Street Photography - Is It For You?
Street photography featuring a street performer in San Telmo, Buenos Aires.
This street photography series was created in Buenos Aires on a photo walk in the districts of San Telmo and La Boca.
These are vibrant and busy tourist areas and you shouldn’t feel at all self conscious about undertaking a street photography photo walk in the San Telmo or La Boca neighborhoods.
Street Photography Safety Concerns
However, away from the crowds you need to be very careful as La Boca, in particular, is quite rough and known for pick pockets.
And, of course, an expensive camera can make you a target for a more series crime.
It’s important to do your research, before you commence your trip. But it’s also advisable to seek out some well informed local knowledge.
If in doubt try to sign up for a local photography tour or, alternatively, hire a local guide through a reputable hotel or tourist authority.
Street Photography in La Boca and San Telmo
La Boca is famous for it’s colorful buildings, tango and the Club Atlético Boca Juniors football team.
El Caminito, or little walkway, is at the centre of the action in the La Boca neighborhood. It’s great to wander along the cobbled stone streets and explore the sights.
San Telmo is the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires and is famous for its colonial buildings. You’ll find many of these grand historical buildings on a street called the illuminated block.
Spanish missionaries establish a mission in San Telmo that consisted of a church, library, museum and a pharmacy in a complex known today as the Manzana de las Luces (i.e., Block of Enlightenment).
I loved my time in San Telmo. In addition to the vestiges of colonial architecture there’s lots to experience in San Telmo including the following:
Pop-up art galleries
Bars, cafes and steakhouses
Tango-show venues
Street murals
Antique dealers
Defense Street Flea Market
Candid Street Photography
Are you interested in the idea of candid street photography? Does the idea of photographing a quickly evolving scene, as people move through an urban or architectural space, excite you?
If so then, perhaps, street photography is for you. At the very least you should consider giving it a try. As long as you’re sensible and don’t deliberately impede someone’s progress you should be fine.
If you’re totally new to street photography it might help to hook up with a photo buddy before you decide to head out on your own.
For the most part photography is a solo pursuit. After all it’s hard to make candid photos when you’re standing amongst a bunch of other photographers cranking away.
But there’s no reason you can’t travel to and from a location with a photo friend and, perhaps, meet up several times throughout the day to swap stories and compare results.
Personally I love street photography, though I rarely photograph people without their permission.
That's not to say I haven't had a lot of fun making portraits of strangers while travelling. I have.
However, even so-called candid images, like several of the pictures you see here, are made with the primary subject of the photo being aware of my presence.
One of the things that's interesting about candid photography is that, while it may appear that the subject is unaware of the photographer or the fact that they are being photographed, it's not necessarily the case.
Think about sports photography. The athletes are aware of one or more photographers, but are so caught up in the moment that their movements and expressions appear quite natural.
There's just no time to strike a pose, or fix your hair in the middle of a boxing match.
In the case of a lot of street photography you find that people are often photographed when they’re quite close to the camera.
I suspect, by the time they’re aware that you may have photographed them, they’ve already passed by and are, most likely, going to continue on their way.
My Approach to Street Photography
Frankly, this is not the kind of street photography I do, though it is a major part of the street photography tradition.
It's my practice to ask permission prior to photographing people. On occasions that's not possible or practical, but it's my preferred way of working.
I just don't want to be that guy jumping out of the bushes with a big telephoto lens trying to catch locals unaware.
Likewise standing at a crossing and photographing people walking towards you isn’t for me, though I recognize there have been many truly great photos made utilizing this approach.
My preference, when photographing people, is to make portrait photos, almost always after being granted permission to photograph them.
I see myself working within the documentary photography tradition. Nonetheless, when I include the environment in a way that adds to the story being told, these images could be considered as street photography.
Famous Street Photographers
Some of the greatest photos in the history of photography fit into the genre of street photography.
I enjoy looking at street photography and am familiar with the work of many of the most famous street photographers.
In particular I'd suggest you study the work of the following Master photographers:
Street scene featuring an ornate shop front in La Boca, Buenos Aires.
Classic Buenos Aires Street Scene
Here’s why I think it's important to deconstruct your photos.
Take a look at the above photo made outside an antiques store in the La Boca district of Buenos Aires.
I very much like the surreal and serendipitous moments within the above image. Take a closer look and you'll see what I mean.
Can You See The Faces In this Photo?
There’s the young woman in the foreground
The elderly men, partly obscured behind the doors
The bust in the window in the bottom right of the image
The face of the woman behind the curved glass on the left side of the frame.
There are plenty of other faces in this image, but they're the most prominent ones.
The photo seems to me to be very much structured around relationships, both real and imagined.
There’s the actual relationships between some of the figures in the image and the structural relationships that have come together, through composition, within the picture frame.
These faces are focal points that attract our attention and lead our eye around the frame.
I feel this image is a great example of how a photograph has the capacity to freeze a moment in time.
It's also an image that speaks to me of transition.
The world appears solid, on the street, yet a more fluid existance is suggested for those who might pass, through the doors, to what lies beyond.
What is the Point Of Street Photography
That particular street scene looked fine in color, but the subtle variations in tone and the variety of textures and shapes throughout the scene suggested it was a great candidate for rendering into black and white.
I also like the sense of quiet and nostalgia that’s been brought to the image through the black and white treatment.
Despite the bustling crowds that passed by as I composed this photo, it's the sense of quiet light within the image that I find most interesting.
That's because photos have their own inherent truths which can be very much at odds with the facts or reality under which you find yourself making the image in camera.
How to Become a Great Street Photographer
Whether you find street photography to be a fun or scary pursuit it can certainly be a technically demanding endeavour.
A good understanding of light and dynamic range and an ability to manage the controls on your camera, quickly and efficiently, is essential.
Practice makes perfect my friend.
But, to truly master the art of street photography, you’d also need to develop a keen sense of composition and timing.
That’s because the notion of the Decisive Moment, which was coined by master photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, is key to great street photography.
Ultimately, like any other kind of photography, the best portfolios are created by photographers who are able to communicate their own, unique vision of the world.
To discover what you, and by extension, your photos are all about you may find it helpful to undertaken a simple process, which I can outline as follows:
Look at your best images and separate them from the rest
Identify what works in your best images
Incorporate those same elements of composition, timing, subject into more of the photos you make
Identify if a thread exploring mood, message or meaning emerges
Separate the best of those images into one or more portfolios and look for opportunities to explore those concepts in the future
A dramatic and surreal street photo exploring two representations of women.
The Reality Of Street Photography
So you see photos have their own reality which is often quite different to the reality under which the picture was actually made.
The lesson is not to let a hot, bright, noisy and crowded street prevent you from making beautiful and, on occasions, poignant images.
Tell Your Story And Share It With The World
The next time you're out and about, whether in your own neighborhood or one far away, try to explore that locale through your camera's viewfinder and the magic of photography.
In addition to interesting images that tell a story, from your own perspective, you'll also begin to discover your own unique perception of the world around you.
A greater sense of purpose will growth as you explore your unique creative self through the production of meaning rich images.
All that remains is to share that unique vision with others and, in doing so, spread beauty around the world.
My recommended approach is to first heal yourself through immersion in a creative pursuit like photography.
From there you’ll be in a position to help to heal our world by sharing images that speak to the wonder of creation, the sublime beauty of the moment and the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity.
It may be that street photography is the genre you find yourself gravitating towards. Fantastic!
But the only way to know if street photography is for you is to get out and about and try it. And I hope you do just that.