THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

GUIDE

Alex Coghe

If your street photographs aren’t good enough,
you’re not living the street enough.

© All rights reserved - ALEX COGHE 2015
http://www.alexcoghe.com/
© 2015 THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE - ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED

© 2015, ALEX COGHE

Self publishing contact: alex@alexcoghe.com


The copyright of the images are of the author.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains
material protected under International and Federal
Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized
reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part
of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system without
express written permission from the author /
publisher.



To the street that
continues to
inspire me

and

to my family and
my followers

alex

Established Editor and Photographer currently
based in Mexico.

Alex Coghe (born in Rome, Italy on March 30,
1975) is an Italian editor and photographer
currently based in Mexico City. His professional
activity ranges from editorial photography to
events including fashion and erotic photography.
He already has many books published along with
prestigious collaborations and important
exhibitions in the United States, Italy and Spain.
His personal photography is a continuous stream
of gritty, grainy, out of focus, dark and
high-contrasted snapshots from the street and
from his dreams and nightmares. In October 2011
he has participated in You Are Here, a photo event
in Los Angeles sponsored by Leica.


www.alexcoghe.com



INTRODUCTION

“A street photograph is essentially a snapshot made by a photographer
absolutely connected with the energy and the vibrant in the streets, a
photographer with particular skills to document daily life scenes in a public
place.”

Is sufficient this definition written recently to help people understand what is
street photography? Maybe. But if you want join this unique opportunity to
observe and document the world you need more than a statement.

Through this guide I want to share my experience as a street photographer
shooting on a daily basis in public places.

To make this I reviewed my best seller The Art Of Seeing, correcting “the shot”,
expanding that guide in order to offer you a real new book about Street
Photography.

I really hope you enjoy this guide because my main goal was offering an
inspirational reading putting fancy to go in the street and do many photos.

Good Reading!

Alex Coghe, Mexico City - 2015


TO START… A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY



WHAT IS...STREET PHOTOGRAPHY?

“ Street photographs have an imaginative life all their own, one that seems sometimes quite
independent of whatever intentions the photographer might have had…” From Bystander:
A History of Street Photography by Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz


Here is the question that has always been debated...what is Street Photography? And what
is not Street Photography? Well we could start with:
“Street Photography uses the raw approach of straight photography from which derives.”
And and already the problems begin...hey, do you know what is straight photography?

Straight Photography presented a way to approach photography, as opposed to the
manipulations of the time: we are talking about 1920, the era of the Great
Depression...Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans...”anything that can alter an image
makes the shot less pure and therefore less true”...through this apology of purity, you know
you acknowledge the DNA of what is the photographic genre we're talking about in this
book.
That said: Street Photography has its history, motivations and aesthetics, crystallized in the
early 60, as a sort of legacy of the great reporters, armed with Leica. A name above all? Yes,
you are right...Henri Cartier Bresson.
HCB, as called on the Internet from those who know, becomes the worship of street
photographers from all over the world, never tired to idolize him for showing the way to go.

The way to go...where? Ah, right...the definition of Street Photography. No definition that we
can invent will never totally clear what this genre is...that said...
...Street Photography is unstaged photography, a challenge of the photographer with
himself, an attitude, a state of mind.
Cool, no?
I can continue...
...Street Photography is a reflection of every day life through the eye of a photographer able
to document the ordinary capturing the decisive moment, or what others don't see.

To give a comprehensive definition of street photography is not easy. You might begin by
saying that it is a photographic genre, more precisely a kind of documentary photography.
Street photography is indeed a snapshot of urban life on the street observed in his everyday
life and in all its aspects: the irony, tragedy, unpredictability, cruelty and even beauty.
The images of this photographic genre are the mirror of society, the people who compose it,
captured during the life of every day somewhere keen eye for the nuances of the human
comedy that is taking place in public spaces. Being a street photographer means being in
tune with life, perceive the moods, smells, colors, live it with intensity and then try to
represent it only after it has absorbed.


Is it clear how much is challenging this? It is not a thing you can learn in few days. And you
must convert yourself in a metropolitan animal. Otherwise, better to continue to take
pictures to birds and flowers...
Henri Cartier-Bresson, who with his images has contributed to the rise of street
photography, said that through the lens to capture the decisive moments of life it is
necessary to equate the mind, eye and heart. An attitude that, according to the words of the
famous photographer, requires readiness, discipline, sensitivity and geometric sense.
“If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, it's a street photograph” Bruce Gilden


Great stetement, no? It is from one of the most misunderstood photographers of the
world...misunderstood especially by his imitators
who today want to follow in his footsteps metabolizing only a small portion of what this
photographer is. Common fate to many big...
If you search on the web for articles concerning the history of street photography you have
the impression that they all start from the origins of the “genre”, ranging from straight
photography to documentary photography and reportage.
Correct, but if i ask you to give
me an exact date corresponding to the origin of this photographic type, what would you
reply?
I believe that real street photography was born in the ‘60s, in the years when in an
emblematic city such as New York City (universally recognized as the capital of the genre by
Joel Meyerowitz e Markus Hartel) there happened to be an intense re- evaluation of
reportage.

Lee Friedlander but especially Garry Winogrand focused on the inconditional capture of
images of city life (famous is the portfolio entitled “New York” of 1963).

In particular Garry Winogrand represents the archetype of the Street Photographer:
“Winogrand 's work synthesizes the documentary and photojournalist traditions. Influenced
by Robert Frank's The Americans, he employed a wide angle lens on a handheld camera,
and shot from an intimate distance. This enabled him to incorporate more of his subjects,
and gave his images an unfamiliar, compositional complexity. He took shots, he said, to see
how things would look as photographs. The medium of still photography he described as
the illusion of a literal description of how a camera saw a piece of time and. In many ways
these works are social satires of American life. They dramatise the broad canvas of American
society, with its diverse classes, creeds and races jostling on the street. The formal
turbulence of his images with their dynamic tilted viewpoints, their grainy immediacy, their
frenetic crowds and their temporarily isolated strangers, matches the political turbulence of
the Vietnam years and provides a defining portrait of a society caught unawares. “

In perfect continuity between reportage and the new born street photography, Leica
accustomed a fetish camera to capture scenes containing subjects that were unconciously
photographed, without giving any importance to the preparation of the scene or posing of
the aforementioned subjects.
Winogrand and Friedlander took an huge quantity of photographs (in the order of several
hundreds of thousands), gaining a trustful and economic support by the Guggenheim
foundation; in terms of exhibitions, they were both frequent guests of Moma, in particular in
1967 – together with diane arbus – with the exibition entitled “new documents”.
Street
photography mixes with pop culture, and this is true to the present day where often
pictures that obtain the greatest success are those that remind us of the mythical era,
maybe even simply by a pair of sun glasses framed in white or by the face of an aged
woman with fluffy hair (always rarer to come across nowdays).
This is also the reason why street photography is often in black and white. Something to
reflect upon...



And street photography, in my opinion, has the need to maintain a certain level of
aesthetics, leaving the freedom of language to anyone who has the possibility to explore
other moods and mental facades, even towards the most futuristic of beings.
But street
photography will always inevitably take source from the pop culture, because the city and
metropolis is pop, the ideal jungle (although not the only one) figuring as perfect location
for snapshots by the street photographer.

AESTHETICS AND MOTIVATIONS

First to start this chapter of the guide I want to share with you the first things I recommend
to check out on the internet to get familiar with Street Photography:

in public: http://www.in-public.com/ It is still the first resource I recommend to my students;
Google for images of: Henri Cartier Bresson, Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand, Joel
Meyerowitz. these are the first names you should check out.
Go to wikipedia and search for “Street Photography”

Important thing to say: Street Photography is a kind of Documentary Photography, but
different for aesthetics and motivations from photjournalism.

Now we have - maybe - the ideas a little bit clearer, but I still hear the question: what is
street photography for you? First of all I would say: STOP TO THINK FOR LABELS. And, I know,
you are right this is also a book about the STREET
PHOTOGRAPHY label. But if you think for labels you are dead, as a photographer, as a visual
proposer, as an artist.
Someone thinks: it is on the street, so is a street photograph. Right. Acceptable. Shareable.
Not by me at a didactic level. Why definitions exist for clarity, to know what we're talking,
and certainly not to clip the wings of creativity.

Let me start by what is not Street Photography:

•Street Photography is not photojournalism;
•Street Photography is not just “people passing
by”;
•Street Photography is not just an image with strangers photographed candid;

To understand the motivations and aesthetics of this genre is fundamental if you want to
know what looking for in the streets. Street Photography has a documental value. Although
some don't agree with this statement, I believe that the history of the genre is the history of
Photography. In the continuous birth of new photographers, we all know that the Street
Photography will exist as long as there the Photography. Street Photographers generations
have been, are and will be always committed to represent the most genuine aspects of life
of the human being through the biggest stage: the public realm.
I think we all agree about the reproductive infidelity of the photographic medium.
Photography, in fact, was born as imperfect medium and as such remains: unable to
produce the objective reality, Photography is permeated with temporality, subjectivity and
lavishes on similarities. A face reproduced is not the actual face but a record of a time that
doesn't already exist, a moment saved from the effects of time, elusive and fleeting.

Street Photograph can be related with poetry. Documenting the reality at th same time can
rise to poetic speech as works of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Manuel Alvarez Bravo or André
Kertész testify. Every photograph is an instantaneous conversion in a memory's museum.
Every photograph. And this is important because also the bad photographs taken in the
street (a moltitude, the most) are a document of the human condition. Naturally time will do
justice to the photos that will be distinguished by becoming the universal heritage.
As models we could cite the following: Dorothea Lange and her "Madonna" of the Great
Depression, the journey of Robert Frank, the discovery of the secret work of the nanny
Vivian Maier... all of these are memorable expressions of an era, important documents of the
human condition that today nobody denies for their historical value.

