Basics of fine-art photography/Creating works in street photography

Street photography is a genre of photographic art, where uses random events, incidents, scenes from life, etc. as its subject matter. Contrary to the first word contained in the name of genre, not only the street, but also any public places can serve as a space for action.

Viktor Pinchuk "To each his own" (São Paulo, Brazil)
Photo taken on a Latin American expedition

General information

This genre is a relatively new concept in photography. Its essence lies in the fact that the photographer, having found himself (more often involuntarily) in the right place at the right time, like a cowboy from American Western, deftly takes the camera out of "holster" to capture a scene which might not be there a second later. Usually there are people in the frame, but sometimes it happens that their presence is only implied (see photo 2 in the gallery).

Street photography is documentary in its essence and content, and designed to reflect the reality that surrounds us, but some authors artificially create scenes of events, inviting posing participants in order to later pass off the image as a random shot. Such actions are rather the exception to the rule.

Ways of implementation

Of course, it is not easy to go out every morning to "photohunt", hoping to see an interesting street scene: unsuccessful "outings" can last for weeks and months. Therefore, following the example of the author, become travelers: wandering around the cities and villages of the globe, sooner or later you will witness an interesting episode from the life of the natives of a particular country; all that remains is to quickly point the camera lens at what you sees and sharply press the shutter button. As an example, look the photoworks in gallery: they were shot by accident in different countries.

But if you are alarmed of the costs and difficulties that are inevitable in the life of a traveler — this is not your genre — test yourself, for example, in landscape photography.

Gallery

Photos taken by the author of article on a Papuan expedition

• 
  Gazing into the abyss (Laos)
• 
  Just yesterday they were barking (Kambodia)
• 
  Almost symmetry (China)
• 
  And they have two problems... (PNG)
• 
  Queue (China)