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- No rules street photography -
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NO RULES Street photography (I.e. non-photography)
From the bent and twisted mind of
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This book is published in conjunction with the non photography website at www.nonphotography.com Pictures in this book were taken by me [Nitsa] in New York Los Angeles San Francisco Boston Austin San Antonio and Santa Barbara. Clever portions of text were written by me. More books by Nitsa www.nonphotography.com/books.html OR AT www.lulu.com/Nitsa
Credits David Morgan - Text Proofing George Kleiman Photo Editorial Advice (So if there’ s anything wrong with the text or the choice of photos please contact them as you can see I have nothing to do with it) Front cover design – Noa and Sivan. Back cover design - Amit. Special thanks (and lots of love) to Nahom0 Noa0 Sivan and Amit. Also many thanks to everybody I know and everyone else as well.
(Beautiful) photos, (smart) t e x t and (fantastic) design by
©2000-2007 www.nonphotography.com First edition June 2006 Redesigned & reformatted second edition March 2007
Printed by Lulu.com 2006-2007
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Introduction
Important.
Read this. Now. Or else.
Ok, this is not re lly n introduction; I just w nted to m ke sure you re d it. Sorry bout th t.
Although this wonderful book de ls distinctively with photogr phy, m inly, street photogr phy, the ide s in this f nt stic book c n be e sily pplied to every re in your life where rule c n be b ndone d.
And also‌ In no w y sh pe or form re the purpose of this book nd/or the existence of nonnon-photogr phy to introduce yet nother useless outr geously unconvention l, r dic l, v nt v nt-g rde ide out there.
The purpose of non-p is to free nybody who’s interested in the cre tive side of life from ny unnecess ry restrictions nd bound ries.
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Are you still h ere?
Th en you must be s eri ousl y c onsi derin g ph ot ogr aphin g with out th e rul es, an d sinc er el y in t erest ed in expl or in g n ew avenu es. .. or i s it th at you ar e intri gu ed t o f ind out how a book about n on-s om ethin g will devel op? or m aybe you sim pl y h ave n othin g bett er t o read at th e m om ent Eith er w ay . . .
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Littl e It al y, M anh att an 7
[End of day] New York City
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Contents
Non photography? -----------------------------------------------------------9 The science of photography ---------------------------------- 16 The history of rules ------------------------------------------ 21 Abandoning the rules ---------------------------------------- 26 Deep simplicity ---------------------------------------------- 27 Recipe: non(fat) photograph---------------------------------- 28 What about me? ----------------------------------------------------------- 31 Accidental work ------------------------------------------ 32-35 Stuff ----------------------------------------------------- 36-39 An interview with Nitsa ----------------------------------- 40-41 More stuff ------------------------------------------------ 42-46 How?
------------------------------------------------------------- 47 The challenges of street photography ---------------------- 48-57 How’s the weather? --------------------------------------- 80-64 When the night comes down ------------------------------ 66-67 What about color ----------------------------------------- 69-71 Alternatives in street photography ------------------------- 72-82
Why not?
------------------------------------------------------------- 86 Street photography?--------------------------------------- 87-88 2 more things ------------------------------------------------ 93 Dear Nitsa--------------------------------------------------- 94 Entries from the photo-blog------------------------------- 95-98 What are they saying? ------------------------------------99-101 About ------------------------------------------------------ 104
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At some point in time During the human evolution Man had put
R u l e s
Upon photography
[Downtown S n Fr ncisco]
Can you live without the rules? 10
nonphotography? 11
Lower
12
Manhattan
T r c I n R t A E H c s I
h u o n a e o l x e o c f
i l m s t a
s e p t u d s th ce r mp en b
p . s a a h a u l a l s e
ho C it d, l er p gh en ll li a ak
right.
"
s o e r n o l g e e r
togr reat ion, thi sett man a "n she cy," ery ng, re s ing
aph ive fr s l ing ife oncl he of and tun the
y
sit phot aming ens w s as sto o photo aims r pho "fall the ning. rule
e o , o s n . t t
b gr l ma he " " o os in bla s
reaks all apher Nit enses, or n looks t sees the No Rules,
t sa f o m. "
her
recipe
take pict are, in New York ck and wh
ures with "no re fact, quite exce " is particularl ite shots of str
gard to llent. y eet
is
wrong,
we
he co does ilter simpl and
nventional n't worry about s. y capture
follow
don't
want
to
be
Yahoo! Picks April 2002
Non-p hotograp hy is a delig htful abandonment of the customary
ru les
of photography. It is the exercising of the right to a
WorryWorry - free
, Non- pologetic
picture making while u nconce rne d at th e standard de fi ni ti on of Excellency. It is ab out making p ictures while b ein g free of the typ ical p hotog rap her's extra ca rg o of filters, styli sh len ses a n d other exp en sive eq uip men t. 13
Westwood
T h e
n o n - p h o t o g r p h e r ' s
r e
Enthusiasm
n
m i n
open mind
Village
t o o l s nd
h o p e fu l l y s o m e C R EA TIV I TY . Non-p h s no use for the usu l photographer's accessories (too he vy) instruction books (too boring) calculations (too c lcul ted) And
best
need for
of ll there's no re son ble
pre-planning
scene.
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or
staging
the
{ Non-photography rules! }
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Rules Rules
Rules
.............
Texas nights (6TH Street, Austin)
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Rules Rules Rules Seems like from the beginning of time, even before NiĂŠpce produced the first photographic image, many artists chose to follow the same politically correct path, forming the rules of arts, reaching a mutual understanding of what is and pleasing to our delicate eye and without offending any known scientific law.
ideal
Subw y st tion, New York 2005
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The science (art?) of photography As it is, photogr phy is highly
technical.
One better know ll bout the qu lity of light,
texture, SHADE, reflection, brig ht ne ss
and
TONE.
It is very
perspective, p i c t u r e , refraction,
import nt to underst nd the the aspect
ratio of a
composition
and the best
the point of interest.
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position
for
Let’s not forget the existence of implicit
lines,
the
shapes, and
patterns. nd this is before even going into the
rule of thirds, the mount of
light,
the
depth of
focusing, film's
sensitivity, the science m o t i o n , optics of lenses,
of
color,
d i s t n c e
from the subject, pl cement of other essenti l
b l nce
objects in the fr me,
the
the two,
exposure,
contr st,
the desired
depth of field‌
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between