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I made a point that a street photographer has to be more "playful" (engaged) in her daily interactions with human subjects - look for inspiration from the NY Photo League - and make a space for co-participation in your work. Just cause you have a camera doesn't mean you're any different from the people on the street - you make up the street as well.
Street photography is more like photojournalism rather than portraits. it's more in the style of Bresson and Riboud. Personally, the longest lens I will ever use for street would be 50. Anything longer will compress too much of the background, removing the enviroment, making it a portraiture
@@bekerashesthat’s not what they’re saying lol. Think of it like music genres, they’re not saying Taylor Swift isn’t real music, they’re saying Taylor Swift is Pop Country / Alternative and not Rock / Midwest Emo
I once pointed that out on reddit post of the poster calling a random shot of a Ferrari in the city street photography and I got banned for being "pretentious".
It's not only the fact that these are quite low effort and creepy photos of young women in sundresses who might not even be aware they are being taken photos of but also that some of them are clearly heavely edited like the photo at 0:16. I hate this type of photography ...
I've been against the street photography "gatekeepers" telling us how to shoot, what to shoot and what gear to shoot with in order to fit within someone's definition of street photography. However, you've made a completely valid point about the difference between street portraits and street photography. And I agree, they are different genres. I don't even like that the TikTok style street portrait videos have crept into the search algorithms for street photography. While I appreciate that those photographers enjoy what they are doing and get a lot of likes online, maybe it's time to break these styles into separate categories.
absolutely agree. @huntercreatesthings has given a pretty solid definition of what street photography is at its core and that is absolutely compatible with a lot of styles. Street portraitists are more in the vein of internet fads like peopleofnewyork (for an old reference) and pov videos (for a more recent reference) the most important aspects of street photography (capturing the chaos at a point in time that resonates with you and being more narratively oriented through series) are totally absent of the street portraitists' process.
Those TikTok 'street photos' always look more like wildlife photography, except that the subjects are humans rather than animals. This further clarified the impression I've been getting.
Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but I think it goes back to the whole "vertical content" issue. I think people get so constricted with that vertical format where they think "oh, well I have to get vertical photos, so I am going to only take photos of a single person". They aren't pushing the boundaries of what they can do. Obviously there are street photographers taking great portrait street photos. This same issue I find is occurring with car photography too where people aren't doing anything different, they just want to be "trendy".
Something that I came across because of that. Is that you have people that have made clips and stuff saying "maturing as a photographer means learning that Horizontal is better than vertical". Which is pretty crazy since most people shoot horizontal to begin with and if anything they will tell you that you are "brave" for shooting vertical since that's not something you may do from the very beginning especially if you are not doing a portrait of someone.
Thanks for making this. I've been saying this for years and getting shot down. Tired of the street photography craze of people snapping randoms doing their shopping and slapping a blue hue on it and labelling themselves a street photographer who grades cinematically. No narrative, no use of light, colour or composition, no knowledge or meaning in what they are doing. Street photography was historically an art of many forms and with wide boundaries, from capturing the moment, to a clever telling of a story, to the human element. Yes, people can be portrayed as the main focus but there has to be something that pulls you in and meaning behind it, after all, the best photos make us feel. We all have our paths of learning and that's understandable but I think this genre has gotten lazy and its mostly due to social media and the need for instant gratification..
I wouldn't consider what those TikTok creators are doing to be "street portraiture" either, since portraiture implies a certain approach and intent to taking the shot. And that approach typically involves getting the consent of the person you're photographing. And to me, at least, as a street portrait photographer, that consent is very important. Taking long zoom shots of random women means no consent and... questionable intentions.
Let me push back a bit here.. Sorry to be grumpy but im old…. Street can be about people, look at Gilden, look at Gary’s later work, Arbus, et al. Street can be with a telephoto, see Beat Streuli, Parr and some of DiCorcia.. Street can be abstract like Saul’s work. Yes, you shouldn’t pose your subject like they are a model, that would go into another genre, but the BIG question should be IS IT GOOD? In the TokTokers case, NO. Making a great photo is very difficult, a body of work even more so. Let’s not try to better define the genre, but rather what defines GOOD WORK.
