sidewalk photographs

Calgary 1945. There used to be sidewalk photographers with big box cameras on tripods that would take pictures of people walking towards them.  They'd take the picture and then leap out at you with a little chit that the next day you took to whatever photographer's studio or camera store it was to pick up the print.  I remember them in Victoria when I was very little.  We never picked up the pictures, but the previous generation did, especially during the war.

I think they are wonderful and wish it still happened.  One holds one's face and body differently out shopping with your mother than you do standing still posing for a picture taken by your brother, or husband, or sister.  This one, Calgary 1945, shows a gaily defiant hat, lovely open-toed shoes despite it being winter, great coats, gloves carried elegantly in one hand, a slight aversion to being photographed on the left, a pleased-to-be-caught look on the right. 

This was a time when people dressed up to go downtown, the street was a stage, as it still is on European pavements.  These photographs show a situation where the subjects aren't entirely in control of when the photo will be taken, but they are half-prepared.  I think that today no one really feels that anyone is looking at them, so it is okay to dash about in jeans and sweaters and running shoes.  Streets here are a kind of zone of anonymity where not much matters.  Certainly no one will  invade your privacy by taking a photo of you.  Our loss I think.

Comments

[stephanie]

I unaccountably lost one of the comments on this post, and god knows, we hardly get any, so as the comment originally came in the form of an email, and then someone else commented on the email, I reconstruct it here:

When I was young in the years after the war these photographers were everywhere at the seaside resorts.  The resulting pix were at the shop on the end of the pier by 6 o'clock every evening and you went along and bought them if you liked the look of yourself, or didn't if you didn't.  We mostly bought all of ours and I have loads of them - me on the beach, all of us on the esplanade, etc etc.  I wish they'd do it now.
Chris

About seaside photographers and their striped blazers: clearly in England, as we don't have seasides here.  We have beaches.
s

All these words eh? In Ireland they talk about strolling along the strand, and guess what the word for beach is in Norwegian; "strand" ! Interesting; must be those damned Vikings again!
 
There's an entire culture attached to "seaside" in Britain. I involves strolling along the promenade, beach-huts, deck chairs, Punch and Judy shows, donkey rides, various forms of entertainment on the famous Piers and yes, photographers for holiday snaps. That's how it was when I was a kid, and still is in places like Blackpool.
 
Michael