m taking about the advantages of snazzy  functions a display screen. Does this mean the visual culture is suffering or has it lost its creative aspect?

From my perception of the exhibit, street photography is about seeing and reacting to capturing a slice of daily life, kind of like commentary on society documenting what’s is missed by passers-by. A statement that stuck with me leaving the exhibit was

“using film print is the best you don’t have time to check the caption as you normally would with an SLR, roll camera is about capturing a master piece waiting to happen”

As an amateur myself That reminds me of the time I went to carnival last year, I took pictures @ carnival… and I soo wished I brought my Canon but only had my DEAD!!!Kodak camera…but you know a true photographer or amateur in my case captures any good moment regardless of camera and there capabilities. A major downfall to exhibit is…Oh Yh!… you can’t take pictures inside the actual exhibit..But I must admit you do begin to appreciate it more as a true art form and admiration of talented photographers. So if you’re into photography I.e. amateur, Pro or the love for photography…for sure get down there and it’s FREE!!!

Here are a few favourites of mine from the exhibit ….Enjoy!!!!

‘Homeless’ by Mimi Mollica, 1997 – © Mimi Mollica/Courtesy Museum of London

Outside the ‘Piss House’ pub, Portobello Road, 1968. © By Charlie Phillips, courtesy of Museum London.

Oxford street, July 1998.Photo credit Richard Bram, Courtesy of Museum of London

Brick Lane, E1, 1978 – Brick Lane was a notorious political flashpoint in 1970s London © Paul Trevor. All rights reserved/ Courtesy Museum of London

Shopkeeper outside grocery shop, Whitechapel, by Peter Marshall, 1991 – © Pater Marshall, Courtesy Museum of London

 

Copyright: Marco Fiori 2011 a (Metro London Street Photography winner)

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