When I wrote a manifesto on Street Photography my intention wasn't to put stakes or be
dogmatic. My idea: offering an first document to read for those who first runs into term
"street photography”, taking into account those that are essentially the points shared by
many street photographers around the world. It is a document which should be read with
irony and with the knowledge of what we have said up to this point: Street Photography is
essentially a freestyle approach to photography, a poetic approach to document life in the
public realm, the documentation of the experience of the photographer “on the road”.


STREET PHOTOGRAPHY MANIFESTO

• Streetphotography is a tradition nearly as old as photography itself.
• Street Photography
is more a method, an approach than a genre.
• Keen eye, careful observation and an open
mind ready to capture whatever appears are the essential characteristics of a Street
Photographer.
• Street Photography is unstaged photography, taken in the public realm,
not only streets, but all the public spaces: metro,
commercial centres, parks, beaches, restaurants, etc.
• Street Photography is original and
captivating from both aesthetic and semantic point of view.
• Street Photography is not
about architecture, statues, monuments without any presence or reference to the human
being.
• Street Photography uses the raw approach of straight photography from which
derives.
• Street photography isn’t just about taking pictures of people on the streets.
•
Street Photography follows from Straight Photography, inheriting from that documentary
photography part of its philosophy and
approach.
• But Street Photography is not documentary photography, or at least not only
focused on pure documentation of reality . With
respect to photojournalism are different motivations and aesthetics.
• Street Photography
needs of the environment.
• Street Photography may include or not include human
subjects. When the humans are not included there must be something that
tells a story, generally descriptive of the human condition.
• Photographing animals is fine,
but respecting the aesthetics of genre.
• Street Photography is much more than a candid
moment. The content must be strong.
• Street Photography is not seeking the beautiful photography.
• Street Photography is a
snapshot with a stunning moment.
• Street Photography is not and does not want to be
objective.
• Street Photography is completely subjective. In fact, Street Photography is focused on the
experience of the photographer in the public realm.
• Street Photography is not focused on reality.
• Street Photography offers a reading of
reality, creating fiction through surreal elements, juxtapositions, contrasts.


• For the Street Photographer is an attitude and approach. It is a completely different way of
living photography and the world
around him.
• Street Photography is not a commercial art. It is primarily a pleasure and a
challenge for the photographer who practice it. • Street Photography has more things in
common with art than it does with journalism.
• The camera used is not important. Cameras
are only tools.
• Street Photography is on random moments.
• Street Photography can be
colour or black and white.
• An heavy editing, selective colour, HDR, cloning elements,
extreme photo manipulation, stitching and combining of images is
desktop publishing, not good for Street Photography.
• Street Photography makes no
distinctions of class, race, religious beliefs.
• But it is not ethical to photograph a person just
because poor. In fact, this is not Street Photography.
Street Photographer respects the people.
• Street Photography is not offensive, without
discriminatory contents of any kind.
• Candid portraits are only a theme, not a sub-genre.
•
Probably Street Photography is only Photography at its purest form.
• Any attempt to define
and limiting Street Photography is destined to fail.

Although I am open to interpretations more or less wide on this genre, I think Street
Photography has aesthetic characteristics recognized universally. As photographers and by
extension artists we don’t like labels, and this sometimes causes reactions very passionate.
And no one has married the Church of the Orthodoxy. But there are Street Photography
motivations according to the audience:

To find an unrepeatable image revealing a story, a meaning or simply another lecture ofr
eality;
To make evident the profound sense of people's situations everyday;
To explore the human
condition through managing to capture the extraordinary in the ordinary;

Naturally also these points are discutible and can be integrated with other motivations. But
in the history of Street Photography these examples determine over a long period of time
and in a powerful and foreseeable way, not only visual trends and different approaches to
this genre, but adjacent interpretations, and in a certain way, the point of view of the
spectator, the final consumer of the image.
I sustain the social importance of Street Photography. It is another form to document our
era. Through Street Photography, and thanks to the Internet we are knowing more about
the world. No matter how the readings are photographic or not, if the image bears with it
more real or unreal elements. The mere fact of having photographs, photographs that as I
said always are documenting the human condition in any part of the world, deserves
consideration.


Through the ages Street Photography is evoluted and is constantly renewed thanks to the
strenght of masters but also through new movements (today we are seeing the great wave
of the greek scene) and styles so we have our icons and central figures like Henri Cartier
Bresson and Helen Levitt, we know that there was a time for the crystallization of the genre
in the 60's thanks to Meyerowitz, Friedlander, Winogrand. All of them, and others as well,
whose merit our respect for the work produced but also for the great impact on the history
of Photography.

Today we live in the era of the collectives, of the images shared through an incredible range
of social networks, maybe using the cameras of smartphones, and many street
photographers deserve being recognized, deserve monographs, exhibits and increasing
recognition in the field. It is strongly encouraging to perceive that if the masters have
created first-class art, also many contemporary photographers are doing sublime works
through an alternative approach to the documentary.
Photography has changed because world has changed. There is not a unique model to
make Art, Photography or in our specific case Street Photography. There is not just a way to
make street photography. And there is not the ideal camera for Street Photography: film,
digital, compact, DSLR, mirrorless, toy-cameras, pinhole, mobile... I believe that Photography
is today more than ever a participatory art where the sharpness of perception is facilitating
the considered minor artists to intensify the experience of the documentation of our way of
life.

“Street Photography is Photography and so the second question is easily answered, the
future of Street Photography is intrinsically tied to the future of the medium itself, while
there is Photography there will be Street Photography because it is the Prime Mover, the
evolutionary inheritance of all Photography.” Nick Turpin

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY NEEDS…

In order to obtain a good street photograph there are “must have” features in my opinion as
a photographer but also as an editor:

Visual Impact;
Content/story;
Composition;
Energy/Tension;
Author Strenght;

VISUAl IMPACT

The visual impact is the first thing we will see as observers of the image. It is very important
in a street photograph because images lacking of visual impact will be forget soon.

CONTENT/STORY

If is true Street Photography is telling a story through an image, well, or main focus on the
streets is finding a story and to be able to document it. It doesn’t matter if the story is not
that complex, but a street photographer needs to be essentially a story teller.

COMPOSITION

Despite someone (expecially the one not into street photography) thinks this genre is
feeding itself by the random moments not considering the compositional aspect is the
worst error a photographer could do. Of course we are talking about candid moments
where we can’t set anything or our subjects and compositions in street photography are
different by other kinds of photography.

ENERGY/TENSION

It is a fundamental aspect to me when I look at the picture. A street photograph needs to
communicate that tension noticeable in the public places. To the good street photographer
is required through the composition, his storytelling skill and the know how about
recognizing that decisive moment and capturing the energy to be showed in the still image.
Otherwise we will have a weak (dead) picture.

AUTHOR STRENGHT

For author strenght I mean all the choices made by the photographer to obtain the image.
The author strenght includes a particularly courageous decision, a dare to compositional
level (for example an extreme crop of a human body of the subject) allowing to show
something different and at the same time absolutely personal.

WHY I AM DOING STREET PHOTOGRAPHY?


When I started taking pictures I was attracted to pictures with people. I recognized,
although in the lack of knowledge of a child (I started at 10 years) a different expressive
strenght. I have the memory of a photo published in a Kodak course of some girls who
running in the rain with an umbrella. That picture is still vivid in me, with its creative blur in a
magical black and white. I can’t remember the author, but that photo is still part of me.
When I started again we were already in the digital age. In a certain sense nothing has
changed for me.Certainly not my approach, and the vibrations I get from doing
Photography. Maybe I'm still that child armed with a Fujica, my first camera.

If I look at my past I see everything as a training to become a Street Photographer. I watched
and studied the work of the masters. I watched and studied the work of others in flickr and
some forums. The funny thing is that I told myself that I would never have got to make
certain types of photos. I saw some contrasts, certain juxtapositions that seemed incredible
to my eyes. And i fell in love...
I studied hard to acquire certain aesthetics, sharing ideas with other photographers. Why I
shoot Street Photography? I could answer that landscape photography bores me, but this
would not be unfair to the Street Photography.
I shoot Street Photography because is the normal continuation of my artistic search: I was
born a writer, and a writer is essentially an observer.
Street Photography is essentially a story, then we decide if telling just a feeling or a state of
mind. “An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a
simple way.” said Charles Bukowski, my favourite writer. Well, if Photography is not easier to
write at least it's more immediate.

What do I get from Street Photography?

I think Street Photography is therapeutic. Ok, photographic gear can be expensive, but think
of all the sessions saved with the psychoanalyst...
There are so many things that Street Photography gives me and gave me...I would say the
most important thing it’s giving me, is a different way of seeing the world around me. Since i
am a Street Photographer the perception of things is completely different.

It is how I fully
enjoy life, ready to see the beauty even where apparently there is none, I see I have become
more tolerant, but maybe this is a normal process of maturing...

What do I usually shoot?

I argue that Street Photography is essentially a self-portrait. Or better it is a visual statement
of what is the experience of the photographer in the public realm. And we photograph
what we like, things we are attracted to. For better or worse. I think it’s inevitable, because
Street Photography is not a work on assignment. In my vision I prefer to ask questions rather
than provide answers.I don’t seek the pretty moment. I want to be a visual provoker.
What is my personal vision about it?
Street Photography is more popular today. But Street Photography is not for everyone.
Street Photography requires skills that not everyone can acquire.You can acquire
knowledge, historical and aesthetics, but the eye is a gift. If it’s there, you can wake it up, but
I have seen so many “photographers” who after years are still terrible. I repeat often Street
Photography is a matter of aesthetics, and just a few understand this. With the evolution of
the genre, also the idea of pictures taken in public to be defined Street Photography is not
so perfect. For example is accepted street photography is just in public realm, but against
the idea Street Photography is just in public places there are well-known examples. Think to
Daido Moriyama and the photos made in a hotel room, or a famous Winogrand picture
taken in a elevator...public and private places sometimes are confused.
Sure, someone will argue, in an orthodox manner, that a street must be in public. I have,
however, a broader view of street photography. For me is a matter of aesthetics: I could
make a portrait or taking a picture of a flower, an animal or a building with my street
photographer approach. Moreover we can see street photographs taken during a wedding,
or in a private garden, we have seen the family images from Blake Andrews with a clear
street photography approach.

