The Streets are Alive!
By
Ronald A. Marasco
Street photography is like photojournalism. Photojournalism is a series of photographs depicting newsworthy or historic events. Street photographers are observers that record a collection of candid images that pause people and/or their surroundings for an instance. It’s the same as writing, “I was here.”
Are street photographers shy? Yes and no. Most occasions, no, street photographers use cameras with wide-angle lenses, requiring them to be relatively close to their subjects.
The intent of a street photographer is to candidly take photographs of unknown people(s) as they would normally act without his or her presence. We capture the real essence of life, uninhibited emotions in natural environment. In other words, the photographer is the unnoticed fly on the wall, per se.
People act naturally when they are unaware of the photographer.
Yes, street photography can be posed in a non-communicated way. The photographer must be prepared for certain outcomes as they appear and seize that moment forever.
One way to be prepared is to have a camera ready at all times. That does not mean while your walking around shopping at a flea market, leaving your camera in the car – baking. Prepared is when you have your camera on, loaded with your favorite black and white or color film, in your hand or around your neck. (My personal preference is; in hand and the strap wrapped around my hand to prevent being knocked out of my grip.)
We are here to record, as photographers, a brief moment of time in this huge world of ours.
The Streets are Alive!
