Why a good street photo is always a snapshot

Street Photography is a snapshot of life in the public space.

Street photography is different from any other activity that we can do as photographers.

Different in approach, aesthetics, purpose. Different because it lives from a moment, to recognize that moment and photograph it like this, without intervention. It suggests the photographer's intent, his ability to visually decipher and render it through a snapshot that takes place in fractions of a second. The action of the street photographer is not comparable to that of other photographers.

Street Photography is about to be in the place. Many times we read or hear about luck, but luck, the lucky event happens because the photographer is there and is ready to photograph him, and luck has little to do with this. Because if you are not there to photograph that event, the moment does not exist, photographically speaking.

Street photography is always a snapshot. I don't give the word instant a negative connotation. Rather it is the awareness that the shot on the street does not need excessive retouching in post production and a good street photography is only given by what it is and the content. The aesthetics of the image can be considered as part of the vision, which is no small thing, but always and only subordinate to what is content.

Ever since portable cameras came in, the snapshot aesthetic has made its way into popular culture, from family photos to souvenir snaps of any event, from travel to parties. All the photographs that live on this snapshot soul are endowed with a beating heart, certainly different from a thoughtful approach and constructed photos. Street photography done well therefore thrives on the recognition of infinitesimals of a second.

I am not referring to that you cannot work the scene: you can also stay for several minutes to a few hours in a place and still pull out a snapshot. Rather it is a way of seeing and therefore taking photographs. A mindset that allows you to look for something that is different than what an orthodox photographer would make.