The Original Street Photographer

Those shots are excellent, thanks for the link Andy
:thumbs:
 
They all looks so worn down and tired - we have it so easy today.
 
Just love shots like these......I could do with some period dress for when out shooting with seriously old camera kit in order to look the part you understand :D

The poor fella in shot 4 has one h**l of a leg length difference!
 
Those are fantastic, both photographically and socially. From the blurb, they were taken quite shortly after Dickens' time. A true insight into his characters, almost.
 
Hi, Those shots are what street photography is all about. It is street photography at it's very best, thanks for the link.
 
No probs guys, it is a remarable piece of social history and the guy was obviously a talented tog.
 
Looks like he may have just dropped one.....
 
love them, great link :) Particular fave is the shot of some dapper chap climing onto a wagon with possibly the best hat ever.

But street photography or portraiture? These all had to be posed surely due to the shutter speed limitations of cameras back then. Isn't street photography more candid, a spur of the moment thing?
 
essexash said:
But street photography or portraiture? These all had to be posed surely due to the shutter speed limitations of cameras back then. Isn't street photography more candid, a spur of the moment thing?
Click to expand...

I was thinking about this too.

It might not be considered street photography in the strictest, modern sense, but I imagine it's as close as you could get in those times.

Anyone know how long the exposures would have been for shots like these? How fast were the lenses in this period?
 
Andy, great find, some fascinating shots and a window into a previous time!
 
Andy,

That is a great find, it did make me feel a little sad that such difficulties were experienced by people such a short while ago, it makes me feel that I and we perhaps are so lucky to live in this and the last century, never the less great historical photography.
 
Thanks for posting this. I'm interested in history and I love old photographs, showing what life was really like. They're not candids in the modern sense, but about as close as we're going to get.

The dates (1870s) place the photographs about 30 years after Dickens was writing at his peak. Many things hadn't changed, but some were changing quickly with social and legal reforms coming in. Dickens lived through the last years of the Bloody Code, and these photographs were taken just a few years after the last public hanging in England, in front of a jubilant crowd outside Newgate in 1868. The Old Bailey now stands where the prison was.
 
wow...thanks for the link.

Absolutely love looking at old photos.

And as Martyn points out, they have a real Dickension feel to them, albiet a few years later.

Great stuff
 
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