Format Festival: Derby, Market Place.
March 4th – April 4th 2011
This Magnum exhibition Take to the streets, which is produced with Format International festival, the photography archive and other archival services, presents a selection of seven agencies social documentarists and celebrates the art of street photography. The exhibition is situated in Derby’s Market Place, which provides visitors to engage with the images by literally brining it to the streets. Unfortunately in recent years the rights for photographers to take pictures in and of the public has been questioned by society and frowned upon, due to this ‘phobia’ of being watched. As the number of people using a camera is growing in this digital age, which has caused citizen journalism to grow, which has made the job of the documentary photographer very hard.
Founded in 1947 as a collective and owned by its photography members. Documentary photography has seen huge changes over the past 60 years, in terms of purpose, however street photography still remains a major part of the work produced by Magnum photographers. Street photography’s subject is everyday life, such as people going about there daily routines, anything that interests you in the street or a public place. For a lot of people, Magnum’s founding father Henri Cartier-Bresson is considered to be the godfather of street photography and is famous for his ‘decisive moments’. This exhibition, brings photographer literally to the street, which is what unites the work.
