Are You A "Street Photographer?"

Photo: Stan Banos

Is street photography making a comeback? Don't rightly know. At least ninety per cent of what I shoot is taken on the street, although that doesn't particularly qualify me as an official "street photographer." That term's specifically reserved for the work of those who shoot people in quick, often quirky, off kilter compositions with ironic juxtapositions that incorporate some visual sense of irony, humor or serendipity. Or something like that...

I love "traditional" street photography as much as the next guy, I just don't do the shoot from the hip people thing, that often, that well. Mine usually come off as 2nd rate imitations- as do most other peoples. Better off to simply try and find that little niche you best serve on whatever corner of life it may be.

I'm tempted to call certain kinds of street photography urban landscapes, but that conjures up city skylines with pretty sunsets, or urban still lifes (lives?)- all equally absurd misnomers... The next two guys also shoot primarily in the street, their work every bit wonderful to say the very least- and yet, neither would be considered street photographers in the traditional sense.

Photo: Brian Rose

Brian Rose traced something once called the Berlin Wall all over the streets of East and West Berlin and beyond in one of my favorite books called The Lost Border. He also shoots the streets where he lives in New York. The wonderful photo above is a simple miracle of beauty and magic. Simple as a snapshot, miraculous because I know just how hard and rare it is to catch something so innocent and wondrous on the streets of NYC.

Photo: Alan George

Alan George covers the grit and beauty of the streets of San Francisco. This guy gets around, although you won't see many, if any, people in his work. I think he's one of the more talented and underrated street photographers working the streets of any town today.