This is Street Photography

Composing Life in the Barrio

Some photographs, like this one, take years to come together. Not because the scene isn't always there, but because the right moment and the perfect execution don’t always align. This is one of those photos where everything finally clicked, and today, I want to break down why I believe it works, both from a compositional and content-driven perspective, and how it reflects my understanding of street photography.

My Compositional Breakdown

At first glance, the composition seems simple, but there's a lot happening. The rule of thirds comes into play here, with the human figure positioned along one of the vertical lines. The lone person adds balance to the scene, but what’s interesting is that this isn't the “rule” that makes the photo. In fact, the photograph could work without following it. Sure, the figure falls neatly into one of those thirds, but that's just incidental. The real power of the composition lies in the structure of the neighborhood itself.

The houses and tangled electric wires form an intricate web, creating depth and complexity. The layers of buildings rise like a staircase, leading your eyes from the bottom of the frame up to the hill in the background. The image has a strong sense of geometry, lines, angles, and repeating patterns, but none of it feels too precise or controlled. This kind of chaotic balance is the essence of street photography: an organized mess that mirrors life itself.

The wide perspective also plays a huge role here. It pushes against that popular belief in street photography that you should always "get closer." This mantra, "if your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough", often credited to Robert Capa and has become something of a golden rule. However, I feel it’s an overrated piece of advice. In this case, stepping back, giving space to the scene, was necessary. Sometimes, getting closer narrows the view and the story, while stepping back reveals the bigger picture, the environment, the context, the relationships between elements. The important is not getting closer, but filling the frame…and by knowing how to fill the frame, hot to frame is crucial in photography.

Content, Meaning and References

This photo is more than just an image of a neighborhood; it’s a document of life in the barrio. It captures not just the buildings and the streets but the identity of the people who live here. There’s a sense of resilience and resistance embedded in the scene. The houses are stacked tightly, wires crisscross overhead, and yet everything feels like it belongs, like it’s all been shaped to fit the daily grind of the community. This is real life, unpolished, raw, and true to the experience of those who live in these spaces. The most important aspect of this image, in fact, I believe is about the identity that permeates photography. It is not just a photography: it is a cry from us, people of the ´hood.

The figure walking alone down the street adds that crucial human element. They aren't the focal point in a traditional sense, yet their presence elevates the scene from a simple landscape to a narrative. And here’s where I draw from my early influences. When I started studying photography, one image by Gianni Berengo Gardin struck me deeply. It was a landscape, but way off in the distance was a tiny figure, almost an afterthought in the frame. That single distant person transformed the image from a mere landscape into a story, a reflection of humanity within its environment.

In this photograph, the presence of the person serves a similar function. They may be small and distant, but their role is essential in grounding the image in reality. They add scale, movement, and life, subtly shifting the photograph’s purpose from documenting the place to documenting life within the place.

The Essence of Street Photography

For me, this photo encapsulates what I mean by street photography. It’s not about flashy visual tricks or "winning" compositions. It’s about capturing a moment that reflects a deeper truth, both about the world around us and about ourselves as photographers. This is a photo that couldn’t have been made in just any place; it’s uniquely tied to this neighborhood, to this exact moment in time. It documents life as it is, without embellishment or spectacle.

What I love about this image is that it goes against the grain in so many ways. There’s no bold, in-your-face action. The human figure isn’t large or close-up. And yet, the photo is powerful because of its quiet storytelling. It captures the environment, the people, and the everyday struggles and victories of living in a barrio like this one. It’s a visual statement that street photography doesn’t need to be loud or up-close to be impactful.

The "Get Closer" Debate in Street Photography

Let’s talk about that for a moment. There's this almost sacred rule in street photography that if you want a great photo, you need to "get closer." I think this advice has been overused and misunderstood. Yes, sometimes proximity adds intensity, but it’s not a universal law. In fact, keeping my distance in this shot allowed me to capture much more, the layers of life, the architectural chaos, the sense of place. If I had zoomed in on the figure, I would’ve lost the context, the story that the neighborhood itself tells.

So, while "getting closer" has its place, sometimes stepping back is the better choice. It allows the scene to breathe, giving the viewer room to explore and uncover details at their own pace. In this photo, distance lets the landscape and the person coexist, each enhancing the other.

Final Thoughts

This photo represents everything I love about street photography: its ability to capture life as it is, without the need for dramatic action or forced compositions. It’s a reminder that sometimes the best images come from letting the scene speak for itself, from recognizing the value in the everyday, and from trusting that the photograph will reveal itself when the time is right. It is poetry about the urban existence in a megalopolis like Mexico City.

I am proud to be the author of a photograph that has been lodged in my head for so long. A photograph that undoubtedly comes from living here and from a real life understanding of my experience as a resident of a barrio. In the north of Mexico City.