Great points! I also think this video in based a lot on "i think" and "its this" and its wrong. The exact statement at the beginning, the breaking of rules is what makes this genre so diverse. The fact that we get cought up in subgenres is the mistake. We shoot on the street, how we want, what we want and when we want. Thats all there is to it in terms of "street". Also, i dont know about others but when a lot of us started out, we used zooms because its not a comfortable thing to do at first. U started with a 70-200 equivalent and widened it to 50 eventually but it takes time. So no, i dont agree with this type of video where someone says what "thhey think" street photography is or should be.
i mean at the end of the day definitions are inherently at least somewhat arbitrary, especially when it comes to more subjective things like art, which is why i think genre discussion is kinda pointless on a fundemental level in all honesty
Though I agree, I'd say the issue isn't so much "this is" or "this isn't" 'street', but more that "this isn't all what 'street' is or can be", while that if it's the only thing some people are seeing, it might be what they assume street 'is'. Of course, if it gets them into photography into any 'real' capacity, they're probably going to learn that street is much more varied, and if they like the portraiture side of it, they'll likely transition into that. Or if they like the street aspect, start varying their photographs and developing their own style in that direction more. Not sure there is a huge amount that can be done about it though. Pretty girls in natural every day settings is almost certainly going to catch the algorithm as it gets attention. More varied street photos is going to appeal to less people, so it's less likely to be seen.
I agree and disagree, I feel like this stuff does dilute street photographies meaning fullness to some extent. As mentioned in the video street is about a persons story and conveying it through a candid shot. Street portraiture’s like the one referenced are almost always gorgeous girls which attracts more views. There sometimes a story but the stories in the video not in the picture, oh she’s having a bad day let’s take some beautiful photos, but it’s not conveyed in the image it’s conveyed in the video. When I shoot street if I take a shot of a beautiful person, I usually don’t like the shot unless theirs something interesting about it other then just that they are pretty. I think you can do portrait street but you have to be very careful and want to convey a story not just take a gorgeous photo. Their are a couple portrait street photographers who do this well, almost non of them are on tiktok lol
Great analogy at the beginning. Street photography is like jazz. If you are serious about it, it can be the most difficult discipline in photography (imo) because you cannot control the environment and the elements when taking a photo with strict composition in mind. Although many think that when you are taking a photo in the streets, its already street photography for them which is not the case. These tiktok photography videos only have one thing: portrait shots with blurred background. Im sorry but majority of the shots aren't even good. It just "looks" good due to expensive gear and good looking people as subjects
This is such an interesting topic because there is always a fine layer of distinction between street portrait and street photography. To me street photography is like an empty canvas where you can paint your observation in the streets while having zero intervention with the subject... While street portrait is almost like a portrait painting. At the end of the day both of them is a form of ART so it's good that you mentioned that this is not gatekeeping but just clarifying that thin layer of distinction :D
Great post. I definitely blend the language for "portraits" and "street photography" a bit. NOT a girls-in-sundresses shooter, but I see and agree with all your points. I'll never get tired of the kitchen spoon.
I totally agree with your opinions, there is a lot of difference between doing street photography and taking pictures on the street. There are a lot of people doing portraits on the street or urban landscaping and mistakenly calling it street photography.
Really well said and not before time. TikTok, reels and similar have created a generation of lazy photographers who are all trying to simulate viral trends rather than trying to learn their own techniques and create their own styles. Street photography is something I have hardly ever done but understand exactly what it is. As well as the street portraits you talk about, I see photographers creating pictures of just streets with no human story at all, turning it black and white and calling it street. Cartier-Bresson would not have approved
I'm a farm photographer, I take photos of specially trained barn animals with my Canon Eos R to pose in front of the Empire State Building, and they're totally improvised! The cows and chickens are NOT MODELS. It's all improvised, I swear, I'm just very good at it!
You're making me miss my old self from a decade ago. I loved street photography in the very same way you described it. Looking at my old Flickr account for the first time in years and it's so emotional...
Thank you for speaking the truth! And is not only a TikTok problem, but even an IG one. People has not been raised looking at the historic street photographers (Vivian maier, Ecc) as an example to grow, nor they do read their books or simply don't care at all. This has lead to the concept "Street Ph = Random photos at people just doing normal things". No feelings, no emotions, just normal (and creepy sometimes) photos. But this is just my opinion, for an objective problem nonetheless the social media created.
@@huntercreatesthings Oh, for sure! And it's not just that; I appreciate you also here saying something that I personally feel more and more with each shot (good or bad) that I take, pretty much; I have recognised, only recently, that what I have actually been doing is adding to what will become a sort of self portrait. Each shutter is a brush stroke on the canvas; 'mistakes' will be learnt from and painted over, but I am reflected in the body of my photographs. What I chose to include, exclude, the delight I find moment to moment, the humour, etc. It was cool to hear it said in a more succinct way than my brain can probably put it :)
dID YoU jUST aSuMe ThE gENRe oF My StREeT phOToGrApHy!? This is a well put forward argument and I wholeheartedly agree. These creep shots are just to accumulate clicks.
