STREET PHOTOGRAPHS 1975

Street Photographs 1975-2000 – Home

Street Photographs 1975-2000 – Abroad

Sometimes in the beginning of 1970’s I watched a little confused on some Henry Cartier-Bressons book in the Tampere City Library. When very ordinary things on street were photographed, they appeared to change into something else. All photo enthusiasts know that the secret is so called decisive moment. At its best, we can speak about some kind of magic of the moment. Anyway the moment is very important in the photograph even if there were not any special magic or mystery in it.

I came back to the problems of the photographical moment in my first exhibition Instances and Eternities in the Photographic Museum of Finland in 1983 and later in my doctoral thesis Transparentti media (Transparent Media) in 2011 when speaking about the modern period of photography.

It is a pity that a part of the charm of the street photography is lost within the rise of digitalization. The reason is that a digital photo is so easy to chance afterwards. We cannot rely on the fact that the moment is a real. Earlier on the time of film there were solid and broadly accepted believe to the authenticity of photograph.

Maybe I was one of those who inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson photos during the 1970 ‘s. Anyway I have now collected together about 150 b&w street photographs from the years 1975-2000. Besides of the typical short moment of street photography those pictures seems many times reflect more the time they were shoot and which will not come back any more.