Street Photography relates to study of people in public places, usually, but not always in an urban environment. The person is usually photographed without any awareness, or only half-awareness of such. Street photography is a form of social documentary which aims to capture interesting moments of people, in ordinary settings. Because street photography is spontaneous and candid, it is very difficult to properly frame a photograph. Therefore street photography takes a great deal of patience and practice, because the photographer must develop an intuitive sense of knowing exactly when to take a photograph.
Street Photography began in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period of history there were great social and political changes around the world as a result of the end of WWII, triggering Cold War and accelerating the collapse of Empire around the world, leading to many people changing and questioning the outdated conservative views of societies all around the world. During this period technology was also greatly advancing, and people’s perspective of the world was rapidly changing as a result. The lives of everyday people was altering rapidly and photographers needed a way to reflect this. Photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank took to the streets during this time, exploring how ordinary people went about their everyday life, undisrupted. Street Photography was a protest against the belief that photographing people had to have a particular focus or genre (War Photography had dominated Documentary Photography during the time). Instead, street photographers would literally photograph anything that interested them on the street, and so would work very spontaneously.
Street photography can be seen as quite controversial due to the fact that the people being photographed usually do not consent to the image being taken, regardless of whether the subject is happy with it or not. In the UK photographers have a legal right to photograph members of the general public, permission is however needed to publish photographs. Nevertheless many people view this as an invasion of personal privacy. I find it interesting how over time this idea has become more extreme, as the possibilities technology and social media has grown to an extent that people are often fearful of being photographed by complete strangers.
Finding the right moment to take a photograph is a common ambition and theme that many street photographers strive to achieve. Street photography is very much about the element of luck and chance, being in the right place at the right time. I addition to this, street photographers are also required to know exactly how to frame the photograph right, as an effective street photograph is the balance of effective mood ad composition.Henri Cartier Bresson termed this as the ‘decisive moment’
This YouTube video is a tutorial by Magnum Photographer Bruce Gilden, himself a famous and suucesful street photographer. It is a very honest and blunt insight into Gilden’s opinions of what makes a good street photograph