Finally Street Photography is dead

As I said some years ago…I was criticized, even attacked for that. And now you got it.

For years, camera brands rode the wave of street photography, not out of genuine support for the genre but as a calculated marketing move. Their goal was simple: to pivot the market towards mirrorless cameras. And now that they’ve achieved their objective, these brands have turned their backs on street photography. It was never about the art; it was always about the sales.

Street photography festivals, once hubs for photographers shooting on the street, now cling to relevance only in Europe. But their days are numbered. Just like in the U.S., these festivals have become more about business than passion. As I pointed out long ago, they pushed a vision of street photography that is forgettable, formulaic, and devoid of true substance. The organizers, all irrelevant people and amateurs with a poor portfolio, trying to get famous that way and not for their photographs. The judges, always the same, we can count them in a hand, are photographers that give awards to themselves, in the sense they reward the photographs that remind of their work.

The problem? Too few people had anything meaningful to say with their images. Instead, we got endless clichés passed off as art. And let’s not forget the judging panels: a revolving door of the same faces awarding each other or promoting their personal favorites. It’s a farce that’s tarnished the very spirit of street photography.

What remains now is a bleak and uninspiring landscape. Or is it?

In truth, this death is a necessary cleansing. With the collapse of the superficial trends and the exodus of the opportunists, what will be left are the true street photographers: —the ones who live and breathe the streets, who see beyond the surface and create images that matter.

The end of this era doesn’t signal the end of street photography itself. It’s the end of the noise, the marketing gimmicks, and the empty competitions. It’s the beginning of a new, raw, and authentic chapter for those who care about the craft, not the accolades.

So, let’s bury the shallow version of street photography and leave it behind. What rises from the ashes will be something purer, something real. Only the true voices will remain, the ones that were drowned out by the “quaquaraquà” of the past.

And that’s exactly how it should be.

Of course, Street Photography is not dead: I mean, the real Street Photography is still alive and kickin’. This year my STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCES in Mexico City registred a boom in sales and I can breathe a big enthusiasm from many photographers around the world. As I said: to die is the one that certain braggarts and snake oil salesmen (including certain marketing exwcutives of camera manufacturers) have wanted to sell us in this last decade to sell their cameras or spots for the festivals or their unuseful crappy workshops. And you should think about this: photographers never hired, featured on real publications, with a regular job not een related with photography pretending to teach how not be published or selling photos to other people? Finally the king is naked.