Some out of the box ideas in street photography

I have to share something with my audience here

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IS VISUAL PUNK

Street photography is in crisis. And let’s be honest: it's because the bandwagon is overflowing with people worshipping at the altar of Alex Webb. A gentleman, no doubt, but one whose approach has been turned into a formula: stand still, wait, and hope something happens. The problem isn’t Webb himself: it’s the cult built around him. This safe, academic approach has drained the soul out of street photography, turning it into a game of colors and geometry, a sterile exercise in composition rather than an expression of raw, urban energy.

But I’m here to tell you: street photography is visual punk.

It’s messy, it’s unpredictable, it’s in-your-face. It’s not about perfect layering or clever juxtapositions: it’s about the streets, the encounters, the moments that slip through your fingers if you’re not hunting for them. It’s about being a predator, not a spectator. If you want neat and clean, go shoot stock photos.

The Hunters vs. The Waiters

Street photography has always had two camps: the hunters and the fishers. Hunters move, react, adapt. They chase the moment, knowing that imperfection is part of the game. They embrace failure, they thrive in the unexpected. Encounter photography is their heartbeat.

Then there are the fishers. The ones who plant themselves in a picturesque alleyway or a market square, hoping something magical aligns in front of their lens. They play it safe, calculating compositions like they’re solving a geometry problem. And they are the ones dominating the so-called “serious” street photography scene today. The same names, the same aesthetics, the same hollow images meant to impress judges at festivals run by wheeler-dealers with no real understanding of the streets. So boring.

Enough of that.

Street photography isn’t a carefully curated portfolio for gallery owners sipping overpriced wine. It’s a visceral, real-time interaction with life. It’s loud, fast, and full of mistakes: but those mistakes? That’s where the truth is. Sincerely i prefer to see an out of focus image than the flat composition super curated because…the photographer waited. Waited. And still waited.

Celebrate the Raw, the Real, the Honest

I want to promote and celebrate a sincere and honest street photography: not staged, not pre-planned, but built on encounters, surprises, and instinct. First time instinct. I mean when in a fragment of second, I recognize and I press the shutter button of my camera. No overthinking. I want to see work that breathes, that shouts, that lives outside of the Instagram algorithm or the snobbish conceptual nonsense flooding contemporary photography.

And if you need an example, look no further than Trevor Wisecup in episode 185. This is the kind of street photography that matters, that speaks, that refuses to be domesticated by festivals or trends.

Street photography is visual punk. Either you’re in, or you’re out.

Against Rules and the Ethics Speech

Too many people are imposing rules, dictating how street photography should be done to be accepted. I am going against that. I go against the ethics speech. When you are a street photographer, I mean a real street photographer, you don’t have time to talk about these bullshits. A street photographer is someone busy working on the streets, not discussing what is or isn’t acceptable to shoot.

And let’s be real: the streets are not made only of funny and pretty things. The city can be ugly, perverse, bad, smelling of shit and urine. The city is a theater of every human feeling. And I am not going to censor anything. So please, stop with the ethical speech about what to photograph and what not. I make my own rules, and nobody is going to impose rules on me.

I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THE MOST OF THINGS PEOPLE THINKS TO IMPOSE AS GENERAL RULES

I am an anarchist. Anarchism is not like the most mistake with nichilism. Anarchism is giving you rules before others do. On the street I respect people. And that is sufficient. Maybe if an idiotic camera brand executive sees me in action can think I am rude. I don’t care what a stupid executive in a tie thinks because he doesn’t make the street and not even has a clear idea what photography and street photography in particular is. Any place has its rules, and the street photographer needs to be able to codify the rules of that spot.

The universal rules are for pricks, looking for generalistic advices on the internet. I don’t have time for that. In the past I wasted a lot of time in trying to explain but I finally understood that with certain people is imposibble and it becomes a huge wate of energy and time. And sincerely I don’t have time. I try to be on the street making my job as much time as possible.

Nobody is going to say me how to photograph. I know how to achieve my photos loook in a particular way, with my personal approach and vision, in order to have that aesthetics that represents me. I don’t have anymore time to stay behind people talking all the same and photographing all the same.

I hope through this post I make it clear that I don’t have anything to share with the “game of street photography” because for me is not a game and is a fucking serious thing.

I make street photography because I am obsessed with street photography.

With Street Photography I learn.

With Street Photography I understand better the world around me and I understand better about myself.

With Street Photography I train myself and I become a better photographer.

With Street Photography I get hired by cool art directors who prefer a distinct aesthetic for their brand.

With Street Photography I have found a meaning to my life, which is made up of so much else, but what I am is that I am a street photographer even when I do something else.