WHAT IS THIS STREET PHOTOGRAPHY ALL ABOUT?

After exploring several photographic genres, I chose Street Photography to give expression to my twin interests of image making and people watching. Street Photography is somewhat of a misnomer as it does not necessarily take place on the street itself. It can be practiced anywhere, photographing people in the environment in which they are found.

Street Photography itself has many styles with some practitioners such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus and Elliott Erwitt reaching a degree of fame and following. I prefer capturing subjects who are unaware that they are being photographed. I have worked hard at developing techniques which make my photography more or less invisible to the subject. I find that if the subject is unaware of being photographed, I sometimes have the good fortune to capture a fleeting expression or interaction which would otherwise be lost in the awareness of posing or posturing for the camera. Some find this method controversial, equating it to stalking. My justification is the end result. I do not follow or harass people as the paparazzi sometimes do. I simply want to photograph people as they are. 

I recently read a quote by Duane Michaels who said: "I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know.  It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph.  The magic is in seeing people in new ways." 

In many ways, all photographs of people should be judged by Michaels' standard.  A portrait, whether Street, studio or otherwise needs that new vision... that "magic" in order to make it provocative.