Beyond hope.

Yiddish sang is full of marvelous putdowns, one of the finer ones being ‘Dreck’. This most onomatopoeic of nouns describes something so awful that it is beyond redemption. A good, not-too-recent example was this simply awful book of photographs, now mercifully out of print. It remains the only picture book I have placed in the trash. This was true dreck.

But intent on refining the genre, The Guardian has published an article so poorly written, its author so ill informed about street photography, that it’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry. It gets worse when you look at the accompanying images which redefine dreck. And the merde on this cake is disclosed when you realize this snapper lives in Paris, a city in which it is almost impossible to take a bad street picture.

Now in our modern world it is the done thing to encourage support and mentoring, two movements which have done more to excuse mediocrity than any I can think of. When something is awful, tell the author to cease and desist, don’t encourage production of more. Tough love goes further than fake sweetness.

The world of street photography took a downward turn when this snapper got hold of a camera. She should stick to cooking, though if that is half as bad as her photography I fancy I would opt for McDonald’s, which would be a first in the last three decades.

Not dreck. Timing, composition, humor – what makes a great street snap.
Panny G1, 9-18mm MFT Oly zoom.

Even better. A picture that tells a story and is timed to perfection.
Panny G1, kit zoom.

Both images snapped in San Francisco’s glorious Mission District in 2011, before the Googlites chased away the decent people who once called it home.

Paris done right, 1976. From the Louvre before I. M. Pei’s execrable pyramid was erected.
Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, TriX, D76.