The approach and the vision is important, and another time, the aesthetics. Then if you
don’t want to call it street just because it wasn’t made in the street, is not my problem.
Definitions, all the definitions are conventions. In the past on flickr there was a group
pretending street photography is just taken in the streets, no beaches, parks or subways:
fundamentalists there will always be. Other street photographers argue just photos with
people are street photography. But we know is no true. The images of dogs from Elliott
Erwitt should be considered as a heritage of all street photographers. Think about it...

YOU ARE PHOTOGRAPHING YOURSELF OUT THERE

Street Photography is always talking about the experience of the photographer in the
streets. This is essentially the challenge. If you think about Street Shooting, and you look at
the images of this genre, you should know that it is a personalistic documentation of the
photographers and their discoveries in public places. This is the real difference with other
types of documentary photography.
This is the reason why defining street photography is so tough to do, because the definition
is different for all of us. You should consider Street Photography the poetry of Photography.
Surely there is documentation, but in a personalized way and where the document is not
the main goal.
Thinking in this way, you will understand Street Photography can’t be just a candid shot
taken in a public place to strangers. Then two friends talking are not something interesting
for a street photographer because he is looking something more. More impactful.
Something that doesn’t happen every day, but that is part of the daily life. Something that is
able to make exclaim wow to the observer.
The content doesn’t even need to be particularly sought: sometimes can be a particular
condition of light, or a reflection that creates a particular composition.


TECHNIQUE

The worst error you can make: to consider easy Street Photography. Do you consider easy
writing? OK, anyone can take a pen and starting to write, but to be a writer is something
completely different. No way…street photography is not easy at all. You need to be a visual
storyteller. You need to be a writer using a camera rather than a pen. To go in the street to
take pictures is easy, to be a street photographer is something difficult and not for anyone.

Street Photography is not just a matter of technique but still you need to know if you want
to be a good street photographer.


In this book I want to share a quick guide for aspiring street photographers I published on
my blog:

- Start with a film camera, the better photography school, and then feel you free to use film
or digital;

- Forget AF, it doesn’t matter how much fast can be. Zone Focus is the way to go when it
comes to street photography;

- For the reason stated above when you choose the camera be worried that it is one that has
a good pre-set focus system;

- Therefore better a camera focused on dial, not menus;

- One camera, one lens: you don’t need nothing more;

- Don’t think for labels: OK, you are in the streets making photography, but stop to think
about street photography just do it!

- Enjoy the experience.

I consider these tips the basics for a street photographer. Following them I am pretty sure
you are just in the right path to get the most from the street photography experience.


A GUIDE TO UNDERSTAND AND USING ZONE FOCUS FOR STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION

Zone focus is the way to go for street photography: no doubt about it. This is one of the
reasons why we the street photographers are photographers different from the others.
Zone focus is certainly less accurate than autofocus (when working) but coming from film
cameras without an AF system I prefer to work almost in the streets full manual.

As a photographer I believe that perfection is not something that works for Art and the
heart has its own particular importance in my vision and approach.

However Autofocus system, also the most accurate, doesn’t work perfectly when it comes to
Street Photography. I experienced in the past a lot of frustration using autofocus with some
digital cameras.

For this reason as I explain to my students attending my workshops when it comes to street
photography , zone focus is the best way to ensure that you get your subject sharply in
focus the first time and every time, of course after you learn how to master this technique.

Camera zone focusing is a technique to help you take pictures with more convenience,
accuracy and speed avoiding to rely on autofocusing algorithms that won’t be able to
respond with precision in a second the most of the time. It uses depth of field controls to
establish a zone of sharpness in which any subject can be photographed without further
attention to focusing; these controls are coordinated by the depth of field scale built into
most lens barrels. 
Zone focusing is pre-focusing your camera to a certain distance guessing the DOF that you
will have at that distance. ,You will take the picture of the subjects as they enter that range.
It is a matter of trust and hope to get the subject as close as possible to the actual focus
distance on your camera.

You need to be able to change your focus distance as quickly as possible. Difficult? Of
course, yes. When you start. But after you will see the progress until you will convert yourself
in a DOF Master.


The main benefits of Zone focusing:
1. You convert yourself in a better photographer using this technique.
2. You stop to be worried by the Autofocus system of your camera, avoiding
frustration due to slowness and inaccuracy of the AF algorithms.
3. Even if you are born photographer with digital you will never be scared even
completely mechanical cameras
4. Your camera is faster than any AF system!
5. Satisfaction to photograph in this way is much higher.



Zone Focus in depth
Zone focusing is much more practical for street photography than the hyperfocal distance*.

The hyperfocal setting, indeed,  makes more sense for landscape photographers because
this method simply extends the DOF from infinity into the foreground.
For Street photography rarely we need to rely on infinity focus: we use generally smaller
apertures like f/ 5.6 or f/8 at a close working distance.
Zone focusing is a simple tecnique, using the DOF (Depth Of Field) effect to have the
desired object(s) at working distance in focus. When there is no time to fiddle with the
camera controls,or when we wanna be more unconspicious, for example shooting from the
hip.

Remember that focus is not an absolute rule. There is always a zone either side of the
focused point that is acceptably sharp. The size of this zone will depend on how far away the
subject is; the focal length and aperture of the lens; the size of the final picture; and what
you regard as acceptable.
If the lens on your camera is marked with a scale to indicate depth-of-field (hereafter d-o-f )
you can use this for zone focusing, as follows:
Choose the minimum and maximum
distances at which you are likely to shoot. In the street, for example, this might be 10 feet/3
metres and 30 feet/10 metres or (if you prefer to work closer) 6 feet/2 metres and 20 feet/7
metres, in according with your style and approach.

Choose a middling-to-small aperture, usually f/8 or f/11, and look for the d-o-f marks on
your lens (more rarely, on the camera body or focusing knob) corresponding to the aperture
chosen.
Set the focusing scale so that the distances in question are within the d-o-f marks.
If they won’t fit, either narrow your choice of focusing distances or stop the lens down
further.

Your lens is now set in a sort of snapshot mode that will require no focusing for any picture
taken within the range in question.
Once you know what an f-stop is, and how to set it on your camera, you will be a master
with the DOF scale of your camera.
*With the hyperfocal distance setting, the photographer gets the greatest depth of field out
of the lens.
The hyperfocal (you have with any camera) is only the maximum depth of field
achievable at a given aperture. For example, if you focus on f8 to 10m depth of field you will
be 4m to infinity at f11 if you focus on you at 8 m depth range from 3 m to infinity.
Please note: if you are a street photographer at bright light there are not particular
difficulties: you could use the camera in a “snapshot mode”, shooting at f/16, no need to
think that much. The problems start in less than ideal lighting, in a subway or at night.
When you are forced to shoot at F2.8 it really does matter and you need to think at any shot.
You need to become a Zone Focusing master.

This requires:

- Much experience in various situations and light conditions;
- A deep understanding of your camera and lens;
- Learning how to guess distances and using muscle memory;

What about the compact cameras? And DSLR?
The main problem is that not any cameras and lenses on the market have a manual focus
meter.
I consider DSLR not that good and never been a usual arm of choice for street
photographers. There have been cases, but it is always something unnatural. Rangefinders
cameras are the perfect tool when it comes to street photography.

That said currently I am not using rangefinder cameras. I use two compact cameras, without
a manual focus meter: Leica X2 and Ricoh GRD IV. Both have lenses that do not allow to
control parameters to achieve zone focusing working directly with the rings of the lens…

These compact cameras are equipped with a system of pre-set focus allowing me to avoid
to use autofocus, getting a faster point & shoot camera.

PRE-SET FOCUS WITH LEICA X2

The pre-set focus with Leica X2 counts with an advanced system managed with an easy
menu. Once set, manual focusing is performed by rotating the setting wheel until the image
of the subject are in focus. At this point a distance scale appears. A green bar on the scale
indicates the depth of field resulting from the respective distance setting. The great feature
on Leica X2 is is offered by the possibility to lock a set focus position by pressing the
delete/focus button for more than one second.

This is very useful to obtain a pre-set focus that will be retained even after switching the
camera off. When I will back on I will find the same pre-set focus as memorized.

Best cameras are those allowing you to use them as film cameras

I would recommend you cameras like Leica or Fujifilm because you can set your camera in
order to get the same thrill of film. On the streets this is the way I use my Leica X2:

Full Manual (I mean manual exposure and manual focus);

- Pre- Set Focus, starting from 50 cm minimum focus distance;

- Black and White JPG without RAW;

- LCD monitor off (Optical Viewfinder switched ON);

- Optical Viewfinder of course mounted on the slide;

This is my way to work on the street in order to make street photography when I use Leica
X2. I can assure with this settings Leica X2 is able to give you old sensations. For me it’s a real
pleasure to work in this way. And my street photographs are better.

PRE-SET FOCUS WITH RICOH GRD IV

Also Ricoh GRD series has a great pre-set focus system, ideal for street photography. In fact
with Snap mode I can set the focus at a preset distance where I usually take the picture of
my subject. Thanks to this solution I am not using AF also with a small and compact camera
as Ricoh GRD IV.


THE PERFECT CAMERA FOR STREET PHOTOGRAPHY



Hey, I’ve got a news for you: the perfect camera has never existed. There is just the camera
that is perfect for your type of Photography. When we decide to buy a camera we have to
rely only on our needs and habits.

