Did World Photography Day slip right past on Thursday without your noticing? Don’t worry: Street Photography Day is right on its heels: today, in fact – Sunday, August 22. Grab your Nikon or Olympus or iPhone and head on out the door to snap some impromptu action. Or settle in with these street photos by Portland photographer and frequent ArtsWatch contributor K.B. Dixon.
World Photography Day, on August 19 every year, has been around a long time and goes back to the root of things, marking the day in 1839 when the French government announced the invention of the daguerreotype, Louis Daguerre’s breakthrough development of the first widely available photographic process. Street Photography Day is more recent. It’s celebrated annually on the birthday of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the great French candid photographer, who was born in 1908 and lived into the 21st century, dying in 2004 at age 95. “To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart,” Cartier-Bresson famously said. “It’s a way of life.”
Dixon, who specializes in black & white photography and takes rigorously composed studio portraits of other artists, is proof of Cartier-Bresson’s words. Much of his best work comes from roaming the streets, at festivals and gatherings and just at random, looking for those moments when everything seems to come together. In honor of this year’s Street Photography Day he roamed through his files and assembled this portfolio. Enjoy.
– The Editors
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Sponsor
Chess Match, 2011
Jacket, 2018
Bicycles, 2016
Balloons, 2014
Nuns, 2018
Gyro House, 2014
Peculiarium, 2016
Sponsor
Line Up, 2018
Cold Brew, 2013
