Street Photography: the impulse to take candid pictures in the stream of everyday life. Street photography is a form of documentary but it is decidedly not reportage and rarely simply tells a story. Sometimes a street photographer captures something truly unusual – an extraordinary face, an accident, or a crime in the making. But more often a good street photograph is remarkable because it makes something very ordinary seem extraordinary.

street photography, a genre of photography that records everyday life in a public place. The very publicness of the setting enables the photographer to take candid pictures of strangers, often without their knowledge. Street photographers do not necessarily have a social purpose in mind, but they prefer to isolate and capture moments which might otherwise go unnoticed.

Numerous photographers, including Alfred Stieglitz, Berenice Abbott, and William Eggleston, took photos on the street but did not consider themselves street photographers.

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz photographed the streets of New York City and Paris at the turn of the 20th century during inclement weather, the effects of which were captured in his images.

Image analysis

This is a good example of street photography. The light reflecting off the wet floor contrasting with the dark shadows of the trees creates a dramatic setting. I think Steiglitz has captured the perfect night scene from the streets of New York. This image, visually, is split into three clear sections of foreground, mid ground and background; foreground being the highlighted floor, mid ground being the silhouette of the tree trunks and the back ground being the trees with the bright streetlights seeping through them with the grand buildings in the background. The focal point of this image, i would say are the trees. They look dead and twig like, however they are tall and old looking which suggests that it could be around winter time when the leaves have fallen off.