I don't think it's a problem if people hide somewhere with their superzooms like perverts to photograph young pretty girls like a creep, just for God's sake, don't call it streetphotography. lol I think we should call it creepphotography from now on, that would be more fitting. Sounds similar and fits better. 👌
I definitely do think that in particular is a problem! I just wanted to ensure that I didn't hate on some genuinely great street portrait shooters on TikTok, which there are.
how about famous Garry Winogrand and many other men like him who secretly took pictures of young pretty girls on the street 50 years ago. why do we call their photographs art and show them in galleries but if someone does the same today he's a creep? Ridiculous
I disagree in some ways. I believe you can do street photography with a 400mm, but those photographers just have a poor choice of subjects when there are better subjects like the environment around them or just embarrassing moments of others goofing up. Continually focusing on only women is the creepy part.
Social media photo influencers : Boring subject ✅️ Over-editing to cover the boring subject ✅️ All of this is also amplified by Tik Tok's nature : fast food of entertainment, you don't give a thought about what you see and forget it after swiping a couple of times...
I'd like to thank you! Really I do. I've been in a slump for a while now, since I was criticised horribly by someone who probably didn't understand the art style, and it affected me more than it should. The criticisms came across as rude remarks towards my style and devastated me, and I haven't been out doing photography at all. I'm glad to have come across your video and the way you speak about street photography, It's reminded me of why I fell in love with this art form in the first place, the idea or feeling behind a photograph is what I like to capture. I said to myself that my style often is that of what I generally feel when I see a moment that I capture. It's a shame what has become of street photography in viral media, but I'm glad there are people like you who still care and uphold the values of this style.
This rings for me. I’m new to this and I’m excited about street photography and it isn’t easy to nail down sometimes. This helps distinguish a bit for me. Thanks!
This has made me realise why I like taking photos, I never really considered what made street photography different. Its the story, i have lots of kind of candids, but its the movement of the people I like, the idea that they're going somewhere. And usually theres another person/people i love capturing that there are multiple people in a fleeting world. And I never noticed those are the photos I love, so thank you.
I know very little about photography but I really loved this video and explaination you gave. I know it’s dumb but I loved how you used your own photos to show what is not street photography. As you said, it’s not about gatekeeping, it’s about understanding a definition.
This ia a very interesting perspective! My view was definitely skewed by watching these photographers on TikTok, and I now have a greater appreciation for photography as an art form.
I agree!!! That these kind of accounts on Instagram and TikTok have very little feeling amotion in them. Your photos you showerd are very interesting! I lov the production of your videos, they are excellent.
I’ve had this exact discussion so many times in there “street photographers” TikToks and reels glad this people understand the damage this does to actual street photographers
The thing that's interesting about this is that even though street portraits do exist these feel less like street portraits and more like paparazzi photos. They're very flat and very soulless.
Awesome! I'm glad I learned this today. Street Photography vs portraits on the street! I love taking candids on the street of either ppl or pets in an effort to see something unique that otherwise I'd miss if I was taking their portrait. Eventually, I'd love to get some confidence to ask strangers if they'd like their portrait taken. -- Great video!
thank you for making this video, i really liked how you said that photography is like getting to know the photographer that's exactly the way i feel. i shoot for myself first, sometimes its hard to explain "why" i like something.
So needed to hear somebody say this, not just about the T-T crap, but all the random pictures of people just walking along a street that people are raving about as great street photography - no story, no feeling, no connection. Many just look like stills fro CCTV footage. Will check out more of your stuff.
I had tons of these videos when I joined TikTok but now (after spending time curating my fyp) I mostly get actual street photography and a lot of 35mm photographers! These photos are very creepy
Stopped at 4:00 (great video btw), I'd like to add, that in Shanghai there are often pockets of photographers on certain streets to purposely take pics of "beautiful" people walking down the street(usually carrying telephoto lenses, low aperture lenses, etc). This practice boards near harassment as they will crowd to get a photo. I didn't understand the market component of this behavior at the time. The online fashion industry - ads - the digital media world - opens a space for photographers to go out and commit to this type of photography because it's profitable - there's market influence - I'm thankful for your video critiquing the style but we have to also critique the market influence on this.
Wow - I didn't know about that. In most western countries it is very VERY illegal to use photos like that for commercial purposes without a model release, so I wonder if there's a legislative aspect as well?