When I must choose a new camera, I require these features:

- Dimensions/weight of the camera
- High Quality lenses and camera
- Dial/menu



I don’t like the plastic, so for me is really important a solid body. Currently my equipment for
street shooting counts with a Leica X2 and a Ricoh GRD IV. For street shooting you don’t
need expensive cameras: also a phone with a camera is OK.There are a lot of solutions: you
must limit yourself to choose the camera which works for you and your style.
I know photographers using DSLR, but if you ask me I do recommend something smaller,
light and discreet. The reason is easy: we should be able to always carry with us the camera,
also to supermarket. We can find very good compact cameras, and there are also really good
point & shoot film cameras, perfect and funny for street shooting.
And don’t think to change the camera every year. The need to change cameras is only in the
mind of the photographer. Our deep knowledge of the medium is more important and
useful. If you learn all about your camera and lens, photographing will be an act as natural
as blinking. I would suggest also to choose your focal range and not moving from that: you
will learn how to photographing without the viewfinder to frame your because you will
know lens like your eyes.
I am using two focal ranges: the 36mm of Leica X2 and the 28mm with my Ricoh GRD IV.
When in the streets with Leica X2 I use the optical viewfinder, but many times don’t need to
frame through this: I know my lens and I am shooting with my eyes.

But, seriously, you can shoot with any camera. I am using a 3 mpx toy camera and it is funny.
Sometimes I use the camera of my phone, a Nokia Lumia 505. For the last three years the
master Daido Moriyama used a Nikon Coolpix s9100 making something like 12000 shots.
Don’t think for cameras, think for stories.

WHEN I CHOOSE A CAMERA FOR STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

There are other features a camera for street photography must have and they are:

I can use it with one hand;
I can quit the shutter release sound;
I can Zone Focus;
Optical View Finder;

I am perfectly aware with Ricoh I don’t have the viewfinder (even if you can put it is not part
of the philosophy of a camera so small) and I am not that kind of photographer needs to
frame through an LCD. For this reason I prefer cameras like Leica and Fujifilm. The fact is that
I love the optical viewfinder because also having to deal with the parallax error is to me part
of that imperfection that still I ask to my photographic experience.

If you ask me my favourite way to work in digital is LCD off and optical viewfinder on the
hotshoe or, in the case of Fujifilm (tested a month), the hybrid viewfinder built on.

COMPOSITION IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY


Speaking of composition in Street Photography is a particular topic. Composition in Street
Photography is in fact something completely different than any other genre. Street
Photography lives of the unpredictability of the moment and compose sometimes becomes
more complicated because we can't handle everything as we would like. Many are the
coefficients of variability and we must manage them all in a unique moment.
Composing is a necessary effort to which we must never escape. At the same time we must
not focus too much on this.
The taste and the ability to achieve good compositions is given by innate capacities in
addition to acquired skills that the time turns into a real professionality. The study only
allows you to adjust and wake up qualities you already possess. No school or workshop will
give you the eye.The energy, the "cut", a particular choice or overview can be acquired or
improved through experience. Many photographers have a strong dependence on the
technological tools that use. Some have developed their own language on the basis of the
power and limits of their cameras.
Certain cameras because of their characteristics make you realize certain types of photos. I
am a strong advocate of this theory: a certain kind of camera or lens allows you to live and
perform a different type of photography.

That said, however, is the photographer and not the camera that does the photograph.
In
Street Photography more than in other photographic genres is important the component of
the instinct.
Being able to combine taste of the composition (someone would have said technique) and
instinct is a fundamental requirement for the success of our shots.
The importance of knowing the rules of composition is fundamental to understand
Photography. Before being street photographers we have to be photographers. Acquiring
the fundamentals enables us to understand when we can afford to break the rules.
In the photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson has always emphasized the absolute mastery of
composition, almost as if his was an obsessive quest of perfection and staying in the rules:
"Each image is strictly defined in its proportions, in the dynamic" Avigdor Arikha "Rigor of
the composition. Infallibility of the frame" Robert Doisneau

But is it true? Judging the entire work of the master is not always true. His geometrical rigor
and obsession with the rules of composition are evident in many shots but Bresson said:
"A photo is seen in its entirety, once. the composition is a simultaneous coalition, organic
coordination of visual elements. You can not compose for free, there must be a necessity
without separating the substance from form”.
I don't wanna speak about rule of thirds or diagonal method. In Photography there is a lot of
of rules that only quote them become encyclopedic work: axial systems, complemetary axial
systems, compositions in lines, pyramid, hourglass...
Important is to consider a few things.

PERSPECTIVE

The photographic image is limited to two dimensions. Many times the image appears "flat",
ie without force. To give to an image tridimensionality, we must use the perspective. To do
this we will use elements that are naturally in the frame, so that between the background of
the scene and its first element there is a distance more psychological than physical.
The elements inside the composition help the observer to delete the feeling of flatness.

FRAMING

Another technique consists in framing the subject or the center of interest using natural
frames present in the scene (a door, the entry of a cave etc.). This adds depth to the image.

SPACE

Use of space is important because it can change the concept of the image. We may decide
to give a continuum between subject and background or giving to our subject isolation
from the context.
Sometimes this is manageable, sometimes not: it depends for the unpredictability of the
street and its life.

BALANCE

The position of the elements in the composition determines the balance of the scene shot.
A photograph must be balanced and an effective composition should never remain empty
parts or useless for the message that we want to transmit. Everything you do not need the
image should be removed through an effective composition.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SCISSORS

"Sometimes a clean and decided cut according to the rhetorical figure of CONCEALMENT
can give a dramatic picture. In photography as in literature there are many such examples. I
always think of Carver's stories, broken in half and decided... Among the photographers
Eugene Richards comes to mind...Often happens that many photographers have some fear
to cut much a body, a head like the image above ... I often say to beginners: "Make an image
of security, but then you dare. Often the best photos are ones that ask questions, because
they make you think, they make work the mind of the viewer opening the doors of his
memory and imagination..." - Vittore Buzzi

The cut is everything in photography. Every time we frame and compose we are cutting a
portion of space electing what we want to show and what not. The cut is the signature of
the photographer, a tangible sign that shows us his eye, his way of writing with the camera.
The cut is not only a cut, but the strength of the author. Anyway the cut must have a sense:
we can't think of cut without logic. The cut must serve to highlight the contents and put
compositionally in relief the subject. The result must be a photograph. The process of
cutting is one of the most fundamental processes through which we make emerge our eye,
our way to see the world. to make a good photo is necessary to select the details that count.
We must analyze the scene and make order, looking for the best way to represent the
thought, the message or emotion that we want to transmit. There are various ways to
highlight a particular within the frame and there are some things to consider when looking
in the viewfinder, compose our image.

Sometimes the cut is to leave things in half and let fly the imagination of the observer. All of
this can give great strenght to the composition. Many times it is better to leave things
pending. Do not tell everything is part of the game when it comes to street photography.

ON THE STREET

When I have an open mind; I look above me, I look at the floor, I look away, behind my back,
I always consider the light and how this can influence what surrounds me, I consider the
street as a whole, so they are important to me signs, billboards advertising. A street
photographer must be democratic, not dismissing anything. The details are important,
observes the people, but also their expressions, their movements, their hands.


I need all my senses are connected with the street. This is the reason I don’t listen to music
with ipad. I need to hear the noise of the city, but also the smell…it is not just a matter of
the eye. To be a good street photographer you must convert yourself in an element of the
street: you must be the street.


TO BE CLOSE OR NOT? THIS IS THE PROBLEM

Rules, rules, rules. But the rules kill creativity. And however it is not always true that claimed
by Robert Capa in his famous statement "If your picture isn't good enough, you're not close
enough.” I think Capa with his statement wasn’t talking just a physical distance. And in Street
Photography for example is not always true. There are a lot of images containing much
environment, with distant subjects. And there are great images. We must not and can not
lay down rules when make Photography. Every moment, every composition must live off its
balance. Personally I haven't preferences and do not think I'm better when I do close-ups.
Every photograph has its own history. Certainly when i take a photo I have absolutely no
fear to get closer: I think I have shown this. But only that the composition requires this.
Making pictures with subjects very distant can be too a fascinating challenge for the
photographer.

I could quote a lot of masters of Street Photography and Reportage that have realized
images with distant subjects: Martin Parr, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand, Alex
Webb, Trent Parke, but also the same Robert Capa. And check out the pictures of the site in
public. Street Photography is not a sport, even if someone thinks it: street shooting is not a
competition to see who is closest. The important thing is the image. We must apply and
focus the attention to the composition: if we are close or far it is irrelevant with an
outstanding image.

COMPOSITIONAL ASPECTS AND THE INSTINCT OF A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER

When something catches my eye, I press the shutter button. With this sentence I said a lot of
my approach: I am used walking fast in the streets. Rarely do I stop somewhere waiting for
the decisive moment. And to be honest for me the decisive moment is an overrated
concept...
The importance of instinct is a much more important thing for me. I don’t make - as other
photographers - many pictures of the same subject. And I don’t pretend to say that it is a
proper thing, but I love this statement from William Eggleston: “I only ever take one picture
of one thing. Literally. Never two. So then that picture is taken and then the next one is
waiting somewhere else.”

This is also my approach when it comes to street photography. For me is important to be
able to capture the energy of the street. And this for me is necessarily not to think too much
before to take a picture. I think that the knowledge of the composition should be part of the
DNA of the photographer, and to act at a level almost unconscious when we take the
picture.
Remember that a photographer most of the time is what he is photographing, not how he is
photographing.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESULT

Photograph what you like, not what others are doing: This should be the rule for all of us,
but it is not always so. If you happen to go out with other photographers, sometimes you
will see someone who repeats the shot done by the other one. Naturally, this situation is
more common among beginners. We live in the image era, which unfortunately lacks a
visual culture.The speech unfortunately extends to prestigious international awards, where
triumph is the cloning of the images.
So, it is easy to be influenced and want to repeat a certain shooting. But my advice is: be
personal. Show your world, your city, that particular mood that warms your heart.
Photograph what attracts your attention,feeling the energy of the city, inspired by instinct.
Being personal is the key. And...you know why? Because Street Photography is a personal
experience, talking about you and your experience on the road. If you are repeating images
seen by others stop to see images on the internet.

