The shift from black and white street photography to colour was a gradual progression over the course of a couple of decades from the 1950’s through to the 1970’s. Three notable luminaries of early colour street photography were; Saul Leiter, Fred Herzog and Vivian Maier.
Herzog, New Pontiac, 1957.
These photographers embarked on their colour street work during the 1950’s, but due to the disregard of colour photography, because of its associations to advertising, they remained undiscovered until much later. Joel Sternfeld and Joel Meyerowitz also produced their own colour street output in the 1960’s. The ground-breaking exhibitions curated by John Szarkowski at the Museum of Modern Art, featuring work by William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, marked the wider acceptance of colour photography by the art world in general, leading to a greater proliferation of colour street work.
I want to focus on Joel Meyerowitz for a moment, as I think his view is great at summing up the potential of colour photography and also because I have a great deal of respect for him as a photographer and as a person. In his retrospective book Where I Find Myself (I highly recommend this) he states ‘What I saw was that the colour image had more in formation in it, simple as that! There was much more to see and consider, whereas black and white reduced the world to shades of grey.’ (Meyerowitz, 2018, 286). For me this is the crux. The world we see is colour, therefore, black and white reduces it and in so doing it takes away reality. Meyerowitz further adds ‘The sharpness and cohesive quality of the image compelled me to ‘read’ everything in the frame…colour in the distance actually added something to the meaning of the whole frame…” (Meyerowitz, 2018, 286).
Meyerowitz, New York City, 1974.
With regard to the shift away from surrealism I’m not convinced that there has been a shift away from it – with respect of street photography. Although Cartier-Bresson is an exemplar of surrealist street work and black and white is more obviously suited to it, there are many examples of current colour street contemporaries, such as work produced by Matt Stuart. Life can often be absurd, these absurdities play out on the street – because the street is the theatre of life, encapsulating all of humanity in all of its glory.
Stuart, Oxford Street, 2009.
The work of Martin Parr is often described as an ironic view of British identity. Parr’s images show symbols associated with our nation alongside the wit which also typifies us. Whether it be his early black and white images of people scurrying about in bad weather or work from his breakout series The Last Resort – showing us humanity at the seaside surrounded by the artefacts connected to place – he holds a mirror to our society at large. In the past Parr has been derided for his satirical and uncompromising point of view, often being said to be cynical and sometimes demeaning, but are we not as a nation witty, sarcastic and ironic? For me Parr is first and foremost a humourist with an eye for representations of national and regional identity, also showing us the markers that are representative of the various class structures within our society.
Parr, The Last Resort, 1983-85.
Bibliography
Team, T. (2019). An Interview with Fred Herzog – ‘In His Own Words’ (excerpts). [online] AMERICAN SUBURB X. Available at: https://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/05/interview-fred-herzog-in-his-own-words-excerpts.html [Accessed 30 Jul. 2019].
Huck Magazine. (2019). Half a century of photography with Joel Meyerowitz. [online] Available at: https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/half-century-photography-joel-meyerowitz/ [Accessed 30 Jul. 2019].
MATT STUART | PHOTOGRAPHER | SHOOTS PEOPLE. (2019). COLOUR | MATT STUART | PHOTOGRAPHER | SHOOTS PEOPLE — MATT STUART | PHOTOGRAPHER | SHOOTS PEOPLE. [online] Available at: http://www.mattstuart.com/photography/0321d8w9xl9a15h8ixm9hup47fra41 [Accessed 30 Jul. 2019].
Magnum Photos. (2019). Revisiting Martin Parr’s Last Resort • Magnum Photos. [online] Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/martin-parr-the-last-resort/ [Accessed 30 Jul. 2019].
Williams, V. (2014). Martin Parr. Rev. ed. London: Phaidon Press Ltd.
Meyerowitz, J. (2018). Joel Meyerowitz – Where I find myself. Laurence King Publishing.
Howarth, S. and McLaren, S. (2011). Street photography now. London: Thames & Hudson.
Context and Narrative 