@@huntercreatesthings I tried replying to your comment twice (YT deleted it) but there is an article I can share on this. Also, I've seen people online demand the Posters to remove their photos/friends' photos the photographer took on the street. I'm not sure which policies are available, but I do think democratic participation in digital media spaces is a way to combat some of these problems. Because photography has become democratized, it means photographers (anyone with a camera) needs to develop their own ethic or sense of play. Meaning - they need to know how to share space...give n take.
I was going through my feed to cull my subscriptions. (I have way too many) I saw your video and was about to unsubscribe, but (as i always do) I thought I'd watch your latest video. I'm so glad i did. Fantastic video, easy listening and thought provoking. Never thought that I'd enjoy someone talking into a wooden spoon so much. Lol. On another thought process, i might have to take my 5x7 large format onto the street in the city where I live and see what I get.
As a portrait photographer i thank you so much for this video))) Theres a huge difference between being a "street photographer" and being a "photographer on the streets"
Great video! I firmly believe that street photography is not just about people, it's about their impact, their surroundings. Like Brian Karlssons pictures that have no humans on them, but you can still feel their presence through context. Thereby using a super long tele lens to blur out backgrounds and cropping real tight, well that just removes the environment that could have made a story. And now it's just a portrait, a very uncomfortable one at that.
Definitely a distinction. I admit I love watching guys like dgphotoholic. And he takes great shots but for me it's the interaction itself between him and his subject which is magical. In many cases they absolutely do not want to pose, but his approach is so genuine, disarming, and sweet it turns into a beautiful experience for them and good images. But that is definitely street portraiture as you beautifully illustrate here
Exactly! Street portraiture is very tricky, and definitely a valid art form - but it's also definitely not what a lot of us mean when we say street photography
People these days have camera in their pockets so it's so easy to grow the urge of making one object looks good, from taking photos of Starbucks coffee cups to a friend pulling up a peace sign beside a sunset. The trend felt like it's more about bragging a person's self to me these years. I think it's often forgotten that, there is a huge genre that make photos speaks more then that, or even it was meant to be not just documenting but makes emotional reaction a thing in the first place. That's why some people can direct a movie, and most ppl cannot.
When I shoot street, which is rare because I have no spine, it's to capture a moment, an event. It's about catching a reaction to a joke, or someone taking a rest after walking, or someone selling food or trinkets. I want to capture the energy of a moment. If I want to take a good portrait of an attractive person, I ask and plan. For me, the best street work involves a little bit of chance and spontaneity.
As someone who just today bought his first proper camera, a Fujifilm x-m1 and have watched a shit ton of videos about all kinds of Photography and cameras. I can only say that my view on street photography was and still is that it reflects the nature of us as different people and our actions as individualls. Hard to explain my view on it in words to be honest. I would love to further my view on this Subject in the future when I start taking proper pphotographs on my own.
As broad as street photography is, there are definitely things it absolutely is not. Thanks for shining light on this issue. I’m glad I found amazing street work before this recent garbage starting becoming mainstream.
absolutely agree, I think we need to create a new word for those "TikTok street photography" so people won't mess those with the street photography in narrow sense, it's like art, and fine art.
I am currently studying photography as my major, we had a project, to take "candid shots" on Iford 400 B&W. There is a moment between the photographer, camera and person (audience or spectator). that is indiscernible. for me, it's unfortunate to see people on TikTok using the street photography tag to take creepshots.
100%. I've been learning Polish full time since I moved here and it has really shown me that language and the way you talk about things fully changes the way your brain works.
I agree. Im more on the street portraiture style of photography as i enjoy that(when i can) , but do dabble in street photography to when inspiration strikes. I have corrected a fair few people on this issue and always surprises me alot doesn't seem to agree there is a difference.
this discussion reminds me a lot of what Juan Brenner said during his B&H Photos Podcast episode, “Picturing World Cultures - Guatemala”: “People take pictures of Mickey Mouse, and Mickey Mouse cannot do anything, okay?So people in the Highlands are not Mickey Mouse.” One thing anyone should know is that when taking a picture of someone, you’re taking on the role of their advocate or greatest critic, and whichever you choose should be done faithfully.