Only this allows us to escape from anonymity. The secret is once again in shooting by
instinct: the photographer must be like a child, ready to be surprised by the special things
that happen in a city. Currently one of the trends is using the flash: I don’t use the flash in
the streets but I am not against this, but I would see something different and not always “the
reaction game”. Possibly not even the usual imitation of Bruce Gilden. When I used the flash
for a project I decided to use large times of exposure to create ghosts in the city. The result
has been the project REALITY REMADE. With personal satisfaction after the publication of
those images I’ve seen different photographers emulating that visual proposal.
About the flash thing, I would open a parenthesis: I've never actually been a major user of
flash. I used flash for the project "Reality Remade" that you can see among the published
projects on my official website. The project has had much response, to the point that a very
important and highly respected online magazine will publish an essai. And I used the flash a
few more times only to try something different and to experience something. I think indeed
to grow up as photographers we must have an open mind, ready to try new techniques and
approaches. Staying in the comfort zone is certainly no for me. But using the flash for me is
something which I soon lost interest. And the reasons are different. A friend of mine,
estimated photographer and for me a referement model overall with his commercial work,
but also for his great ability to compose carefully in the street helped me think a lot about
this topic.

In a chat he said me: "there is no place for flash in the street. none." and still: "anything in
addition to "how you found it" in street doesn't make it street. it makes it something else.",
"when you put light that is obtrusive you're making it about you .... not the way humanity
was at that moment."

By my part I am convinced that I am not interested only on documenting the human
condition in the streets and not only the reality. Many times I like to play with reality and
offer another reality through shooting reality. And for me Street Photography talks also
about the experience in the street of the photographer. And this justifies in part also the
recourse to flash if we accept that Street Photography is also a record of the experience of
the photographer on the street. But I agree a lot about his points.

Flash is easy but it can be also terribly boring

This point is neuralgic for me. Indeed when I am in the street using flash the most of times it
becomes a character hunt, almost paparazzi style, always looking for eye contact and where
the most of the images are nothing more than candid portraits. This is easy and so boring...
the problem more relevant is that with flash is difficult to be invisible and the approach is
completely different. The photographer the most of times becomes part of the frame,
revealing its presence and not finding a moment, he is building a moment that there is no
before his action. The moment is very often a reaction game. How many street shots with
flash are different from the "Gilden moment”? Ok, Bruce Gilden can be appreciated or not,
but he has created a style. Are we sure that we need all these emulators? Logically when I
started to use the flash I tried to to get away from the Gilden style. This led me to the project
"Reality Remade", but what could make now? Lighting people is not the most interesting
thing to make in the streets.
No, always been considering Street Photography much more than a reaction game and
overall is knowing how to recognize a moment and being able to capture it. And sincerely
I'm much more proud when through wise management of natural light and composition I
take the picture.

Flash is now a trend

Yeah, now flash is a trend in Street Photography, and we see many photographers to
experiment with the use of flash. Several are the reasons and not all very noble. Flash indeed
can represent easy shortcut for a not particularly skilled photographer to meet content.We
are seeing images with flash where the background is ridiculously full of elements of
distraction and where there is a concept of anti-composition. The justification is the
character. Sorry for me Street Photographer as said is much more than this.


Naturally I am not saying that everything is mediocre. The problem now is also that, through
youtube for example, we see these strobist street photographers presenting a false model
of Street Photography. They are acting like a sort of studio photographers staging their
subjects: this is a dangerous way to spread a false Street Photography approach. If someone
really believes that this is the way to make Street Photography a new breed of poor
photographers will be ready to invade the streets. The only one fortune is that trends are
destined to die.

Despite this I am not totally against flash: as an absolute fan of Mark Cohen I can’t be against
flash. I am against its use in any occasions and just to cover a lack of skills in finding stories
in another way.

Available light is better for me

Learning to catching and dominating the light is part of the great appeal of this genre. The
sun alone can give us fabulous and extremely interesting ways to illuminate our subjects,
and mental laziness derived from the use of the flash tends to forget about by many
photographers. The problem is that flash can create addiction in some photographer. I have
seen many photographers use the flash on the street without any justification: there was a
fantastic light that would give the photo a whole new dimension. But no...they are too
focused on flash.
I respect the photographers using the flash when it comes to Street Photography but this is
not more a right solution for my photography. I play a lot with the ISO (for me is not a
problem the noise that in skilled hands can become seductive grain) and I love to manage
the available light. I don't have problems with getting closer to my subject and I am ready to
meet the eye contact when the situation requires this, but my photography is not
standardized, and the use of flash is often a flat solution. And remember: somewhere there
is always light.

The important is the result

No matter if you are using the flash or no. No matter what camera you have. No matter if you
are using manual exposure or program. The important is the final result. If you are able to
create great photography, do you think is important to check out the exif data? Don’t
believe to other things.


“I think about photographs as being full, or empty. You picture something in a frame and it ‘s
got lots of accounting going on in it – stones and buildings and trees and air – but that ‘s not
what fills up a frame. You fill up the frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and
leave room enough for someone else to get in there.” - Joel Meyerowitz

This is a an instructional book, but exactly like my workshops I don’t want to dictate rules.
Art is Art. And it works with anarchist thinking, where the subversion of the rules is the way
to creativity.
The street is the natural environment for a street photographer. We, the street
photographers, are metropolitan animals. The street is an attitude for us. A lifestyle. A
different way of looking at the world. Taking photos on the street is a need. We stray
aimlessly filling the pages of our visual diary. Who is a street photographer knows it. You
don't go into the street for the others. You don't spend many hours walking with any type of
weather condition to share the photos of the day on the internet. If you are a street
photographer you know that the photo must be candid. Because of living on the street
shooting is part of that particular thrill, the adrenaline of not knowing what will happen.
Something that maybe you can control only in part, but you never certainty.

A street photographer, a real street photographer doesn't think for labels ... a street
photographer thinks only of his urban experience surrounded by excited voices, the
laughter, the shouting of boys out of school and the crying of a child, the lights, the street
vendors , the sirens, the billboards, the cars the music that comes out of a store, the sound
of breaking glass, and the street photographer, metropolitan animal is not a foreigner in the
city. A street photographer moves in the urban context with the certainty of his gait,
without forcing situations, ready to capture moments that only he can see, closely
connected with his soul.


We, the street photographers see the world like no other. It 'a game of unwritten rules
where the risk is part of the beauty of the game. A solitaire game where instincts come into
play and stubbornness, quick thinking and timing are fundamental. To be street
photographers is to accept every time the challenge with Lady Luck. The street
photographer is a predator of the moment and a precarious in action, aware that there is
not the perfect shot and that imperfection is part of the charm. It 'a treasure hunt, but
without the list of waypoints.

When someone tries to dictate the rules, you laugh. Because you know that you're the only
one who makes the rules, supporting only your vision. Street photography is a personal
issue, no talk. We, the street photographers don't abandon this way of photographing, it is
not a fad of the moment for us. It 's just our way of understanding photography.
I have already said: Street Photography is essentially freestyle photography. Hence the
implicit difficulty in getting everyone to agree. There is not a correct way to make street
photography. I prefer to work with compact cameras, and I prefer fixed lenses, wide-angle or
normal. But this is not a rule in absolute. Think to Saul Leiter, using tele zoom lenses.
I know that there will be photographers against the ideas expressed in this book. There are
photographers applying fundamentalist thinking and would like to enclose everything in a
few very strict rules from which if you come out you are committing a mortal sin...
Street Photography more than other genres is not focused on sharp shots or perfect
compositions. And the target of Street Photography is not the beautiful image.

I would say the priorities in street shooting are:

•CONTENT
•IMPACT
•ENERGY/TENSION

SAMPLING IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

“I think that the most important thing that photography can do is to relate both the
photographer and the viewer’s memories. At first sight a photograph looks straightforward
as it slices off a scene or a moment in time. But the images that photography captures are
actually ambiguous. And it’s because of this ambiguity that I like photography.” - Daido
Moriyama

My position with respect to sampling in Street Photography is simple: signs, posters and
billboards are part of the city and therefore can not be ignored. I consider a city a pulsing
organism where everything contributes to making the city alive. The lights, the smoke, the
billboards with its loud calls to us, the consumers - everything on the street is street
photography. As a photographer in the street I use the posters, the billboards and any signs
in my images.I can use it in context to the urban scene or completely abstracting it in an
extreme crop. I am not afraid of being accused of making a photo of a photo because I am
not using a copy machine: it is still me and my camera, and my visual research. With my
photography I'm favoring an impulse, even more when I talk about my street shots. I am
talking about myself, my dreams and my nightmares. This is what I'm looking for on the
street.

The city is talking through the billboards and the posters. And a street photographer simply
documents this through his snapshots. Photography is reproduction, but a reproduction
that can never be faithful to reality, but it is as far as we can come to this. The simple
reproduction becomes an integral part of the street photography composition, sometimes
becoming a new reality: think about the juxtapositions where the fiction of a billboard
suddenly takes life because of the relationship we create with the real world. Street
Photography is also absolutely connected to the urban culture, an urban culture that
communicates with billboards, graffiti and signs...thinking to remove this is nonsense.

On the street I consider myself an hunter. Contrary to a trend that seems to have reduced
street photography to photographing people moving in a city street, I am interested to
photograph everything that seems interesting to me in a city. I want to be free to use
advertising or even a close up of a face on a poster in my street compositions because this is
also a part of the city.

