"Why do some photographers go to the street, and other photographers go to a studio?" asks photographer Joel Meyerowitz in the opening scenes of Cheryl Dunn's Everybody Street documentary. In her film, Dunn––a photographer and director who has been lensing the underground scene since the 1990s––finds out by conversing New York street photography legends like Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, Jill Freedman, Bruce Gilden, Joel Meyerowitz, Rebecca Lepkoff, Mary Ellen Mark, Jeff Mermelstein, Clayton Patterson, Ricky Powell, Jamel Shabazz, and Martha Cooper. Below, Dunn and I chat about her start as a fashion photographer in Europe, what it means to chase reality with a camera, and more. Plus, check out a bonus interview from the film, in which photographer Martha Cooper talks about shooting graffiti back in the day in NYC.
Everybody Street is screening this week in Miami and LA | Visit EVERYBODYSTREET.COM for more information.
Sofia Cavallo: I'm interested in how you got your start as a photographer. You followed your boyfriend to Milan, who moved there to become a model, after you graduated from college to do fashion photography. How did you make the switch from capturing aspirational fashion imagery to documentary-style street photography? Do you approach your subjects differently for both?
Cheryl Dunn: After college I started working in fashion. The office setting did not really suit me and I just wanted to be out in the world, but had no frame of reference for how I could make a living.
When he moved to Milan to pursue modeling, I got two more jobs, worked day and night for months, sublet my apartment, and moved to Europe. He left two months after I got there and I stayed. I occasionally shot test shots for model's portfolios, and I also was the subject for other photographers. It was a really amazing time for fashion magazines like Italian Vogue, Per Lui, and Lei. Peter Lindbergh was putting giant eyebrows––just black bars––over every model's eyes. [My friends and I] would just take trains and explore crazy locations and create shots, making clothes out of whatever we had. What we could access for free was the streets. And being in a foreign place and having no way to communicate with language, your observational skills became super keen.
I stayed in Europe alone for two years, first in Milan then Barcelona. I would sometimes not talk to anyone for weeks. Never utter a word. All I did was walk in the streets for hours, go to museums, and shoot pictures. I was always inspired by location. For my fashion pictures, I would find or set up an unusual scene or set of circumstances, put the model in it, and let things organically unfold. If you stand on the street and just watch, crazy things pass by your eyes. If you stand on the street with a beautiful model and just wait, watch what happens. It's pretty great. So I think my approaches are quite similar.
Everybody Street is screening this week in Miami and LA | Visit EVERYBODYSTREET.COM for more information.
Sofia Cavallo: I'm interested in how you got your start as a photographer. You followed your boyfriend to Milan, who moved there to become a model, after you graduated from college to do fashion photography. How did you make the switch from capturing aspirational fashion imagery to documentary-style street photography? Do you approach your subjects differently for both?
Cheryl Dunn: After college I started working in fashion. The office setting did not really suit me and I just wanted to be out in the world, but had no frame of reference for how I could make a living.
When he moved to Milan to pursue modeling, I got two more jobs, worked day and night for months, sublet my apartment, and moved to Europe. He left two months after I got there and I stayed. I occasionally shot test shots for model's portfolios, and I also was the subject for other photographers. It was a really amazing time for fashion magazines like Italian Vogue, Per Lui, and Lei. Peter Lindbergh was putting giant eyebrows––just black bars––over every model's eyes. [My friends and I] would just take trains and explore crazy locations and create shots, making clothes out of whatever we had. What we could access for free was the streets. And being in a foreign place and having no way to communicate with language, your observational skills became super keen.
I stayed in Europe alone for two years, first in Milan then Barcelona. I would sometimes not talk to anyone for weeks. Never utter a word. All I did was walk in the streets for hours, go to museums, and shoot pictures. I was always inspired by location. For my fashion pictures, I would find or set up an unusual scene or set of circumstances, put the model in it, and let things organically unfold. If you stand on the street and just watch, crazy things pass by your eyes. If you stand on the street with a beautiful model and just wait, watch what happens. It's pretty great. So I think my approaches are quite similar.
The film begins with a short meditation on street photographers versus studio photographers. Do you think that photographers chasing reality are more optimists than pessimists, or vice versa?
I would say they're more optimistic; why would they keep going out like that, day in and day out, with the hope of capturing something magical, informative, or profound? You can't will something to appear before your eyes, you just have to believe. That is what optimism is.
What about a certain moment in life makes it a perfect moment to capture for you? If there's one thing your photos need to say, what would that be?
I would say I like my pictures to present a question. S