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Unique black & white decisive moment/documentary photographs of life in Worcester, Massachusetts. (1969-1981) Hometown of Robert Goddard, Abbie Hoffman and Denis Leary. Included are classic images from various locations throughout the United States... By Robert M Johnson

-- Robert M Johnson (fullframeimages@hotmail.com), June 03, 2001

Answers

Nice images... It could just be my computer screen, older lenses, {or dirty UV filters :)} but the images don't seem to have the normal Leica "pop" to them.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), June 03, 2001.

Viewing website images on a monitor is hardly a reliable way to compare optics...way too many variables besides the lenses. Only with a side-by-side shootout with all variables kept as identical as possible, louping the negs or transparencies, could you say for 100% certain that any differences you see are definitely lens-related.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), June 03, 2001.

I see two meanings for "Leica like." One is the physical quality of the image produced by the optics. MTF, resolution, contrast, etc. Leica is justly renouned for its high optical quality. The other is a style which has evolved over the years in the work of photographers who have used Leicas. HCB, Eugene Wright, Salgado, (one I recently discovered and recommend is Antonio Turok; see his amazing images from Chiapas http://zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/turok/p1en.html). This style is typically black and white, photojournalistic, documentary. It is an outward looking vision, making the viewer feel engaged in the world, as was the photographer in creating the photograph. I think this style is what Robert Johnson refers to. But photographers can have this style, and use any quality brand of camera. Danny Lyon and Steve McCurry shoot with Nikons, but if I didn't know that, you could have told me they used Leicas, and I wouldn't argue. Thanks for the post, Mr. Johnson, I enjoyed the images, and agree they have Leica style.

-- Phil Stiles (Stiles@s-way.com), June 03, 2001.

Good URL. Boring pictures.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), June 03, 2001.

Leave it to Bill to speak his mind here. I wasn't going to leave a comment, because I am no expert on this type of photography. I have to say with all due respect, that these types of images in general don't really get me that jazzed. I think it is pretty hard to make day to day photos of people doing their normal city "routine" that exciting. I've seen some of the works of the masters of this style, and they are at times able to catch some fleeting moments that have a timelessness to them for some reason. Mostly what I see, however, is strangers mulling about in some city somewhere looking bored. Can someone fill me in here?

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 03, 2001.

Try a leica!...what you are doing in photography can be enanced with a rangefinder camera, the SLRs tend to focus your visual atention to the center of the frame, with a rangefinder you are actualy seeing the all format and more, an important thing for the kind of photography you´re tring to do, look at your pictures, you´re usualy too far, and you hardly play with the all frame, so what´s the point in showing it all, try a rangefinder no matter if it is not a leica.

I ask you how many frames do you do for the average of the pictures we see here?, probably very few, that´s because you don´t see what you´re getting with a SLR, with a RF you see what you got.

I like the picture of the dogs, great moment, edition is important.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), June 04, 2001.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I came very close to buying an M6 years ago but I ended up with a Nikon f2s. I wear glasses and I never felt right with a rangefinder type camera. I was referring more to style in my question. Web images do stink. A real print is the only way to fully grasp the impact of a photograph!

The site will be in the Web Profiles section of Shutterbug Magazine in September.

-- Robert M Johnson (fullframeimages@hotmail.com), June 04, 2001.

Bill Mitchel,

Bill, You said you think my photos are boring, funny you said the same thing about my last site! :) (just before it made the top ten list @ B& W World) Remember we exchanged photos? You sent one of a beggar from Mexico I think!? I sent you the photo... http://www.fullframeimages.com/ffi44.html that one you did seem to like. When I added that photo to this site I thought of you!! :) Anyway, I will always remember that you can't please everyone, even if you do show 51 images at a time!! :)

Thanks for keeping me on my toes!! :)

Bob J

-- Robert M Johnson (fullframeimages@hotmail.com), June 04, 2001.

Mr. Johnson, you have my apology for a sharp tongue and limited perspective. Perhaps I was hasty to characterize the entire presentation as boring. I am not at all adverse to reviewing my evaluation in hopes of changing my opinion. You have, in fact, shown several very nice images: I particularly like A-5,B-5,C-2,E-4,F-3,G- 5,H-3,and I-4. That's eight out of fifty, a very respectible percentage. I thank you very much for (appropiately) calling me down for unfairly criticising the entire lot. Your URL is a real pleasure to use, and I do look forward to seeing more of your work. Regards,

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), June 04, 2001.

I actually do like the dog shot quite a bit. I'm was serious in my post above. Can someone explain to me what exactly it is that excites them about "street photos" like the ones at Robert's site? I don't aim to come off as judgemental in any way--I am just honestly curious. I see this type of work a lot on the web, especially from places like India. Funny enough, the stuff from India seems more interesting to me, probably because what you'd find on "the street" there it is not the same as what I see here in the US. I wonder if people from a village in India would find big city US street scenes more interesting than ones from their home town.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 05, 2001.

Andrew

I share some of your scepticism: there is too much street photography that is just not interesting to me - as others have said the decisive moment is the important thing, or there is also the extraordinary face/clothes or juxtapositions that work. Another boring shot of John Doe on the street is not interesting. But, even here, after a while one begins to see that some of the appeal is simply forcing us to look at everyday life anew which even dullish shots do. This can be intriguing and make us aware of possibilities even if the photos themselves individually are not masterworks. This is why collections of street photos usually work better than single shots.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), June 05, 2001.

I like to see street photography, though I can count on the fingers of one hand the memorable ones. Let's see. Eisenstadt's shot of the the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on V-J day. I think it was V-J day. HCB, but no one single shot comes to mind. Elliot Erwit. I love the humor, the irony, in his stuff. The human feet and dog paws on the pavement. The pelican (or whatever bird it was) and the water pipe echoing the bird's shape. OK, that one was pier photography. You should have seen the one I almost got last year of a couple guys dressed in costumes, as they were coming down the street. I cut their heads off, though. I was trying to surreptitiously aim the camera without looking through the finder, from chest level. It didn't work.

There has to be something special about the shot. Two people eyeing each other suspiciously in the marriage license office. Who took that? Or some absurdity. Someone making eye contact withe camera, not afraid. But just people being people, or natives being native? They're less memorable.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), June 05, 2001.

Its funny, because I've been thinking about this since this post, and noticing things I don't usually notice. Today I saw 2 girls, sisters I would guess, on scooters. One of them was a very "big" girl and dwarfed the scooter she was riding . The younger one had a look on her face as she watched the heavy set girl going by on her scooter that was hilarious. If I had my camera on me, I would have taken a shot. The image of those girls stuck in my mind for the rest of the day. OK, I guess I'm starting to understand better what the attraction is for this type of work.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 05, 2001.