PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE

Street Photography in Different Eyes

When a challenge really challenges your skills

When I asked Shruthi Sundaram for the topic of the next week she just said “street photography”. My heart sank and my hopes of an interesting topic just vanished.

But wait. Why? Didn’t I join this photography challenge with her to learn something new? To grow as a photographer? To challenge me and my skills? And to come out of my comfort zone.

My comfort zone is surely wider in many ways than most other people. But it is quite narrow when looking at my photography. I don’t photograph much outside my comfort zone. And my comfort zone is nature.

Why I didn’t like the topic of street photography at first is obvious. Because I’ve never done it. And I’m like everyone else. Despite jumping out of planes, I still don’t like doing things I’ve never done before. If it’s in the sky or behind the camera standing on the ground, learning a new skill frightens me.

But as I remember why I was in for it, I read up on the definition of street photography.

“Street photography at its essence means candid photography of people and humanity. A street photograph has to be a real, unposed moment.

However, the term itself is inherently unclear and clunky. For instance, a person does not have to be in a photo for it to be considered a street photograph.

Trying to define street photography is almost like trying to define what sweet or salty is. You can’t fully describe it, but you know it when you see it.

Street photographers are observers, flâneurs by nature. It is a way of connecting with the world and bringing back the moments that stand out. It can be likened to a visual form of poetry – while beauty and form are important aspects of street photography, great street photographs often have something going on beneath the surface.” — James Maher

Reading this made me feel a bit lighter. Humans don’t need to be in the shot. And street photography is in the end something as vague as most other categories.

My first approach to street photography was finding a street.

A street can be made of many things. It could be tar, concrete, bricks, cobblestones, or gravel, for example. And I found some of them in my surroundings.

Living at the airfield far away from the nearest civilization, I wasn’t up to walking a marathon just to shoot some street photographs.

I decided to do it my way. Improvising a little. Getting creative. Working with what is there. And just capturing the moment.

I captured the streets, or roads, from different angles and included various details.

Like a bus stop, for example. There are surely many bus stops in cities with lots of human movement. But this one in the countryside is no less of a bus stop than all the other ones. Just because nobody is standing there.

And since I found no humans on the streets, I decided to focus on human influence. Like on this tree.

You can clearly see that people have cut off branches on this tree. For cars to pass safely. For the tree to grow taller and not wider. And maybe other reasons.

Talking about humans, I must include street signs as well. Some signs are for helping humans to find destinations. They give directions. And distances.

Others give you information and tell you where you are allowed to walk. Or not to walk.

Finally, I found a person. Maybe this post about street photography will be a real one after all.

And then I found this security man standing on the side of the road. Often you’re not allowed to photograph officials but this guy didn’t mind.

And just before turning around on my mission of street photography, I met this lone wanderer crossing the road.

An island in the middle of the road might be his destination.

Or this one. Too shy to cross the road yet and shake hands with a stranger. But curious enough to come close to the edge of it.

There are some weird creatures out there and street photography is here to present the variety of life.

This was my attempt at it.

I hope you enjoyed my alternative approach to the topic.

If and when I get to a town or even a city, I’ll try again. But this is it for now. Shruthi, this is my response to the challenge.

And here I am challenging other photographers to get out of their comfort zone and try out some street photography:

Dennett | David | Barb | Erika | Shruthi | Diana | Kim | Ellie | Juan | Pene Francine | Barbara | LensAfield | LucianoSphere | Susan | Mary | pockett | Vidya | Ian | K. Barrett |

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