😂 my approach to street photography was always to cosplay a crime scene investigator and try and find what’s out of place and oddities for a good while. Even now I usually only capture people as shadows or not faces. I feel extremely invasive randomly shooting people so they’re never my focus.
thank you for making this video, so far I have the same concerns about “the original street photography” with street portraits done by reels or tiktok content creators. but, what I'm still confused about is the difference between street photography and the human interest genre. maybe you can explain it in the next video
Sometimes when I'm out shooting street, someone will ask me to take some photos of them. And I'll do it, it's fun! But I always have to do a little change in mindset and, often, change some settings too. They're different in a qualitative way that is hard to pin down. The TikToks are basically just misinformation
I understand the sentiment, but I respectfully disagree. To me, a Public Space + a Candid Moment = Street Photography. Take it and run with it. We don’t have to like everything that people create within a genre, but it doesn’t make it any less authentic to the genre. If the photos are staged, then that’s a whole other story. But if it’s in a public space, and it’s documenting a candid moment, person, or thing, then it’s street to me. Of course there can be overlaps with other genres too, but it’s still street. I think a problem is presented when without the context of the videos “showing” us that it’s candid, we wouldn’t always be able to tell from just the final photo. I do think that will be a challenge for this emerging sub-genre. Traditional street photography presents as a candid moment. And that’s sort of the magic of the genre. To casually, beautifully capture such seemingly raw moments. I’m not the biggest fan of this emerging “tik tok” style of street photography myself, but I wouldn’t dare try to exclude their work because it doesn’t fit a purist idea of what street should be. Just my two cents. 🙏🏿
Thanks for this video! I got into shooting street from a photographer called Stephen DiRado and fell in love with his ability to create honest portraits though conversations with his subjects. I shot like that for a while but I've definitely recently felt pressured into creating "beautiful" photos bc of work I see while scrolling. Thanks again for the reminder that we're storytellers, capturing life.
Haha thanks for calling it out, so annoying! The main problem isn't even that it's portraiture (and you see a lot of them ask their subject for permission beforehand), but such a bland and clichéd style of portraiture ... that over-edited look with heaps of crappy bokeh, completely void of any artistic quality.
I don't know about TikTok because I have zero interest in using that app, but I do know RU-vid is chock full of people wandering around in cities just clicking away, often on high speed continuous thinking they're doing street photography. They're just pointing their camera at people randomly, and if you were to ask them what any of their pictures have to do wtih street photography they wouldn't have a clue, other than they took it 'on the street'. I personally think it's just one symptom of the state of photography in general - the average person doesn't know what makes a 'good picture any more. I see so often someone put underwhelming pictures on social media (in the context of a 'photographer' specifically, I am not talking about just anyone posting their pictures online in an 'ordinary' snap context) and there be a flood of people gushing away saying how wonderful it is, when it really isn't. It's so disheartening when there are those of us who take the time to learn all we can, and put so much of ourselves into our art.
I’ve recently been questioning the genre of street photography a lot, and it is in part due to my experience in press photography as well as seeing these tiktok ‘content creators’ online. I think theres a huge issue of legality vs ethics. Some things may be legal, but not necessarily ethical. I really think that the ethics of street photography should evolve with the times, given that it started in an era where the internet wasn’t invented or heavily used. Nowadays the internet is deemed as a public space and is widely accessible. And then theres the issue of Personal Data Protection (PDP), which now includes people’s faces and identity because of facial recognition being used on phones to access important private information. I know some countries in the EU have now made it illegal to capture pictures in public spaces if the focus of the image is clearly on a single person, and their identity is distinguishable (unless its considered a newsworthy scene). Its a loosely enforced rule, but it still exists nonetheless The issue of legality is getting increasingly blurred. In most countries (not all), it is legal to take pictures of people in public spaces and post it online, so long as the images aren’t used in a professional setting. But some of these tiktokers and even some youtubers as well don’t directly earn money from the image but profit from the monetisation of their overall content, which is legal (based on what I know, could be wrong). So they are technically still profitting off an image of someone. In my opininion, its just becoming more grey of an area
honestly i feel u, I took a class for photography so that I could learn flash techniques and how to work with flash but 70% of the time was us just doing what the lecturer specialized or prefered in photography, he said street potraiture was street fashion and it blew my mind with how 60% of what he thought was utter preferance,....................
@@huntercreatesthings very true, had high hopes considering im attending a rather prestigous university in the top 100 global rankings. Thought the classes would be good but in all honesty, its kinda trash and is really too basic and most of the skills i learnt are from experience over anything else.........
Finally someone said it!! I’m not a street photographer, more of a fashion and portrait photographer but calling that a street photo or street photography is simply wrong.
Somewhat off topic but I think it might be a really cool concept to first take a photo of someone unaware of you living their daily life than approach them to take a more relaxed intimate photo. Like showing the difference in the face we present the world vs the face we present a freind
Storytelling and the process of creating are what make a huge difference between Tiktokers and the real street photographers especially who are accepted internationally. If people see how they create their work, it will totally blew their minds. Those Tiktokers are just like paparazzi with post processing. Consent is also the thing to talk about.
