FIAT BAMBINO CAR

I finally got started making pictures on the streets of Sydenham during the day. Having only recently returned to the UK after some time in New York, I'm wary of the paranoia in this country and this city in particular about people with cameras. However, I'm compelled to do this work and uphold a tradition I think is most valuable to humankind.
© PAUL TREACY 2009. ALL RIGHTS RESRVED.

Street photography provides a valuable anthropological record of how we live and of the era in which we live. Imagine at the end of this century, or even deeper into the future, how informative the street photography of today would be to the viewers of tomorrow? They'd get a sense of our fashions, our technology and the urban environment and much more besides. Just as we get a sense of how life was lived decades past from the street photography of yesteryear.

Street photography, I think, as do many of us street shooters, tells of urban living in a way that news broadcasts, or entertainment such as tv dramas, just cannot. It's hardcore. It's fact. It's often whimsical. It can often be entirely delightful but it can also be painful.

Given that we live in an open democracy I think the police and the general public should lighten up on photographers, pro or am and just let us get on with recording our era.

For my part I'll be making a record of our lovely little patch of earth here in Sydenham.

Thanks for visiting.

photo@paultreacy.com
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