A Tweet from a fellow street photographer inspired me to write this post. He mentioned that most people today do not consider street photography art. Indeed, some do not think it to be a genre worth talking about or that street work is dying.
I beg to differ. Street photography can be artistic as well as journalistic. As in many forms of photography, you can take a wide range of approaches when doing street photography.
But first, maybe we should understand the word ‘art’ and what the term encompasses. Britannica defines art as:
“art, also called (to distinguish it from other art forms) visual art, a visual object or experience consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination. The term art encompasses diverse media such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, decorative arts, photography, and installation. “
The Range of Interpretation
I have not seen the film, and I don’t intend to watch the movie. However, the controversy illustrates the question: how do you decide what is an artistic work and what is not?
I believe the jury is still out on this topic. If you shoot snapshots without intent, it may be fair to say you are not creating art. Here, you are just creating images. However, when you are on the street, you are engaged in the scene, the action.
Street Photography and Snapshots
Unlike a landscape photographer, a street photographer has limited time to compose an image and make it aesthetic. I take my time to get a feel of the day’s mood. In addition, I use the time to make eye contact with people, smile at them, chat, and make human contact. So often, on the street, I walk around for an hour without taking my camera out of the bag.
You realize that once you raise the camera to your eyes, you place a barrier between you and the action. If you create a barrier right from the moment you arrive at the place, then you will miss many opportunities.
In this post, I have focused only on shooting photographs. I will not discuss the editing process. You can create art in the way you create images.
