USA |  www.joevotanophotography.com

Joseph Votano is an avid photographer whose principal areas of interest are fine art, architectural and documentary photography. He has received numerous photography awards in both monochromatic and color imagery and has several solo exhibitions of his work here and abroad. His images have been published in Prestige Travel Hong Kong, Michelin Travel Guide, Aishti magazine (Middle East) and in Boston.com (a Boston magazine). He has had four books published by Schiffer Publishing: the widely acclaimed Boston Below co-authored with Karen Hosking about the Boston subway system; the Shaker Legacies, a photo-documentary which covers the development of Shakerism in the USA principally in Massachusetts and New York; and recently the Ever Changing Coastline and the Timeless Seashore. The latter two books are a combination of fine art and scenic photography coupled with aesthetics. His philosophy, when it comes to photography, is to take the shot with a vision in mind and then attempt to make the post-processed image evoke the emotion and thinking present when the shutter was clicked. He hopes some similar emotions and feelings arise in the viewer as well.

EXPOSIÇÃO: STREET PERFORMERS

Street performance or busking as the Brits like to say is the act of performing in public places for rewards: money, food, drink, or gifts. The performers or buskers provide entertainment that people enjoy such as folk tunes, dancing, puppeteering, multi-man acrobatics, street art such as sketching and painting, mimes (living statues), one man bands and musical performances by groups.

Here we capture such performers in Boston, New York City, London, Paris, Rome and Florence. Street performing dates back to antiquity. Laws affecting performers were first recorded in ancient Rome in 462 BC. It was called the Law of Twelve Tables – a penalty of death if a performer sang parodies about government or its officials. It sounds familiar.

In the USA, it is surprising who some of these performers/buskers were. Benjamin Franklin sang at age seven in the streets of Philadelphia, Irving Berlin and George Burns, as youngsters, sang in the pubs of the Lower East Side in New York; Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie performed as singers in the subways of NYC. Later in the 1960s, performers such as Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead played to crowds in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to earn money where a hat was passed around. In the United States and many other countries there are designated public places where free speech can be practiced. They are public parks, streets, sidewalks and town squares or plazas where street performing or busking is conducted. All the images presented here in “Street Performers” were taken in such places.