Street Photography My Style

Street photography appears everywhere in the photography world lately. In researching the term, I found nearly as many definitions as people who write about it. What is street photography anyway?

The word street misleads most people. That word conjures up an urban environment with candid shots of people passing by, walking away, or standing at corners of buildings. That is street photography, but what about a photo of a blue bike leaning against a stucco wall? A well-known street photographer took that, and many others similar to that, for an article on street photography in a publication a few years ago. The scene does not remind me of a city environment at all but maybe more a country town, and no people appeared but the bicycle suggested recent human presence.

Candid photography of people or things in an outdoor environment created or populated by humans with subject matter that suggests human presence better defines the street photography I see now. I shoot photographs of abandoned buildings that interest me, but without a human or apparent human presence I don’t consider that street photography.

Currently in most places in the United States various journalists and bloggers say you may take photographs of people in public places and use them commercially, display them, etc. Several professional photographers defended themselves in court on these grounds and won. Always check local laws, make sure that the place you take your photograph is in fact considered public, and most importantly, realize that the laws are changing. Also, many people, myself included, don’t appreciate a complete stranger standing there photographing them.

As to my style of street photography, I prefer photographs that suggest the human presence, or photographs of people that don’t show specific features making them more the “every man” or more politically correct “every person”. I especially like finding scenes like the one above. It shows an obviously abandoned building clearly going back to nature, with a shiny exercise bicycle in much better condition than its surroundings on what remains of the front porch, along with a half buried speed limit sign on the ground to the left. It intrigued me. We passed this scene in the car, and I asked Karl to turn around and go back for a second look. At that point we pulled over so I could take some shots. The newish exercise bike alludes to recent human presence, yet the rest of the scene appears abandoned for years.

Is it street photography? Yes, my version.