German Street Photography?

[h.v.]

I was wondering if there were any established street photographers from Germany, you know, the kind that tends to have books published and whatnot? Likewise, are there any established American, British, French, or Japanese street photographers who have work from Germany?

While it's cool seeing all sorts of talent photographing London, Chicago, Paris, Vancouver, NYC, Tokyo, Moscow, Rome, and Paris, it struck me as strange that I could never find anything aside from amateurs (where there is some damn good stuff out there) and people popular almost exclusively on the net from Europe's largest country in population (west of Russia). Why isn't there an Elliott Erwitt: Berlin or the like? I know there is also a handful of well established street photographers who were born in Germany or Austria, but ended up moving to the U.S. or the U.K. and establishing their career after moving, but what about street photographers in Germany?

I would also be more than happy to learn of established street photographers that have either visited or live in Scandinavia, Austria, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, and the Czech Republic.

Thanks!

[julhu]

Because you need to get a permission (preferable a written one, but an oral agreement would do too) by the person pictured if you want to publish the pictures. If you do not ask you are only allowed to use the pictures privatly. If you plan to exhibit them you need to have a permission (that includes books, exhibits and any kind of internet presentation) and people usually do not like to sign stuff on the streets .

Yes I take pictures of people in the streets and no I do not ask them for permission (usually) but I do not have any exhibitions (except online) .

[Mike Crawford]

You should have a look out for René Burri's book 'Die Deutschen' which originally was meant to be part of a series following Robert Frank's 'The Americans.'
http://www.magnumphotos.com/c.aspx?V...d=2TYRYD1E5TOV

OK, Rene is Swiss, but a really good book on Germany.

Also, two friends from Cologne were featured in the recent 'Street Photography Now' book and both do great work.
http://www.wolfgangzurborn.de/
http://lezmi.de/

[h.v.]

Julhu: Tell that to Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, etc. Street photography is not commercial photography, therefore the subjects can be published without permission as long as the purpose of it is art, even if you can gain financially from it. Just the same as taking a picture of a building or a bird. Do you need to go up to either and ask? Nope. Same thing. Or is Germany archaic like Quebec in this regard? That isn't something I'd expect from Germany.

Mike: Thanks. Some of those were really good! No problem the photographer was Swiss, as I said it could be an outsider photographing German streetlife. And Switzerland was one of the places at the end I also mentioned.

[julhu]

h.v.: I think german law is a bit different there. Commercial photography is everything you make money from and if you make money with street photography than that would be commercial. That would explain why there are not as many street photos around from Germany as e.g. from New York.
But as long as people do not sue you, you are fine and I guess most of them would not be bothered if pictured.

[h.v.]

Any other photographers anyone can think of?

[frotog]

Beat Streuli. Maybe not a retread of the mid-twentieth cent. compositions, motifs and techniques that most people associate with the label "street photographer" but a street photog. nonetheless.

[Gadfly_71]

Except that;

a) Beat Streuli is Swiss, not German.

And

b) I don't think that he's ever done much (if any) street photography in Germany.

I'm pretty sure that "traditional" street photography is nearly impossible in Germany due to rigorous privacy laws. I suppose you could do it, but you'd need to have a model release ready for each person that can be clearly seen in each photo you take. That said, I believe most German practitioners either shoot outside Germany or never show/sell their work.

[h.v.]

I'll definitely check out Streuli (name sounds familiar), thanks. Again, Swiss photography is cool, as I haven't really seen any published work from their either (or any of the locations I stated in the first post). That sucks that there are such harsh street photography laws in Germany, out of curiousity, are there any other European countries like that? I guess I'll mostly be sticking to the German street photography I can find on the web, of which there is a lot of high quality stuff, I'm guessing these photographers are exempt from the law because it isn't published or they're just not following the law or don't know it.

Edit:

Ah yes, upon searching Streuli on Google, I found out that I had seen his work before, in fact it was mentioned in here for the less accepted method of using a telephoto lens which caused a lot of his photos to turn out kind of uninteresting.

[David Allen]

There is plenty of life in street photography in Germany.

Here are just a few links:

www.reister-images.de

www.blog61.com

www.seconds2real.com

http://www.street-photography-hambur...ried-hansen.de

www.juergenbuergin.com

Best,

David

www.dsallen.de