what is street photography

What is street photography?

Now there’s a question that people will have many different answers to.

it’s black and white, it’s colour, does it have to have people in it? I don’t think there is one answer to this question, there are many variables. Maybe a better question would be: What is street photography to you? what is it to me? I can answer what it is to me, you can make up your own minds what it is to you.

My thoughts are that it’s different things to different people.

As a definition it’s: Candid moments in daily life.

My focus is people, what they are doing and how they look and interact with others and their surroundings, so for me it has to be candid and most of the time it has a human element to it. If someone else sees it differently that’s fine and I have no argument with that. Not all my pictures are candid, sometimes people spot me and I usually get in there first before they can ask what I’m up to, I complement them on how they look and would it be ok to make a picture of them, most of the time I think they are surprised and agree to a picture. Some say no and I’m fine with that because after all, I was actually after a candid shot.

Most street photographers are looking for the same thing, someone walking into a great patch of light, hand gestures, standout characters who have their very own dress sense and don’t follow the crowd, we all like hats, umbrellas, for me it’s all those things, but most of all it’s being out there, witnessing life as it happens and being there with my camera to record it all, when I’m out with my camera I’m happy, I forget about my own daily routine of going to work, paying bills, and all the chores I should be doing at home. I forget about all that stuff when I’m on the street

It’s not easy, you can make lots of pictures, but making one that captures something special, that can be tough, and that’s the challenge, that’s why we all keep going out on the street, we’re all looking for that great image and some of us might just get lucky, and some of us wont, but, if you’re not out there you’ll never be lucky and you’ll never see anything.

So don’t listen to people who want to bog you down with a load of rules they think are right, just do your own thing, and if you call it street photography, that’s fine by me. If you’re passionate about what you do then you’ll make great pictures in the end. Don’t make pictures to please someone else, make them to please yourself.

If you make pictures to please someone else - that’s a job

If you make them to please yourself - that’s a passion