Layering in Street Photography
There is a method of street photography that can often prove successful in giving a different dimension to all of our photography.
I always said that Street Photography can be a school and a training for the photographer and its lessons can be applied for any genre we are committed to do. Look at this photograph:
When I made this shot I was busy working on assignment for Burberry. When a street photographer does something else, he doesn’t completely turn off his vision: having the eye as a viewfinder you constantly bring it with you. On that occasion, I simply thought by layers. But what exactly does this mean?
Layering in Street Photography means:
A multiple subject placement on different planes of the image.
A recognized master of this technique is Alex Webb. He is able to develop a photograph on different layers that give an exceptional dynamism and depth to his photographs.
To implement this technique, the photographer must acquire a different way of seeing while on the street with the camera. By achieving this we will be able to create depth and the sensation of immersion inside a scene. This works even better when you use a normal/wide angle lens, although in the photo above I used an 85mm which compresses. To make the idea better, let's move on to more fitting examples with my street photography:
As street photographers we are constantly working in chaotic contexts and at the same time we have a commitment to the background of the framed scenes. The skill of a street photographer is to take advantage of these problems in order to make photographs that make sense. One of the constants of street work is that great opportunity to relate two or more scenes in reality that are not connected, through our framing, a choice that is never democratic and decidedly authoritarian, which then in essence is the great power of the photographer.
In pointing out the chaos of the city the photographer's mind must become completely immersed in the scenes and feel them and then show them within the frame. Chaos must become a strength within the frame, while still meeting an order of its own. It is a previous metabolization that allows the photographer to intervene with the camera in a functional way to capture the scene in the best possible way.
Order in chaos is not going against the chaotic situation but rather following it in order to find one's own order, identity of the observed scene. Sometimes, as in the case of photographs that take advantage of reflections, as in this case, not everything can be seen and understood at the moment and rather a process of serendipity is activated.
Sometimes you can take advantage of the elements in the foreground to emphasize what is in the background and make it the main subject. All the elements within the image combine to make clear what the photographer wants to show.
Chaos is always an ally to give our photography a different complexity. Sometimes the apparently most insignificant elements are points of value within the proposed frame.
If there is action in front there will also be action behind our subjects. From this consideration one sometimes encounters scenes that are interesting on different levels.
Sometimes it happens that the scene starts right from the background, as in this case. The apparent fortuitous appeal of the tricolor boy in the foreground with the background is due to the photographer's experience. Also in this case we think in layers.
Sometimes we don't even realize how much humanity unconsciously finds an order. I happened to observe it many times. This can give a scene a logic and a dynamics that seem staged. Yes, still surprises me.
What works is often getting close, even or above all with layering. Working in zone focusing it happens that when I recognize a scene I don't even have time to refocus and therefore the foreground subject is not perfectly in focus but that's okay.
As a street photographer many times I am not attracted to a single subject, but rather to the scene itself, with different elements. And so it happens then to find scenes like this that act at various levels and offer interest in the fullness of its shot.
However, when my attention turns to a subject, however, my experience allows me to contemplate in moments how to manage everything around to build an effective image. The decision of our positioning at the moment of shooting also becomes fundamental.
Layering also works in a more dynamic scene like in this case where the camera movement shows itself in an almost panning. Anyone who thinks that street photography should count with everything perfectly defined is in big misunderstanding. This is a scene that works great.
Here is a perfect example of what layering brings. This is one of my favorite photographs taken in recent times.
The method of composing by layers leads to different decisions, avoiding focusing only on what caught your attention. And so you wait, you wait for another situation to intervene, those few seconds or infinitesimals of a second that allow you to give greater depth to what attracted your photographic attention in the first instance.
Conclusions
I hope you have enjoyed this little lesson. This is really a humble little sharing of what I offer as a photography educator, written on impulse and directly here on the blog, but it is very close to the unique method that I have built over time through direct experience as a street photographer but also as a photography teacher. In the shop section of this website you can find all the courses and workshops I offer. Do not hesitate to contact me, even if only to request information without any obligation.
