let us now catalogue famous people

http://i.imgur.com/NnZqVRd.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xjtgW2D.jpg

I'm ok with other animals (I have a particular fondness for photos of horses) but it's pointy-faced, bug-eyed dogs I don't like. I like the above two photos; they don't have any grotesqueness about them.

how do you feel about elliott erwitt's dog bictuers?

From a quick glance, I'm ok with them. They are much more subtle. Affectionate, not grotesque.

My original question was where did the meme come from, and I am wondering if what I don't like is a fairly recent distortion of an older meme. I notice that a lot of the people on the HCSP group on Flickr (who I detest) are into the version of this that I don't like. I find the way people are depicted in street photography often to be grotesque, as well, so maybe it's the same with how they use dogs.

i feel like cruising a flickr group you detest is super unhealthy, like it's a photo-centric comments thread plunge. i don't really know what street photography is, now, feels like a very grey internet zone to get tangled up in.

I don't spend any time cruising it, although I've looked at it in the past. I avoid it now because both the photos and the discussions make me angry.

Here's an example of what I don't like (from that group):

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7371/14149098572_e92b25857f.jpg

It's a different type of dog breed to the usual but otherwise fits.

After all that, I'm having trouble finding photos with the exact kind of dog doing the exact kind of thing I don't like. But this is kind of what I'm talking about (again, different dog type -- not a terrier):

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8475/8079062332_1bd61dde24.jpg

I'll shut up now as it's getting off-topic (and really quite far removed from the photo in the series Drash posted).

like half of photos in that group look like alex webb

i feel like cruising a flickr group you detest is super unhealthy, like it's a photo-centric comments thread plunge

so true

but maybe worse when involves some attraction with repulsion (otherwise wdn't be so irritating; tropes & cliches-- in word or image-- wdn't be so grating if there wasn't some thread of recognition/kinship)

much of contemporary 'street photography' genre/ groups irritates me too, but not easy to articulate why

maybe it's not photos themselves so much as experience of looking at them in form of unindividuated stream of images

dubmill i think the one you posted from hcsp it's obvious why it was chosen - the twinning of the expressions on the dog and women's face, and the fortuitous inclusion of the peace sign (i can imagine the commenters in that group pointing out the 'dog' sign on the upper left corner too)

but i agree it's uninteresting

it seems the current mode of street photography is obsessed with the grotesque and the maximal

photography by inclusion and addition (they have never heard of addition by subtraction, or when they do, the results are very geometric and abstract and similarly competent but glossed over)

speaking of twinning i don't think that photo is as interesting as this one

http://i.imgur.com/pg9HNn2.jpg

the dogs i think of photographed by the 'masters' i think are photographed for the sense of menace + study of form

koudelka's hound looks like it could be a model for cerberus

it seems the current mode of street photography is obsessed with the grotesque and the maximal

photography by inclusion and addition (they have never heard of addition by subtraction, or when they do, the results are very geometric and abstract and similarly competent but glossed over)

^^^ otm

grotesque flashed faces; lots of (soulless) geometric formalism & obvious visual puns

photography by inclusion and addition (they have never heard of addition by subtraction, or when they do, the results are very geometric and abstract and similarly competent but glossed over)

Not exactly sure what you mean. Have you got any examples to illustrate your point?

the twinning of the expressions on the dog and women's face

Oh, I understood that's what they like about it. It's not that I find it 'uninteresting'. It's arresting in a way but I just find it objectionable. To me there's an aggressive attitude to it.

I like the photo of sheep/boy. Again it's subtle rather than shouty. The fact that the sheep's face is not in focus is significant; also that the sheep is looking at the camera but the boy is looking away. Tension/balance.

the sense of menace + study of form

Yes.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hasandocjimc/17416445140/in/pool-onthestreet/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ariaaryana/19323100576/in/pool-onthestreet/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hasandocjimc/19407257976/in/pool-onthestreet/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nmsilvafotografia/17607668139/in/pool-onthestreet/

4 out of the 5 on the front page lol

rent (who sometimes posts here) told me a story about how he met a photographer and analyzed them solely in terms of 'layers' and how many 'layers' a picture would have, the more the better

like for this one above https://www.flickr.com/photos/hasandocjimc/19407257976/in/pool-onthestreet/ look at everything that's happening in the foreground, the middle, the background, the far background! it could only be improved upon were there a helicopter or plane in the sky in the distance, perhaps exploding into a thousand pieces

Link 1: I don't mind this. It's kind of striking in a way but ultimately not really satisfying.
Link 2: Is this what you mean by geometric? I really dislike this photo. The figures are not interesting and I particularly hate the jogger. Also the colour is jarring/not well coordinated.
Link 3: In this case I'd rather the photographer was a bit further away and you could maybe see what the men are actually doing. As it is I find it jumbled and kind of oppressive.
Link 4: The two men cleaning windows have similar poses. Not interesting (at least to me).

those four examples spoke to the maximal tendency

some minimal examples

https://www.flickr.com/photos/43886382@N03/17756036513/in/pool-onthestreet/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rammynarula/16022978400/in/pool-onthestreet/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ngravity/10579177905/in/pool-onthestreet/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/supajug/14719263887/in/pool-onthestreet/

look at everything that's happening in the foreground, the middle, the background, the far background!

