There are many other ways. This is the purist’s way. One of the beauties of the purist’s street photography is its lightness. Carrying around a big tank? Might be the death of this art that is what you make it to be. Street photography is relaxing, no one assigns your time, but the whole world becomes a stage with everyone an actor on it. This unconstrained ease, this play without an end and everyone has a role, it’s what lies at the heart of street photography.
What tool’s required? Any camera. Film, a smartphone, mirrorless, just try to avoid big bulky gear. Why? You’d be more easily distracted.
No matter what budget, there is always a camera. Improvise… that’s the street. An art and way of life. It’s there. Always. No matter what gear.
Part of the street’s fascination is that it makes all of us feel part of a bigger whole without changing a thing. Street photography doesn’t impose itself upon anyone. It’s a silent observer lying in wait for the decisive moment. Or try the indecisive one. That’s the beauty of street photography. No one knows what to expect next. The few who are masters of the craft tried and failed and stood up again only to try and fail and stand up again. There is no lucky moment. Just the cumulation of place and time and the eye.
Street photography is a play that’s never played twice. Just always carry that camera and blend in. Sure we’ll want the occasional portrait. Just don’t get noticed. Glancing at each other quickly is fine, go for the shot. Then disappear again, silently. You’re a hunter in the thick of it. Go kill that deer with a knife. That’s the work that will impress.
A wide angle forces you to step in and be intimate with your subject, albeit you’re just a bystander, have nothing to say or add or judge. Even asking for permission to photograph contradicts the very essence of street photography. You’re an invisible witness who previsualizes for that through the aesthetic rendition of your lens even the monotony of a sleepy suburb fills with life.
It’s the daily everyday routine that’s the story. Many don’t and will never see it. Unnoticed many stories pass… until someone with a light bag and nothing else needed notices.
It’s not street photography if it doesn’t come naturally. There are no rules and no laws, just exposure and composition. A building is hardly ever a subject or object. Street photography is about the human being, human condition and human zoo. Pain and sorrow and laughter without any posing and faking, that’s the photography you’re after.
The most iconic photos are wide angle, minimal bokeh, often not even sharp — and black and white. They’re intimate and up close. The image does not show anger. It is anger. It doesn’t show joy. It is joy.
Worrying about perfection is the death of street photography. Just practice. Light is everything. Know your distance, metering, angle of view.
Operating the camera must become second nature. Practice, fail, be patient, never shy and always respectful because you care. Street photography has to do a lot with loving and respecting each other.
Street photography is applied psychology. Only knowing and understanding the human condition will reveal the human condition to the lens. Inherent compassion for fellow human beings will shine through the photograph.
And screw those MTF charts. A good photograph doesn’t care about MTF. Care about grain that can be beautiful, mind noise that’s ugly and play with light.
Now forget everything you just read. Be yourself. Let go.
You love the street, you love life, you’re passionate.
Take the camera everywhere.
Then choose the best 100 images.
Throw away 99.
Repeat again.
And again.
Until there’s only one left.
You just captured life.
Start anew.