As you might already know, for me street photography is all about freedom. There are many aspects inside there that purely subjective and could be different from one person to the others.
Each street photographer will have their own judgement to decide what is the real meaning of street photography itself. How to create an image, how to decide whether a photo is good or not, how to decide which shoot method that works for them, which focal length is the best, which camera brand produce best quality, etc. All of these aspects are subjective.
What is the best style in street photography?
From my experience, the “biggest” argument is about whether a street photo should contain stories about humanity inside or could be purely aesthetic without strong story line. Which one is better? A photo that focus on people’s emotion or a beautiful abstract image? or a bit of both?
I believe the true answer is only ourself can decide. Ask ourself, and find our own call. No one would able to give the absolute answer. If we look at Old Master’s work like Bruce Gilden (photograph people from close distance with wide lens) and Saul Leiter (use tele lens and play a lot about surreal composition) then we can see that from the early days, street photography already has “extremely” different sub-genres inside.
No style is better than the others, they simply just different. To find which style will suit us the most, would be depend on so many factors, included our personal life’s experience and the way we see this world.
For example in Bruce Gilden’s case, he was studied in sociology degree and always fascinated about life of people on public space. While Saul Leiter was a fashion photographer, and he brought “his habit” about surreal composition in street photography.
My personal suggestion is: If you still have no idea which type of street genres that you like, then simply try them all that you think suit your personal taste. Find your “ideal style” through experience. Always stay true to yourself about what you like and dislike.
Do not let other people’s opinion stir you to do street photography that you hate and feel uncomfortable with. After all, street photography should be remain fun, treat it as a personal project to satisfy our “artistic” mind and heart. Not other people.
Do not force your ideal to others
We might think that our photography style is the most beautiful one, however, because aesthetic taste could be shaped by life’s experience, then each people could have different taste. Feel free to explain to people why we love our own style, but never say bad things or bash other people’s work only because we do not understand their point of view about art in street photography.
For extreme example, for someone who always photograph people from close distance, may think that a photograph with strong geometry and use people only for scale comparison is not interesting at all because it is lack of soul or courage.
But at the same time, a person who loves to shoot strong geometry and composition may think it is easy to photograph people from close distance because they only need courage to do it, no need to deeply think about complex composition.
Personally, I respect both parties, and always try to understand how hard to create both style. None is better than the others. Always learn to respect other’s works, especially if we never tried it before and have no idea what kind of effort needed to build that kind of images.
Develop your style
My suggestion is once you know which style you like, stick with it for quite some times. Try to creatively develop your own style. Let’s say you like silhouette element, then try to push your creativity to create different type of silhouette shots.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times – Bruce Lee
Stick with your most favourite “genre” and keep practice. Be patient in your photography result. After all, photography is all about non-stop process of learning.
Photography is a process of non-stop learning. Never being impatient and force ourself to create an astonishing image right away whenever we want it. It is totally fine to have a small step in progress, but simply never stop to keep learn and experiment with new things – Be Patient in Street Photography
Finding Inspiration
Lucky us, we live in modern social media time. We can easily find inspiration about our favourite style in Google, Instagram, Facebook, 500px, etc. Find (both old and modern) photographers that we like, and try to “study” their photo. Look carefully about their angle, colour match, and composition when create an image.
Find your own “street genre”, develop it creatively, and never bash other people’s photography style. Also, always make sure to not forget that street photography should be fun!
Keep shooting,
Nico Harold