Constructing the view means get the feel of being a street photographer
Street Photography is about capturing those fleeting moments in life, and often this translates into a decidedly different research compared to what we mean by traditional photography.
Woman - Mexico City, 2022
Woman - Mexico City, 2022
When in doubt, click as Garry Winogrand stated. This is not just a mission statement and advice to other photographers. Because it illustrates a mental approach that defines the snapshot.
In the two sequential shots you see above it can be understood that what I wanted to make evident is the different perception that is obtained from the difference in distance from the subject. I did it absolutely with this intent and also thinking that I would write about it on this blog.
Street photography is not about depicting societies problems. And it is not even sharing a social message. Street Photography is about showing the beauty of humanity. We street photographers are the poets of documentary photography. Because it is part of documentary photography but not in a sense of a photojournalist. The two photos proposed have no value from a journalistic point of view but have it as street photos.
Walking Man - Mexico City, 2022
Street Photography is a much nobler genre than they have tried to make us believe. And for this reason many mistakenly take it as a game.
Street photography is about offering a portrait of humanity with no filters, except those of the photographer's vision. As street photographers we are responding only to ourselves and not respecting some editorial policies or guidelines by a client. Street Photography speaks us of inhabitants of the streets, their reactions, their gestures, their expressions, their interactions, their energy.
To convey the energy, power and life of the street is the main goal of Street Photography.
No excuses - Mexico City, 2022
Although the camera is an observation station, On Photography the act of photographing is more than passive observing. Like sexual voyeurism, it is a way of at least tacitly, often explicitly, encouraging whatever is going on to keep on happening. To take a picture is to have an interest in things as they are… - Susan Sontag “On Photography”
The same approach of the street photographer is really alternative to other types of photographers. We've often read about the importance of making yourself invisible, something that brought us a certain Henri Cartier-Bresson, one who would be detested by those who criticize the idea of constantly carrying a camera.
But it is precisely from the awareness of being photographers of another nature that we truly understand our visual objectives.
ChineseFoodFreeDelivery - Mexico City, 2022
In the candid nature of Street Photography lies the real attraction for us photographers, choosing the urban space to find our poetry.
Other photographers would ask for permission. And this, we understand well, is not minimally in the exercise of a true street photographer who rather sees it as a problem if the image presents a situation that even unwillingly appears constructed, planned. Even extremely perfect images would make photography not useful in terms of what a street photographer proposes. I can assure you that I am able to recognize who has the aptitude for doing this type of photography and who absolutely not.
The ontology of the street photographer helps us understand who we are as photographers and where we intend to go.
Stripes - Mexico City, 2022
’Then, quite apart from all those literary preoccupations, and without definite attachment to anything, suddenly a roof, a gleam of sunlight reflected from a stone, the smell of a road would make me stop still, to enjoy the special pleasure that each of them gave me, and also because they appeared to be concealing, beneath what my eyes could see, something which they invited me to approach and take from them, but which, despite all my efforts, I never managed to discover.’ Marcel Proust
It is often said that the street photographer is a flaneur, that means a person who lounges or strolls around in a seemingly aimless way but also an aloof observer of urban society. And we photographers often wander without a precise destination. Yes, we choose a place, but then we let ourselves be carried away by the feet and therefore by instinct. Sometimes for this I admit that I have also found myself in areas where it was not convenient to be, especially alone and with a camera, but isn't this also part of the exciting experience for a street photographer?
Stop - Mexico City, 2022
The photograph itself is in no way animated...but it animates me: this is what creates every adventure. - Roland Barthes “Camera Lucida”
In my opinion there is too much talk of storytelling compared to a photograph. And in the case of street photography this abuse also has little consistency in arguing. Street photography is done in moments. In front of you what happens to you. In that precise moment. And with no chance you planned that, because otherwise we can’t talk about a street photograph. What storytelling are you talking about?
Street photography therefore recalls the essence. To what I call energy. Energy of sensation. Energy of interactions. energy of expressions. Energy of imponderability that I feel. a particular tension. A vibrating stimulus that starts from my senses when I recognize a photograph and it arrives to you when observe the shot I made.
Conclusions
The vision of a photographer is acquired through the constant awareness of being a street photographer. A mental form that you feel in you and that makes you choose certain things over others. Photography can be imperfect, crooked, blurred, even banal and essentially useless, but it is a street photo determined by your walking around with that vision.
Here we started with two photos in quick sequence to get to something else. As a flaneur of writing I advance trying to make you understand the importance of how doing street photography is a completely different experience from any other activity we can do.
