Street Photography Magazine

Street Photography | Selecting a Subject

P

aris is considered to be the birthplace of

street photography. The photos taken

there by Eugène Atget and Brassaï during the

first half of the 20thcentury are just as relevant

and moving today as they were when they

were captured (see the box opposite).

Nevertheless, you don’t have to stalk the

streets of major cities such as Paris, New York

or London to find great photographic subjects.

Neighbors having a chat, business people

hurrying by, kids playing, peaceful alleyways,

and busy streets and squares can be found in

small towns or even in the country. Large,

small and often banal or absurd scenes take

place everywhere, every day, although when

you are taking your first street photography

steps, it is of course easier to find subjects in

the whirl of the city.

There are many different ways to approach

street photography, and you can achieve great

results whether you are loud and direct or

quiet and subtle. There isn’t even a generally

agreed definition of what ‘street photography’

really means. While some photographers

consider true ‘street’ shots to be of people

taken from as close as possible, I consider

virtually the opposite to be the case. Walker

Evans’ wonderful photos of people on the

street and in the subway are, strictly speaking,

portraits rather than street shots.

Signs of Everyday Life

‘People’ photos such as these are missing what

I consider to be one of the central elements of

traditional street photography, namely public

signs of everyday life. Street photos do, of

course, include people, but often only in a

supporting role or as mere traces of their

existence. The city, which couldn’t exist

without people, acts as a metaphor for its

inhabitants – an idea developed, among

others, by contemporary photographers such

as Stephen Shore.

A ‘special moment’ framed in a

well-composed photo is an image of ‘true’

street photography that is widely held and

keenly discussed in many forums. However, in

a photo that aims to document daily life, that

‘special moment’ can, by definition, only make

up a small part of the whole. Daily life is, on the

whole, unspectacular. The recently discovered

street portraits taken by Vivian Maier in

Chicago in the 1950s and 60s are great

examples of impressive everyday photos, as

are Fred Herzog’s photos of the “unobtrusive

reality” of city spaces.

The individualization of a human subject is

not critical to the success of a photo of public

life, and people need neither to be

recognizable nor be looking into the camera

at the moment a photo is taken. Alongside

Saul Leiter’s photos, in which people are often

shown out of focus, through misted-up glass

or from behind, I find Trent Parke’s wonderful

sequence Dream/Life & Beyondparticularly

impressive. Parke often visualizes people as

spectral-looking figures in high-contrast black

and white images. Another example is

Andreas Herzau, who uses out-of-focus people

in the foreground, extreme crops of human

subjects and silhouettes as stylistic elements

in his documentary-style photos.

In order to illustrate people in a temporal

context, it is essential to include the immediate

environment in a photo. Brassaï and Marianne

Breslauer both photographed street scenes as

overviews in which people formed only a small

part of the event being portrayed. Many

photos by Andreas Feininger and Lee

Friedlander, too, don’t just include people, but

also show them within their almost

overpowering urban surroundings.

I am fascinated by such photos of urban

scenes in which people play a subsidiary or

even incidental role. Photos by Paul Graham

and Abisag Tüllmann’s shots of Frankfurt in

the 1960s are impressive examples of this

approach to the genre.

A Question of Respect

How you decide to portray people in your

street photos is, of course, a matter of personal

taste, but it is nevertheless important to stick

to a few basic rules when taking photos of

strangers.

One current trend among amateur

photographers appears to be to ‘hunt’

subjects and to photograph them from as

close as possible, without any warning, in

order to achieve an ‘authentic’ look. The ball

that started rolling with the success of Martin

Parr’s stark flash photos is obviously still

going strong.

Driven by the desire to shoot authentic,

moving images, many photographers end up

shooting and publishing photos of

vulbnerable or disadvantaged people. I find

this approach disrespectful and morally

questionable, regardless of whether you

adhere to the appropriate legal guidelines.

However, even if you are sure of your legal

ground and you are shooting in ethically

unambiguous situations, you should still ask

yourself how you would feel if you or your

children were portrayed in the revealing way

that a spontaneous photo often embodies.

Along with the need to include the

surroundings within the frame, these

considerations often influence the way I

approach my subjects and the distance I keep

when shooting.

Developing Your Own Style

None of this should prevent you from getting

out there and developing your own approach

to street photography. It doesn’t matter

whether you want to shoot close-up portraits

or keep your distance – the following pages

include examples of many different types of

street scenes and practical advice regarding

what you can shoot freely and where you need

to exercise caution. We have also included a

section on equipment and we go into detail on

what to do if you discover a great subject but

don’t dare to shoot. Our real-world tips and

tricks are designed to help you find ways to get

started and learn how to approach strangers

with your camera.

“Photographs are often treated as

important moments, but really they are

just little fragments and souvenirs of

an unfinished world.”

Saul Leiter

Finding and Choosing a Subject