THE FIRST FEW TIMES ON THE STREET

One of the best things with Street Photography is the immersion with humanity. I am not
talking just about your subjects, also the people you meet being a street photographer. In
these years I met wonderful people and found friendship, sometimes real brotherhood.
Yeah, Street Photography is Social in many aspects.

The fear of taking pictures in the street, the first times, is positive because it denotes a
respect for people. This is absolutely normal, and is impossible pretending a beginner taking
a picture like that you see opening this chapter. It takes time to feel comfortable with a
camera in the street, but don’t worry at all, if you want to be a street photographer, making
practice this will be happen.
I have some nice tips for you, beginner street photographer:
- Choose the Downtown of your city, where there are a lot of people - and tourists - armed
with cameras like you. People in downtown of a big city is used with people taking pictures.

- Choose a billboard: first street photography project I realized was “fashion in the city” in
Rome. At that time I was using a DSLR, and to avoid the classical in your face shot, so difficult
when you start, you can choose an interesting billboard and just waiting the perfect subject.
Sometimes, in this way, you can create interesting contrasts or juxtapositions. The
advantage is that you can be at the other sidewalk, and the person framed in profile doesn't
even notice you.
- This is a tip for ever: always to have a positive attitude and respect for people. If someone
noticed you taking a picture of him/her, don’t be a liar. Show off your smile brighter -
without being fake or you will appear stupid - and explain the reason why you took the
picture.
- Absolutely terrified to take pictures of strangers? You must overcome this fear. To one of
my students I suggested to make something different from the classical street photography
approach. I asked her to go out on the streets and when she met an interesting subject to
ask permission to photograph. This is not street photography, but in this way with the focus
in a portrait series to send to me, she has overcome the fear with strangers.


THE WEAK STREET PHOTOGRAPHY



The problem nowadays with the great exposure of Street Photography is that we see an
invasion of street photographs, but the most of them are weak, continuous repetitions of
pictures made by others, lacking of energy, an effective story and content. I hate to see the
“people passing by” shots. A lot of “street photographers” on the Internet think is sufficient a
scene captured on the street. And many photographers convinced they must always include
people, repeat the same shot ad libidum.
But “people passing by” is not street photography, is just a candid shot, almost always very
weak in content. Internet created also trends: the trend of flash, the trend of lights and
shadows, the trend eye contact...this is the dangerous part for a street photographer: if, as
we said, Street Photography should be the documentation of the personal experience on
the road, why a lot of photographers are doing the same things?
But scenes captured in the streets without showing nothing is not the goal for a good street
photographer. The lack of a real visual culture of the most leading to this approval of the
useless shooting, invading flickr and facebook groups. They share a lot of images on the
Internet, desperately hoping recognition by other photographers as them. And the most of
the time apart this frantic race to the upload they limit themselves to talk about the new
camera from Fujifilm.
A visual culture is acquired with time and should incorporate who we are as people: not just
our photographic knowledge, but our cultural background, the music we love, movies we’ve
seen, our readings. As photographers we should focus on things we like and that we know.
A photographer, and even more a street photographer is a visual storyteller. For this reason I
consider that a good street photographer is a person with a culture higher than average.

“As in many things in life it is easy to become grumpy because you are not seeing
something for the first time and arguably you see more clearly what is meaningful. In short
it’s experience. So yes, there are too many photographs in the world, too many average
photographers getting attention but it all goes into the mix. You have to remain hopeful
because there is always work which can inspire.” - David Gibson
The worst mistake we can make when it comes to Street Photography is to go out on the
street thinking to make street photography. Or thinking to shoot strangers. Street
Photography is not just this. Street Photography is much more than this. I can photograph
urban elements, buildings, something I am seeing on the sidewalk. I can take a picture of
me through a reflection, or shooting a shadow, a cat, a particular atmospheric event. If you
limit yourself your photography will be limited. Don’t think for labels, think to meet
something that seems photography.

If you don’t agree, please take a look to the work of Lee Friedlander, Daido Moriyama,
William Klein, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston. I don’t care you don’t consider these
authors classical street photographers. As I suggested you, stop to think for labels.

THINKING FOR PROJECTS


In a certain way I consider projects when it comes to Street Photography a lie. If I think
about my approach to photography I split completely Street Photography from my other
works. When it comes to Street Photography my approach is in fact more instinctive and
ready to receive what the sea takes me.
If you read this book up to here you should have clear my idea about street shooting: for me
is photography in liberty and I am shooting fragments. Of course, sometimes these
fragments can be connected, and maybe meeting a set of images. I don't go out on the
street thinking to a project just as I don't think to go for Street Photography but simply
Photography. I know that working with a project in mind what would end with missing
decisive moments potentially good that can happen before my eyes.
My projects live in me a latent state, ready to be used when arrives an exhibition or a
particular work.
It is distinctly different from the commissioned works with my agencies. Because with Street
Photography I am working mainly for myself and I feel much more freely. Therefore I realized
and realize projects with Street Photography but without staring on these projects, leaving
them to flow through time. If Street Photography is like fishing, if I go fishing for trouts with
the risk not seeing a nice carp.

Thinking for projects when it comes to street photography is like a negation of the essence
of this kind of photography, because this genre lives of the moment. So, I say that there are
photos than can be collected in a project. Otherwise a dedicated street photography project
with street shooting can grow and develop just if the theme allows enough freedom of
movement. I think for example to a particular set realized with the flash like my REALITY
REMADE project. In general, however, I prefer to meet unique moments, because Street
Photography for me represents a personal outlet, very different from what I do as a
commercial photographer with a work on assignment.



SHOOTING FROM THE HIP


Believe me, if you think to avoid shooting from the hip, you will lose many opportunities in
the streets. The image of this chapter has been realized in a barrio, a popular neighborhood
in Mexico where you can’t think to go with a DSLR. You MUST use a compact camera. And
compact camera means most of the times no finder shots. I was very close to the lady, and I
took this picture with a in your face approach, framing with my eyes, no through a
viewfinder. But also having had a camera with a viewfinder this photo would never see it
coming as you can see if I had not used this kind of technique.
"If you use a single-lens reflex, you see things like this. And when you do this you want to
have a perfect focus. The moment which you want to capture does not fit your feeling, if you
do this. If you are using a compact camera, it is simple. Also furthermore, if you see like this
in front of many people in Shinjyuku, people turn their faces, or flee. Photography makes
people feel something. But using a compact camera, you can do it simply, so people do not
resist. The shutter sound is quiet, and you do not have to hold like this. This is convenient for
snapshots. Especially when you are taking photos of the Kabukicho are in Shinjyuku during
the night, you will have problems. So I take the photos with seeing the other side. I do not
call this a hidden shot, but a no-finder shot. If you do it like this, it is really easy. Therefore, I
still use this camera, and take photos of Shinjyuku. Of course, sometimes I look into the
finder and make a composition. When you are passing by, the finder is always moving. I
basically feel like taking more photos, that is my feeling." - Daido Moriyama about using a
compact camera - FROME THE MOVIE NEAR EQUAL.

The result counts: not the manner in which we obtain. This is the only one rule that I
decided to follow. Also as a professional: no agency or newspaper will ask you how you did
the photo, nobody will ask you exif data. And having preconceptions is a limit. That said,
shooting from the hip is a perfectly correct and photographic technique that helps us to get
that invisibility so important in the street. Unless you don't want to propose eye contact in
all your photos... legitimate, but absolutely boring.
Shooting with a small compact camera, without viewfinder is not limiting for me and is a
perfect device for Street Photography. When you get used to shooting without a viewfinder
you photograph the world as your eye sees it. This requires a greater knowledge of your
camera that will become your slave. The no finder shot from my point of view is not
something based on fortune like some photographers argue. I know perfectly what I am
framing, and this without seeing through the LCD.

I’ve got a news from you: shooting always from a viewfinder is not an evidence you are a
better photographer: but the world is populated with posers, pretending to appear like
professionals based if the act as photographers. We should’t be interested to this, but to
achieve the result. When it comes to street photography is fundamental because you can’t
repeat the moment. A lost moment will be lost forever.

I don't use always shooting from the hip. With my Leica I use two viewfinders: an electronic
and an optical viewfinder. With my Samsung NX20 and its 85mm lens I frame always
through the viewfinder. I am convinced that every photograph and any situation require its
technique. For this reason I say we should be able to master all the techniques, choosing the
best solution for each situation. But pretending that framing through a viewfinder makes
you a better photographer is a total no-sense. Also ignoring compact cameras with a snooty
attitude is not so smart. And very often reveals an approach to photography depending on
the camera. Cameras are just tools. We can have our favourite tools, but a real photographer
is able to make good photography with any device. Any device: yeah, also with your iPhone.

I would demolish this belief that shooting from the hip is a matter of fortune: this is true
when you start with this technique, then it is only a matter of deep knowledge of your
camera and lens. I believe in luck, but when you repeat the fortunate situations it is no more
just fortune. And if shooting from the hip allows me to take pictures like the pictures I take
in the streets, well I am a hip-shooter with pride.

No rules and don't listen the fedayeen. Listen your heart, follow your path and not hesitate.
Feel you free with your cameras: frame with viewfinder, with the LCD, snap from your thigh,
make your experiments, don't stay in the comfort zone: just in this way you can be a
complete photographer.

OVERCOMING YOUR FEAR OF GETTING CLOSE TO YOUR SUBJECTS WITH STREET
PHOTOGRAPHY

The street as a metaphor of life.Many writers have dedicated verses, poems, short stories or
novels to the street. If you ask me the street is one of the references of my life. The street
represents the journey and the change, or wandering with no particular destination. I like
the streets, empty or crowded. Street is Life. The street to me before as a writer, as a
photographer now is the the big stage where the man puts in place all roles of life: the
disenchantment, the gracefulness, the misery, and then again the commiseration, the
debauchery, the happiness…sadness and anger, protests and revolutions…It is no
coincidence that the great social and political revolutions have taken place in the street.
Because the street is the people.