To me the layering is not really pronounced. While I can see that some things are closer to the camera than others, ultimately that's not how I perceive it and the overall effect is it looks 'flat' to me. I guess they'd probably say that I don't understand what I'm looking at.

some minimal examples

OK, I see what you mean.

look at everything that's happening in the foreground, the middle, the background, the far background! it could only be improved upon were there a helicopter or plane in the sky in the distance, perhaps exploding into a thousand pieces

lol yes (corroborated by comments there)
that 'layering' thing is part of what i meant with alex webb comparison
also the v 'harmonious' distribution, neat geometric organization, of humans (objects) in space

http://www.webbnorriswebb.co/data/photos/1318_1AW_SufferingOfLight_13.jpg

http://actuphoto.com/clients/fichiers/userfiles/images/Capture_decran_20111004_a_12_27_26%281%29.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/01/07/blogs/20130107-lens-webb-slide-TI5U/20130107-lens-webb-slide-TI5U-superJumbo.jpg

(those are alex webb)

every photo needs to look like this cartier-bresson

http://www.americansuburbx.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Henri-Cartier-Bresson-2-Custom.jpg

here's a nice diversion: http://www.walkinginla.com/

neat geometric organization, of humans (objects)

OK, I get it now. My first thought re. 'geometry' was that it must refer to buildings/spaces, not the actual people in the photo. Stupid of me -- I recognise this style.

I can't say I hate the Alex Webb photos but I don't particularly like them. What is it that makes the Cartier-Bresson better?
'Lighter touch' (something to do with the framing)?
The people are not seen as 'objects' (even though the style is superficially similar)?
Technical aspects (softer, less crisp look)?
'patina of history' (image depicts a world further in the past so is intrinsically more mysterious; also may be associated with momentous events, in this case frequently assumed to refer to the effects of the Spanish Civil War -- but was in fact taken in 1933)?

there's a confrontational tension in the HCB, and the frame through the wall

but yeah HCB doesn't generally do it for me

i still agree with frank:

Robert Frank, whose book “The Americans” (1958) treated subjects akin to many in the older photographer’s work, put it harshly but justly: “He traveled all over the goddamned world, and you never felt that he was moved by something that was happening other than the beauty of it, or just the composition.”

xp i don't dislike webb either; just weary of & feel cold to a pervasive style which seems (at least partly) modeled after him

was being sarcastic about c-b; but do think certain of his photos are in a way archetype for this style

"what makes it better" is interesting q; this strain of c-b leaves me kinda cold too

rf otm
still kinda unfair, feel there's warmth, pathos in some of c-b's work, but mostly-- yeah

was being sarcastic about c-b

Ah, I wondered about that. But I do think it's better (or, at least, I like that one photo much more than the AW ones you posted). Not that I am a huge fan of the style, either.

that's a really cool site cv

there's a strain of thought that identifies the primary mode of photography as melancholy

i was thinking that for me, photography is the sentimentalist's sport

and you understand then why frank was angry at cartier bresson for not feeling a goddamned thing

melancholy
sentimentalist's sport

yes, for me too

http://www.billjacobsonstudio.com/wp/project/untitled-1999-2001/

http://www.m97gallery.com/artist/artists_data/jiang_zhi/img/1313054614_1.jpg

jiang zhi

why ... isn't this the cover of the new order record

http://andrewhammerand.com/the_new_town/hammerand_6.jpg
http://andrewhammerand.com/the_new_town/hammerand_7.jpg

andrew hammerand

^really like those

http://www.cinematheque.fr/data/photo/18860.jpg
http://www.cinematheque.fr/data/photo/18853.jpg
http://www.cinematheque.fr/data/photo/18864.jpg
http://www.cinematheque.fr/data/photo/18863.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/14045/01.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/14042/04.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/14039/07.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/14038/08.jpg
http://www.zk-images.com/Sept12/Resnais3.jpg
http://www.zk-images.com/Sept12/Resnais4.jpg

continued
http://www.achtung.photography/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alain_Resnais_Reperages_08.jpg
http://www.achtung.photography/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alain_Resnais_Reperages_09.jpg

more images here:
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/ten-photographs-by-alain-resnais-mise-en-scene-of-memory-aesthetics-of-silence
http://www.cinematheque.fr/uk/museum-and-collections/actualite-collections/actualite-patrimoniale/reperages-photographies-resnais.html
http://www.achtung.photography/alain-resnais-and-jorge-semprun-reperages-1974/
http://donlonbooks.com/products/reperages-by-alain-resnais

little bbc documentary about a new zealand photographer in the eggleston/shore mode

http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-33674326

recently published in a book marred with an incongruously 'quirky' cover design - i dismissed it at first

http://www.pottonandburton.co.nz/store/hometown-new-zealand

http://lpvshow.com/files/2010/11/11.jpg

http://lpvshow.com/files/2010/11/13.jpg

http://lpvshow.com/files/2010/11/021.jpg

inside the book

i like his photos a lot
also reminds me a bit of luigi ghirri

yeah for sure

http://exploreg✧✧✧.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Nan-Goldin-David%E2%80%99s-darkroom-New-Haven-1997-at-MatthewMarks-at-FriezeNewYo✧✧✧@matthewmarksgall✧✧✧.j✧✧

https://igcdn-photos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t51.2885-15/11260788_1675257606041009_528619360_n.jpg

http://flashbak.com/love-boat-rejects-unforgettable-photos-of-people-on-cruise-ships-in-the-1990s-38273/

http://i.imgur.com/e1uhCG4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ffJ0VkH.jpg

ha those are great (martin-parr-esque)
actually tbh cruise ship photographer sounds like best worst job ever

i work with a guy who was a cruise ship videographer a few years back and he def has some best/worst stories

ha i can imagine (wd love to hear some but realize they may not be yours to tell)