Corrosion of conformity
These days I am busy with a one to one street photography masterclass in Mexico City
In the meantime on threads I preferred to delete a post that aroused the ire of many. For simply saying that buying a full frame camera with the aim of being able to crop images is a questionable operation to say the least, especially if we're talking about street photography.
You know:
I shoot only JPG
I don’t crop anything when it comes to street photography/documentary
Question yourself: why we make street photography? Street Photography is not a commercial genre. Personally I use it as training and an opportunity to become better photographer.
In my previous experiences also with a work on assignment for Leica, the client asked me not cropping the images. It was challenging, but I accepted and from that experience I learned how cropping a photograph is not what i want. Street Photography is about the imponderable and a moment caught on the street, without being able to fix anything and which feeds on the energy, mood and flow of that precise moment. It is not focused on the perfect composition and the academic approach.
This makes us different from other photographers and this is what I teach as a Photo Coach making this for over 10 years. And no, guys: to say that on threads I did have a lot of photographers pissed off. None of them with a consistent and good work to tell the truth, enough to justify exposing themselves and above all exposing their photos.
Anyway…my idea is that to photograph with the idea you are going to crop is wrong. You should make that when you frame and press the shutter button of the camera. You learn a lot that way. I learned a lot.
This photograph was directly shared from the camera: it is no edited at all, of course not cropped. We can discuss that, if you want but I think the work of a photo coach is exactly this: after the photograph I showed to my student because he took another but too far and not making that good as me. With the same focial lenght.
Now you know why is important to me this: to explain how to see and being able to get an effective photograph on the street. To the others thinking to crop as part of the workflow, I can say: uhm, OK…
