STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

I was asked, recently, about the reference to "Street Photographer" in my bio on Facebook.

To me, this represents a particular aspect of photography, particularly Travel photography. It's much more a candid sort of work rather than posed shots or shots which have been carefully considered and made. Lined up to a specific angle before the shutter is triggered.

With street photography the world becomes a series of patterns and cues, of events which must be observed then caught at a moment in time that essentially tells a story.

I teach this in my Travel Photography classes. That while some travel photography is, of course, capturing someone's presence, and perhaps the face or actions of an adventure, or maybe a static shot of a monument or geographic feature, some other and equally interesting images are those which are essential "Street Photography". Capturing life as it happens.

Britannica.com describes it as "a genre that records everyday life in a public place." 

One of the masters of the genre is Henri Cartier-Bresson , who dragged his trusty Leica and heavy gear into the streets of the city and recorded life as he saw it. I commend his work to you on this page. He put it, much poetically, this way:

Accordingly, this quote is what changed my, ahem, focus as a photographer, away from taking static travel shots and towards attempts to capture places and people as I find them.