As my street project is going to involve a lot of street portraits I wanted to have a look at a few examples of this. I found photographer Phil Penman who has taken a number of extremely interesting portraits in the street. I like the way the backgrounds reflect the person and that its clear to the viewer in each image that they almost belong in these spaces. Id like to show that in my project using the same technique as i'm looking at how these street locations can have a completely different meaning to skateboarders.
The first image that caught my attention was a group shot of seven different skateboarders at a skatepark in New York. there is a lot going on in this image which I think works well for this crop, on the left you someone riding towards a ledge, there is a person doing a trick off of that ledge who is being filmed by the person on his right, who is on the inside on the right third. right at the edge of the frame you see someone watching this happen. I really like how balanced the image is and I think an image like this would work well for my project as it is an effective way of showing how many people are using a spot as well as showing clearly the environment they are in. Penman has used a wide angle lens and a mid range aperture around f/8, I think this due to all the people being sharp yet the background being slightly softer. The scene is lit using bright sunlight which casts nice shadows across the ground. This would be my ideal weather conditions to shoot my project in however due to the weather I may have to incorporate flash to get the same punchiness as in this image.
The next image of Penman's that caught my eye was a street portrait of a 'New Yorker' in Washington square. The image shows a young man posing for the camera standing next to a large speaker/ cassette player. There are terraced houses in the background which act as strong leading lines in the image and to create separation between the man and the background Penman has shot with a very shallow depth of field. What I like about this image is how at home the man seems, he looks comfortable and natural like he belongs there. This works well as a street portrait because of this as well as being an interesting character . I like that he his standing next to something, it shows the viewer a little extra detail about this mans life and personality which can help create a really interesting street portrait. When I go and shoot street portraits for my project I will be looking at the things people are wearing/holding as well as looking at who looks and seems like they belong there.
The next image I looked at for a similar reason, I think it is another effective street portrait and I really like how genuine it feels. The image is of a man dressed in baggy clothes holding a trumpet, he is stood against a wooden board with some graffiti on it. There is a natural flow in the image leading your eye from the mans head down the trumpet and to the sticker of the child below him. The man is lent against the wall with one foot turned up towards the camera and he is looking away from the lens, I like how this shows us a lot about the mans personality. Overall the image is clean and simple and although there isn't a lot of information about where this person is I like that I get a good sense of who he is which is another element i'm going to try bring into my project.
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