© Jan Gessler
Refocus your attention
Refocus your attention
Inspiration – Education – Representation
It wasn’t that long ago when photography was a roll of film that took hours to develop in a dark room and, as a result, few people took pictures. Today, with the ascent of digital photography and the ubiquity of the smartphone, almost everyone has turned into a happy snapper!
A few frames, or even several thousand ‘selfies’, however, does not make you a star of street photography – a genre historically known and practiced by comparatively few people.
Around twenty years ago, street photography started to really sit up and get noticed. It was, of course, in the late 90’s that the first wave of consumer-focused digital cameras arrived – surely not a coincidence. Like the invention of the “Leica format” film (35mm), the digital camera, complete with its increased mobility, inspired a whole new generation of street shooters.
Now, armed with their instant-review digital cameras, a new generation of street photographers suddenly seemed to be everywhere. At the same time, the hardcore pro-shooters who, buoyed by the ease of home printing and publishing, started to loosen their grip on film and embrace the new technology as well. As a result of all of this, the photo sharing phenomenon boomed and continues to do so! StreetPhotography.com is here to help you, the street photography enthusiast, navigate these crowded waters.
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Latest Interviews
Light, Architecture, People and Patterns : The intriguing street photography of Jan Gessler
Light, Architecture, People and Patterns : The intriguing street photography of Jan Gessler The first thing you notice is the way he uses angles, the way he harnesses light, the way he uses architecture as a backdrop and the patterns [...]
Faces in the street : The street and portrait photography of David Gleave
Faces in the street : The street and portrait photography of David Gleave There is a fully-wired, nerve-tingling edginess in every shot. An electricity – no other word for it - that emanates from his close-up and personal style. The [...]
The World of street photographer Raul LaCroix
The World of street photographer Raul LaCroix Wasn't it Hungarian photographer Andre Kertesz who said that 'seeing is not enough'? That 'you have to feel what you photograph'? That is the impression I get when I see the work of [...]
Meryl Meisler & Vintage Street Photography
Meryl Meisler & Vintage Street Photography Meryl Meisler has been making photographs since the age of seven. Her parents, Sunny and Jack, gave her an “Adventurer” (made by the Herbert George Company) as her first camera. The Adventurer [...]
It is hard to be a saint in São Paulo : the street photography of Peter Buchan
It is hard to be a saint in São Paulo : the street photography of Peter Buchan What was it Bruce Springsteen sang? Something about Jesus in the streets? About him emerging from the noise and the fury of the [...]
In Conversation with Street Photographer Matt Weber
In Conversation with Street Photographer Matt Weber By Michael Ernest Sweet Matt Weber came of age in New York City in the 1970s. In the early 80s, barely in his twenties, he drove a NYC “yellow” cab. Both of these [...]
Latest Editorial
The Art of Critiquing Street Photography
The Art of Critiquing Street Photography By Michael Ernest Sweet Over the past decade I have judged more than a dozen street photography contests. In those contests, I looked at thousands and thousands of photographs. And yet, with all of [...]
Street Photography Has No Clothes
Street Photography Has No Clothes I originally wrote the following essay for HuffPost back in 2015. At that time, street photography was exploding. The digiverse was drowning in street images, and a lot of them were not great. I proposed [...]
Street Photography Contest Guide
Street Photography Contest Guide By Michael Ernest Sweet When it comes to street photography contests, there certainly is no shortage of options to choose from. It seems like each passing week brings yet another contest to the table. In this [...]
Latest Book Reviews
TAXI by Joseph Rodriguez. A Review by Michael Ernest Sweet
Taxi by Joseph Rodriguez. Review by Michael Ernest Sweet The idea of making photographs while driving a cab is certainly not a novel idea. Ryan Weideman, Michael Goldfarb, David Bradford, and Matt Weber all come to mind. Joseph Rodriguez is [...]
Sally Davies’ New Yorkers A Review by Michael Ernest Sweet
Sally Davies’ New Yorkers A Review by Michael Ernest Sweet I am in this book. I am telling you this now so that you will not accuse me of something later. With that out of the way, I have to [...]
The Shadow Knows by Lee Friedlander
The Shadow Knows by Lee Friedlander Review by Michael Ernest Sweet The Shadow Knows, a new collection of work by Lee Friedlander, is one of those books of photography that makes you say, out loud, “Gee, if only I had [...]
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