When people ask me what is street photography for me all these considerations are inside
me. For me Street Photography is a great opportunity to live the street as I did when I was a
child kicking a ball…all the day in the street, until the evening…but one of the questions
I’ve heard most often from my students or other interested persons to investigate this genre
called Street Photography is: how do I overcome the fear of photographing strangers on the
street? And right after the other question, maybe in front of one of my picture: how do you
take pictures so close to your subjects?

The answers are structured and difficult to answer in one sentence. So with this post I will
try to answer to these questions.

Document yourself about Street Photography and make an effort to learn about yourself as
a photographer

It may seem absurd, but the major justification for a street photographer is getting to take
pictures of impact and with a winning composition. This s the first inner strength that comes
from a strong motivation so if you document yourself about what is Street Photography you
will have more courage.

What’s the worst that can happen?

Remember your body language influences in a positive or negative way: if you’re anxious
about something, thinking something could go wrong, it will does. It can help to think
through what the worst end result could be. Even if you are a shy person and you are not
that great photographer the most likely is that you and the world will survive. Most of the
times the worst that can happen is a bad picture. And this depends just by you. If you are
peaceful and concentrated with your work probability of failure will decrease.

You are in the street with your camera taking pictures. This is the fact. And today we know
very well what the risks: most of the people, though it may seem strange, has no problem
with photographers in the street and these people will pay no attention to you. At a lower
percentage, there will be reactions to your photographing. Reactions can be:

- Have you taken a picture of me? Our decision to reply or not. But this depends by the
situation. As a street photographer I avoid most of the time to stop myself and explaining. I
do not have to justify anything. I am in a public space and I am in my full right to take a
picture. When I stop I’m (almost) always honest trying to explain what made me decide to
take a picture.

- Violent reaction: insults. OK. Shit happens. And we must keep calm. If the person shouts,
we should strive to remain calm and speak quietly.

Violent reaction 2: physical aggression or someone steals the camera . I don’t want to scare
you because it is a very rare event. But not impossible. In this case not to lose control, if
there is a place of the police in the vicinity report the fact.

Important: if you are overly nervous, starting to get a faster heartbeat or sweating palms,
the best thing is not to fight it. Stay where you are, don’t take the picture and simply try to
distract yourself. Stop to think to make photos for a time during your walk. Remember also
that Street Photography is not just a matter to get close to your subjects: if you know
yourself you can prefer most of the times to take pictures avoiding to enter at that distance
which is considered private space that each person has. We have great examples of street
photographers shooting subjects very far and still they take great pictures. But this is a post
about getting close, so we continue…

Face the fear getting close to your subjects

One of the tips that often psychologists give to overcome fears (spiders or get on a plane for
example) is to face them. Whatever your fear, if you face it, it should start to fade: you are
scared to take a picture of a stranger in the street? You don’t want to get close to your
subject? Just do it!

Face the truth: getting close will you award with more interesting images

t is not a rule. As I said there are a lot of street photographs very interesting and taken from
far away.But do not fool ourselves: most of the times we need to fill the frame for photos of
high visual impact. And the answer many times is just one: Get closer. “If your picture isn’t
good enough, you’re not close enough.” said Robert Capain one of the most famous phrases
uttered by a photographer, and although I am convinced that he was not referring only to a
physical distance, often is a great advice for street photographers. Because get closer to our
subjects also adds an emotional charge that is often successful for our images.

Oh, Sure. You could think to realize a winning composition also with distant subjects, but
often in overcrowded streets you’ll end with dilute the sense of what you wanted to tell.
And storytelling passes for a good composition with an immediate visual impact. When you
feel the fear coming think just is NOT FEAR, it is adrenaline and is a positive fact to create a
stunning image with the right tension. You will think, “If get close, I will make him/her
uncomfortable. And I will make myself look a disturber” But is no true. The reality is indeed
the opposite. I’m not even talk about looking for a reaction from your subject: believe me,
this is not the point at all. And you can get closer and still without that person showing signs
of reaction to your attention as a photographer.

Believe me: this is possible thanks to the experience on the street and the gift of invisibility
acquired. In this case also the equipment is important. I am used to take pictures in the
street with compact cameras, Leica X2 with an equivalent 36mm lens and a Ricoh GRD IV
with its 28mm. This means I must I have to get close if I want my subjects filling the frame,
but as you can see in these images I am able to do it. For a street photographer, getting
close and in their face is one of the skills.

Technique

I just said invisibility is one of the skills to reach the goal with getting closer to our subjects.
Now I would to explain something about the technique. Generally I prefer to use pre-set
focus with my cameras in the street. and most of the time my cameras have the lenses
pre-focused to 1.5 meters. This is my choice but other photographers can set their cameras
to other distances: is an assessment that take into account the aesthetics that we want to
give our photography, based on our habits and approach as street photographers. If I need
to take pictures to a completely different distance I will adjust the focus of my camera.

Another important aspect is my body language and what I will do before to take a picture of
an interesting subject: I always dissembled until the last, with the camera secured to my
wrist is easier, ready to take the pictures but only in the last fraction of a second useful to
frame the subject and photograph him. It is clear that this implies a deep knowledge of the
camera and the lens, the reaction times. I am not hiding myself about what I am doing: it is
pretty clear I am taking pictures in the street, but to obtain candid pictures I absolutely need
to avoid alerting my subjects. And when I shoot in the Barrio, sometimes in a desolate street
this caution is an “ace”.

A tip for learning to dare

If still you fear to get close to my subjects I would like to suggest an exercise that I give often
to my students: forget about Street Photography and start a small project in the street: go in
Downtown (where people is more accostumed to photographers) and choose the subjects
that you find interesting coming over and asking permission to take a picture. Of course this
is not street photography but to the end you will be more secure even in the face of some
predictable rejection. You will see how that experience you will gain in confidence and you
will be better able to take pictures without asking permission.

Remember that…

When you are taking pictures at a very close distance, you are always entering within the
subject’s private space. If in a very crowded area you can be even not noticed , you will get
spotted in places with very few people. Shooting close to your subject means often
interaction: in this case and because you are perfectly aware you are doing something
completely legal and not hiding what are you doing a smile or a “thanks” will freeze the
most of your subjects. Always do this with maximum respect and not with a bully attitude.
Sometimes can happen also to stop yourself and having a little chat with your subject:
explaining what are you doing and to know more about your subject can convert the
experience in something more. As I love to say an experience in the experience and it will be
pretty cool to see the image you took in front of your computer when remembering the
story behing the shot. I would say, guys: respect, always.

In conclusion

So…getting closer to your subject does lead to better pictures? I don’t think there is a fixed
rule. But as a photographer and photoeditor, looking at many many street photographs I’d
say that physical proximity also corresponds to a greater emotional involvement for the
photographer and the observer of the image. Using normal or not extreme wide-angle
lenses we can show a balanced interaction between the subject and the public
environment.shooting very close to our subjects will often mean eye contact, focusing on
our subject expressions, revealing more about psichology of our subjects.

Thoughts about Street Photography

In these years I interviewed several street photographers for my blog and for The Leica
Camera Blog. I thought it was interesting to insert in this guide some ideas and
considerations about Street Photography from those interviews.

“Today more photographers than ever before, especially on the amateur side, shoot candid,
un-posed scenes on the streets. Out of this plethora of images, there are a good many that
stand out as fascinating works of visual intuition and lucidity, images that don’t just mimic
the works of their predecessors but slowly and surely move the genre one step further. I
suspect that the disregard of the art establishment towards the genre has cunningly worked
to corrode the minds of some street photographers, who in turn become more consenting
in the mockery and belittling of similar work but never question their own. This is of course
just another consequence of social media. For me, the real challenge facing the street
photographer today is organizing huge, unedited swathes of photographs into coherent
bodies that will communicate further meaning and context. Only then will the single
photographs therein become “work”. In light of that, I believe that the term “street
photography” makes perfect sense today.” - Zisis Kardianos

“It’s kind of a ‘primitive’ form of photography. it’s more like hunting. maybe if i would have
been a hunter, i would never have touched a camera. but these days it’s difficult so instead
of shooting wild animals in the woods, i shoot wild drunks in the city, you know.” - Junku
Nishimura

“In general, when I can, I prefer to take street photos without people being aware of me. I
prefer that they are not responding to me or the camera. I also prefer to think of the
composition and the whole photograph rather than just shooting unusual people. Street for
me, is shooting people in their environment so the urban backdrop is vital to that.” - Leanne
Staples



“I think street photography is too heavily imitated. People seem to believe if they have a
camera and they are in the street that they can be a street photographer. Of course, nothing
could be farther from the truth. Street photography is damn hard. I’ve been at this for a few
years now, quite seriously too, and I have about five images that are truly good. Another
problem is that too many people are imitating Bruce Gilden. God love Bruce, but please
people stop trying to copy him. All I see these days is shot after shot… after shot of some
stranger’s face. It’s not interesting. There’s no story. Worse yet, most of this shit is shot
though a long lens. At least Bruce uses a 28mm and captures some context and “story” in his
shots. Furthermore, his work is his work. It’s unique. He finds the “right” faces and makes the
shot work. He also probably has contact sheets that would tell us just how difficult this really
is. I’ve watched Bruce work in the street and I suspect we see one shot for every thousand or
so. Anyway, yes, I think that there are many aspects I don’t like but most of it has to do with
people buying cameras who should be banned from the store. Go out and paint or garden
or learn to cook but for God’s sake if all you have to add is another shot of some startled old
woman’s face bugger off from the photography scene. Is that harsh? Maybe, but I could care
less. Some people need to be told that there work is crap, this way they can get on with their
life and grow vegetables or something.” - Michael Ernest Sweet

