Street Photography In America

The love and fascination for street photography stems from the veracity of the genre. Street photography is romanticized as a photographer who roams the cities and takes snapshots of the everyday interactions and situations. The result of this quest, is a compilation of honest documents that hold growing importance over time. This adventure however, no longer fully captures the sole expression of street photography. As the medium of photography shifted from document to the fine art, the genre of street photography was also innovated. Philip diCorcia and Richard Renaldi both exemplify the innovations in street photography. They each control the image in order to put forth a critique on the urban space. In general, both artists explore the alienation and loneliness in the urban space. Specifically, diCorcia utilizes mise-en-scene in order to create a very dramatic, cinema-like image that comments on the disparities between groups like gender, class, and race. In a similar fashion, Renaldi uses collaboration (directing his subjects to touch) which reveal genuine reactions and emotions that comment on the …show more content…
The image is very cinematic. There is stasis and room for movement. The subjects have an absorptive expression. His image almost looks staged. However, the only construction behind this scene involves a strobe light that is placed atop of the street. As real people walk under the light, diCorcia takes an image. They are not aware they are being photographed, which gives them an absorptive expression and the image punctum. In this image, his focus in on the real interactions exchanged within the different groups of people (gender and class) that are seen in the image. His image of this busy street, fully captures the emotions of some individuals in their own minds and other minor exchanged emotions-- hence commenting of the alienation of urban