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Genres in practice3 min read

LESSON 36

Street

Chance moments in public places.

IN THIS LESSON

  1. What street photography is
  2. A short lineage
  3. Law and manners
  4. In practice: being there

What street photography is

Street photography is made for art or inquiry and shows chance encounters and unplanned events in public places. It usually aims at a decisive or poignant moment, caught by careful framing and timing. It does not need a street, or even a city, and it does not always need people: an object or a place can carry a human feeling on its own. It overlaps with candid photography and with documentary work and photojournalism, which also work in public but chase news or social issues. Much of what people now see as classic street photography was made between the end of the nineteenth century and the late 1970s.

A short lineage

In 1838 or 1839 Louis Daguerre photographed the Boulevard du Temple in Paris from his studio window. The exposure was so long that the moving crowd vanished, but a man having his boots shined stood still long enough to appear. Eugene Atget recorded Paris streets from the 1890s to the 1920s. The Leica, first sold in 1925, was the first commercially successful camera to use 35 mm film, and its small size helped photographers move through crowds. Henri Cartier-Bresson's book Images à la Sauvette of 1952, published in English as The Decisive Moment, shaped generations that followed.

Law and manners

Taking pictures of strangers in public without their consent is the definition of candid street work, and it has long been argued over. The source notes that photographing people and places in public is legal in most countries that protect freedom of expression, but that there are usually limits on how such pictures may be used, and that most countries have their own privacy laws. This lesson does not give legal advice and the rules differ by country. Check the law where you shoot, and remember that publishing or selling a picture can be treated very differently from taking it. Lesson 75 covers releases.

In practice: being there

This section is working practice. Street pictures reward patience more than speed. Find a place with good light and an interesting background, then wait for people to walk into it, rather than chasing them. A small, quiet camera and a moderately wide lens let you stay close and unnoticed. Preset focus to a few metres and use a middle aperture so you can shoot without looking at the screen. If someone objects, smile, show the picture, and delete it if they ask. Respect matters more than any single frame, and children, people in distress and private moments deserve extra care.

Try it today

  1. 01Pick one corner with strong light and a clean background, and stay there for thirty minutes.
  2. 02Prefocus at about three metres and set a middle aperture.
  3. 03Wait for one person to step into the light, and shoot only then.
  4. 04Make a set of five frames where the picture has no people but still feels human.
  5. 05Review the set and keep only the frames where timing made the picture.