Concept/Story:
The concept I want to tell with my photographs is the vibrant, chaotic, and intimate moments that occur in street food settings. I aim to capture the energy of vendors and customers, highlighting the stories behind each dish and the connections made through food. Each image will tell a story of community, culture, and the simple joy of eating together in the HuTongs of Beijing.

Audience Feelings:
I want my audience to feel a sense of nostalgia and maybe even hunger. I hope to evoke emotions of warmth, excitement, and curiosity, inviting viewers to reflect on their own street food experiences and the communal spirit that food brings.

Inspiration and Development of Ideas:
I will get inspiration and develop my ideas by looking for photographs that emphasize candid moments and spontaneous interactions, similar to Garry Winogrand’s style. I will explore images that utilize dynamic compositions and play with light and shadow to create depth. Additionally, I will seek out photographs that highlight the contrast between the bustling activity of street vendors and the intimate moments of patrons enjoying their meals, showcasing the interplay of movement and stillness.

4 capture gestures

The focus of this photograph is the dynamic gesture of the people taking photos of the last few flowers of this year. The lady on the right leans back very far, trying to take a photo which gives the photo great tension.

19layers

There are many layers in this photo, firstly the many layers of benches create a sense of depth. The person standing closer making eye contact with the person on top also creates layers, the eye contact also evokes emotion.

7 focus on background

In this photo, the subject is the leaf floating on the water surface, however the reflection of the sky in the water is also very clear. In such extreme that it overshadows the subject, the leaf. This creates a sense of balance between the background and the subject.

6eye contact

In this photo, I successfully captured the moment when the stray cat looked at my camera. Eye contact sometimes shows a strong sense of power, but is this situation, the cat conveys a  sense of fear and sadness.

12 visual elements, contrast, lighting, color.

The surroundings are very dark, and there is only one light source. This contrast creates a gloomy mood, in contrary to the bright pot and the sleeves of the women on the right side. The contrast allows this photo to have many layers of emotion.

16 diagonals

The lines formed by the walls on both sides leads the viewer’s attention to the middle. This photo lacks a clear subject, but I like the composition a lot. On the trip will look for this composition, and maybe use the “don’t move” technique to wait for a good subject.

The general concept I want to focus on is “Street food”, “Nostalgia”. I will portray these themes by capturing human interaction and using high-contrast lighting, possibly converting my photos to black and white.

Garry Winogrand

Garry Winogrand is an American Street photographer, famous for being one of the first photographers to use candid snapshots. He often used a wide-angle lens (first 35mm, then 28mm) and employed a tilted, off-kilter framing. His lens helps him capture the dynamic energy of the busy city, which is reflected in his collection, “Women are Beautiful.” He prioritized capturing a moment with energy and insight over technically perfect or conventionally composed images, which makes his photo have a substantial emotional impact. Born in New York, where he lived and worked for much of his life, Winogrand often photographed city streets, capturing crowds and individuals, and recording the tension and exuberance of public life. Garry Winogrand was greatly influenced by the theatrical world. He famously stated, “The world is a great show, and it would not open without my camera”. This quote well represents his belief that the camera didn’t just record events, but turned public life into a grand, ongoing performance.

Garry Winogrand’s work sometimes resembles Robert Frank’s work. They both prefer a subjective documentary style, telling a story with their photographs. While Winogrand’s is more chaotic and prolific, Frank’s work is often more melancholic and sequenced in a narrative book form.

I am especially interested in his Women are Beautiful collection. Garry Winogrand published his monograph, Women are Beautiful, in 1975, two years after the famous Roe v. Wade decision, which protected a woman’s right to have an abortion in 1973. I have been following feminist movements in Iran. In Iran, women are fighting for the freedom to choose to wear a hijab, a scarf that covers their hair, in public. In Garry Winogrand’s “Women Are Beautiful” collection, I saw women wearing dresses, pants, skirts, and more. I especially enjoyed the realistic emotions and facial expressions captured in his photographs. I saw women laughing, regardless of the people around them; I saw women wearing jeans relaxing, and women of a certain age still dressing up for themselves. I can see a story behind all the photographs; I can feel a sense of empowerment through them. Most importantly, Garry Winogrand’s photo reflects what life was like during that time period.

The photograph shows a sidewalk in a city, most likely New York, featuring several pedestrians walking and sitting. Three women walk toward the camera while a boy sits in a wheelchair to the left side. More people sit along benches on the right side near the street waiting for their bus.

The image’s black-and-white tone adds a timeless and documentary feel, emphasizing light, shadow, and texture over color. If this photo was with color, their would be more elements stealing focus, and there might be less contrast. The strips of light lead the viewer to focus on composition, light contrasts, and body language.

There is a strong contrast with areas of deep black shadows and bright highlights from direct sunlight, creating long shadows coming from multiple directions stretching toward the camera. The photographer was probably standing still, using a moderate wide-angle lens to capture a broad stretch of the street scene. The viewpoint appears slightly angled across the sidewalk, not straight-on, likely taken at eye level, maybe the photographer wasn’t ready to encounter this scenery.

The composition is balanced between stillness and movement. The walking women add a sense of motion while the seated figures introduce stillness. The long shadows create visual rhythm and lead the eye along the sidewalk toward the street background. The framing includes foreground (boy in wheelchair), mid-ground (walking women and seated people), and background (street, cars, buildings), providing depth.

The photograph gives the impression of an urban environment filled with dynamic textures and interaction among people.

The key feature appears to be the interplay of light and shadow, making the people look like silhouettes.

The photographer gives a sense of a snapshot of everyday life, showing both the challenges and the energy of the city. And a contrast between the quiet solitude of the individual in the wheelchair and the active social interaction of the groups of people around waiting as the bus stop and the three women chatting as they walk.

There is a feeling of nostalgia, making you feel warm and connected to the city and the moments of human interaction.

This photograph offers me a great example of lighting and structure. I can pay more attention to lighting, and the interaction between lighting and the surrounding, people nature etc. I should research more about structures that help guide viewers’ attention.

Street photography is a style of photography that focuses on capturing everyday life in public spaces. It’s all about taking candid shots of people as they go about their daily routines. Photographers aim to showcase the raw, unfiltered aspects of life without any elaborate setups or posed scenes. This approach can lead to some truly compelling images that tell stories, and good street photography should be able to evoke strong emotions in viewers. What makes street photography unique is its spontaneity; you never know what interesting moment you might stumble upon. Therefore, photographers need to be prepared to capture the scene in a split second. In conclusion, it’s about being present and ready to capture the authentic side of the world.