What's interesting about a street photograph is that it carries a moment from the past into the present. We're looking at a time capsule of the way things were. Here I am in Sydney with two fellow photographers Simone Cheung and Simon Ross capturing that time capsule of Sydney life in the Autumn of 2018. I recall imagining with Simone how our photos today would be regarded in 30 years time. People staring at smart phones, dogs in Apple stores, street art in Martin Place, the architecture of buildings, playing chess in a park.
Scenes of our ordinary life. The kind of pictures that Joel Meyerowitz had been moving towards in order to give up the typical Cartier-Bresson "decisive moment" that usually drove his pictures, where the action is in the centre of the frame and the background is irrelevant. "After doing that kind of picture for 10 years, I felt I needed to open myself up to the more dynamic and expressive potential of street life. I called these 'field photographs'."
Meyerowitz slowed down and made more use of the street corner. This concept is what drove Simon to get us together and see what we could capture On The Corners of Sydney.
(Words courtesy of The Guardian 4th June 2005)