“There are so many ways to make good street photographs and most opportunities are
serendipitous. You just have to be paying attention, know the signs and be willing to work
the scene.” - Chris Suspect

“It’s great that more and more people are getting into street photography. But the downside
is that a lot of these photographers don’t care to know the history of the genre, so they
think any photograph made on the street is a street photograph, that any photograph made
somewhere else can’t be a street photograph, and blah fuckng blah. Even beyond that, you
talk to them, and they don’t even care to know about Tony Ray Jones, or Lee Friedlander, or
Tom Wood…and that shows in their photographs, you can just see their total lack of depth,
there’s no potential there. Too many of those people are quick to act like authorities in street
photography when they really know fuck all about it beyond what they’ve Googled or
Fave’d this week. You just gotta laugh at all of that.” - Sara T’Rula


““Street” photography is about tuning in with the pulse of the world, listening to the rhythm
of life in the street and following its flow. I believe that only when we are “tuned in” we can
recognise and acknowledge the pure, elemental energy of the street. The presence of this
energy – if the photographer manages to capture it, of course – is one of the main factors
that elevate photographs from the status of simple snaps of scenes that could seem
ordinary at a first glance, to being an appealing representation of fragments of humanity
caught in poignant, bizarre, unique moments.” - Fabrizio Quagliuso

“I’m not sure I agree with the popularity of street photography. I think you and I, and a few
others, spend a lot of our waking hours consuming everything about street photography.
Having the Internet to discuss our passion for street photography makes it seem like it’s
growing in popularity, but if you were to ask someone on the street what Street
Photography is they’d probably say “That guy in Times Square that wants to take your photo
for $10, right?”

I think the labeling doesn’t necessarily describe it accurately. I wished there were a different
term for it. I hope someday we’ll just be considered photographers. Why even the need to
label yourself? How did we go from making candid photos of people become street
photography? Have you ever had to try to explain street photography to your mother?” -
Gary Gumanow

“Tough, challenging, fun, exciting, addictive, emotive, life, escapism, poetic.” - Linda Wisdom

“I walk the streets like a lost tourist. I turn a corner when I see something interesting and I’m
mostly unaware of danger. Along the way I snap pictures of things, people and places that
peak my interest. An average day or night out is usually a 8 mile walk, some days I go for two
walks. I have a tendency to wear out a lot of shoes.” - Michael Penn

“I like to see new approaches, I like to see honest, genius and brilliant eyes. I like it when
photography gets political. I like to see ego-less photography, I like drama and tension, I like
when I see explosions of feelings and when these are related to broader issues. I like when
relevant contents are delivered in elegant or innovative forms.
I don’t like sterile self-centered and self-obsessed photography. I don’t like the obvious or
the single-layered, I don’t like pure esthetic exercises and mannerist bullshit. I get easily
bored by the parroting of well known photographers. I hate geeks street photographers and
I hate the workshops organized on the streets with flocks of “enthusiasts” self-defined street
photographers eager to learn in a day what you really learn in a lifetime. I definitely don’t
like copycats.” - Mimi Mollica

“1.Spend more money on photographic books than photographic equipment.
2.Look at Magnum more than Flickr.
3.Use a standard lens and take photographs as the eye sees.” - David Gibson, 3 tips

“Street photography is a documentation of life. What we shoot today will be very different
from what will be ten years from now. So street photographers can be viewed as
documenting history. With the advancement in digital technology the number of
photographers have multiplied. Creating beautiful landscape images etc. with the help of
technology and softwares at our disposal is much easier today than in earlier times.
Photojournalists can fire off 10 frames per second to capture the action of an event and
send it in for publication minutes after capture. Street Photography I feel is now the most
challenging genre of photography. Most photographers if sent to the Himalayas are likely
to return with some spectacular images, but put photographers on a city street and the
resulting images will most likely fail to inspire. Capturing special moments in ordinary
circumstances is not easy which is why we see an abundance of average street work online.
Technology and software are less important in a street photographers pursuit of the
decisive moment. Ten years from now new street photography styles may emerge but I
hope there are as many photographers roaming the streets and documenting the evolution
of life and society.” Kaushal Parikh

“Firstly I think the point we have to tackle is why people are accused of emulating others?
Firstly, people need to stop seeing this as something only Gilden can do and others emulate.
The style is not too dissimilar to the likes of weegee etc. It’s just a valid form of photography
and isn’t limited to the output of just one man.

What people need to do (in my opinion) is consider why they want to do that style, how is
that going to get their point across, what is their point in the first place and what is the
purpose of the images.

If using a flash in such a way helps the photographer capture a specific emotion or
atmosphere which is crucial in getting a message across to the viewer, then by all means it
surely has to be used. If it’s just a kid doing it for kicks, then you have to question it because
when it comes to a point where they have to answer to someone about what they’re doing,
they’ll not be able to. And going on most of the videos of photographers “defending their
rights” on the internet, it’d likely result in something bad for the genre.” James Dodd, about
using flash in the streets

“Street photography to me is making art out of my surroundings and everyday life. It’s a
constant personal challenge to capture and frame a scene, a moment in life, or an
interesting person and make it something aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I use the camera
to frame and snap what I see wherever I go, so, in a way it’s a digital visual diary for me.” Rinzi
Ruiz

“street photography is for me a way not only to see but also to feel the fellow people, the
world, the everyday reality, the small details which engulf us in public places but which I
couldn’t see before starting to shoot in the streets or before starting to enjoy the good sp of
other photographers. Street photography is a way to discover an invisible world, a parallel
odd world which coexist with the boring one we all know.” - Andreas Paradise

“I think the key word here is faith. Or optimism to use another word. If you walk around
thinking you’re not going to see anything, it’ll become a self fulfilling prophecy. You won’t
see anything. But if you walk around with the expectation that a photo can be anywhere,
that one will pop up around the next corner, you will see things. The environment is exactly
the same in both cases. It’s the mental outlook that matters. Every single time I go out
shooting I see the potential for at least one world-class photo. They are always out there. But
being in the right mental state to capture them is sometimes difficult, especially because
street photography can involves long periods where not much happens. So developing that
faith and keeping it with you at all times is important. The world will provide if you trust it
to.” - Blake Andrews

“I do not care much for trying to define genres That may be a cop out since I am very poor at
verbalizing this kind of thing. I see, though, that my personal definition has gotten looser
over time. Candid photography seems to be the constant, but sometimes a scene in my
personal life gets thought of as street photography. I have one of my wife in the shower
that I call street….. so you can see that I can’t be relied on for a definition.” - Jack Simon

“Act natural in your environment, as if you belong there. Don’t try to sneak a picture.” -
Markus Hartel, a tip to aspiring street photographers

“I don’t really care what people say. I do what I like to do and if they don’t like it, it’s not my
problem. Vivian Maier is also called street photographer although he was often just
documenting life in public. I sometimes just go a bit closer that you don’t see what the
person is doing or wearing. If you want to make it right for everyone, you would not have
time to take photos.” - Thomas Leuthard

“When iN-PUBLiC was founded in 2000 by Nick Turpin in London, there were no other sites
or collectives dedicated to serious street work; now there are many that have followed us. To
me, the 21 members of iN-PUBLiC represent the gold standard of the world’s contemporary
street photography. One thing iN-PUBLiC stresses above all else is being a ruthless editor of
one’s own work. This is the most crucial aspect of our work as a group. We continually and
mercilessly – but with respect – critique each other, pushing each other to work outside our
comfort zones as our personal styles evolve. If you want to find examples of work on the
highest level without resorting to tricks and gimmicks, it is still the first place to go. It’s an
honor to be among this group of serious, dedicated, street photographers.” - Richard Bram,
about in-public


RESOURCES


MY LINKS

OFFICIAL WEBSITE http://www.alexcoghe.com/
BLOG
http://www.alexcoghe.com/blog/
FACEBOOK FANPAGE
https://www.facebook.com/ALEXCOGHE
FLICKR
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alxcoghe/
GROUP ON FLICKR
http://www.flickr.com/groups/in35mm/
TWITTER
https://twitter.com/ALESSIOCOGHE
NASTY http://alexcoghe.tumblr.com/

THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHER NOTEBOOK (MAGAZINE)

http://streetphotographernotebook.tumblr.com/

CONTACTO: alex@alexcoghe.com

MY WORK FOR LEICA CAMERA AG:

http://blog.leica-camera.com/topics/photographers/blog-contributors/alex-coghe/

http://blog.leica-camera.com/photographers/interviews/alex-coghe-every-moment-tells-a-
story/

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY LINKS
TO START

http://www.lfph.org/what-is-street-photography

http://www.in-public.com/information/
what_is

http://nickturpin.com/words/undefining-street-photography/

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIVES

http://www.in-public.com/
http://www.street-photographers.com/
http://www.burnmyeye.org/
http://www.thatslife.in/
http://calle35.com/
 http://noisephotographers.tumblr.com/
http://www.spontanea.org/
http://www.seconds2real.com/
http://www.public-life.org/
http://www.stratacollective.com
http://www.streephers.com/ 
 http://strange.rs/




MAGAZINES
http://streetreverbmagazine.com/ 
http://www.theinspiredeye.net/
http://lpvmagazine.com/
http://www.burnmagazine.org/
http://www.americansuburbx.co
m/
http://streetreverbmagazine.com/



VARIOUS RESOURCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photograph
http://www.nonphotography.com/streetphotography.html
http://invisiblephotographer.asia/
http://streetphotographynowproject.wordpress.com/

BLOGS
http://www.sevensevennine.com/
http://blakeandrews.blogspot.mx/
http://www.beyond-obvious.com/
http://www.markushartel.com/blog/
http://blog.leica-camera.com



How did you like this book? Do you

have any suggest or question about
this guide? Do you have any
proposal for me? Please contact me
to: alex@alexcoghe.com