Street photography - notes about street photography and simple tips. Street photography - features of the genre Street photos from unknown authors

Often photographers looking for interesting subjects become perfectionists. They immediately want to capture the perfect shot, without unnecessary details or a cluttered horizon.

Yes, these technical issues (usually quite fixable) will be important at the stage of selecting the best personnel. But when you go on a photo hunt, it is better to free your brain from unnecessary thoughts that can kill the ability to notice and quickly capture interesting stories.

The advice is simple: enjoy. Be spontaneous, trust your instincts. The less you worry about the quality of the photo, the more good shots you will make. In the pictures of many famous street photographers there are cropped legs and a littered horizon, but this does not spoil their work at all.

weber-street-photography.com

In search of interesting subjects, photographers sometimes walk for several kilometers, hoping to find that very magical place where they will take a masterpiece shot. But the beauty of street photography is that you can take a good photo anywhere.

Ask yourself as you cross a boring square or street why you think there are no interesting stories here. Instead of wasting energy walking, slow down and look around.

3. Don't be afraid to take bad photos

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Even the most successful ones have bad shots. It is important to accept such pictures, and not be upset because of supposedly crooked hands and lack of skill. Bad photos will help shade good shots. Think of it as a practice for capturing truly rare and precious moments for photo masterpieces.

4. Pay attention to the light

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If you follow the advice to avoid street marathons, you will be able to better understand how to work with light. Pay attention to its sources, how objects are illuminated, where there are contrasting areas. It is the light that will tell you how best to frame the frame.

5. Notice people who are far away from you

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Observe passers-by, evaluate them appearance and emotions. You can notice a bright interesting character from a distance through the viewfinder (especially if you have a lens with good zoom). In this case, you can prepare to take an interesting picture in advance, before the person comes closer to you. Experiment, create your own scenarios and plots.

6. Think ahead

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An important strategic point: try not to take what is happening around you for granted. Think about how your photographs will be perceived 50 years from now. What will go out of fashion, what will seem strange? Will a person sitting on a bench with a tablet be interesting?

Mark key milestones, signs of the times. This way you will give your pictures more story value.

7. Be consistent

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Street photography, despite its apparent simplicity, is a rather difficult genre. In order to improve your skills, you must act consistently, have a shooting schedule.

Maybe you will spend half a day on street photography once a week, or 30 minutes a day during your lunch break, or after work. Perhaps you will shoot non-stop, interrupted only for lunch.

In any case, by doing this constantly, you can not only improve your pictures. Over time, you will develop your own style, and interesting stories will find you themselves.

8. Use your camera as a key

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A huge plus of the camera - it is the key to getting new experiences. The desire to take a good picture makes you go outside when everyone is watching popular TV shows, take pictures at night, in rain and snowstorms. You will be able to visit places where you have never been before.

In addition, you will definitely make new friends. The camera helps to break the ice in relationships, and the portrait you made will open a person from a different, unknown side.

9. Catch gestures and emotions

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The task of the photographer is to call the viewer who will consider the picture. Try to determine what meaning your photo carries, whether it will please or make you empathize. Think about what emotion the gesture or look of the person you photographed evokes. You must make sure that the viewer himself received answers to all questions.

10. Study photography books

Look for new sources of inspiration. Take pictures during the day, at night, study books by famous photographers, preferably working in different styles. You will learn a huge number of ideas that will help you rise to the next level.

• Anton Vershovsky, “Street photography. The opening of the plane. A book by a St. Petersburg photographer who started taking pictures at the age of 7.
• Brian Peterson, How to shoot masterpieces with any camera. The power of exposure "and" In search of a frame. Idea, Color and Composition in Photography". The photography instructor explains the basics of working with a camera.
• Lee Frost, Black and White Photography. Easy ways to get artistic shots", "Night and evening shooting". Practical Tips famous English photographer.

Street photography (or street photography), as a direction, appeared relatively long ago - about 130 years ago. As soon as cameras became portable, and the process of developing and printing was simplified, photography broke out of cramped studios into the streets. Photographers began to document the world around them. In particular, they filmed in urban areas where life moves fast. The desire to capture the changes taking place around was instinctive at first.

The pioneers of street photography can be considered such famous authors as Eugene Atget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Harry Winogrand, Martin Parr.
They laid the foundations of the street photography movement and their work certainly deserves your attention.

A century later, not much has changed in the street photo genre: yes, cameras have become even more compact, and development and printing have been replaced graphic editor. Scientific and technical progress greatly simplified the path of the author's street photo to the viewer. But the idea of ​​this direction remained unchanged.

So what is street photography?

The subject of street photography is mostly people in public places. More precisely, street photography can be described as a genre in which there is no place for posing and posing, in which the photographer explores and captures modern society and relationships between characters and their environment.

The main elements of street photography are: spontaneity, careful observation and "eyes wide open", the willingness to capture everything that appears in the viewfinder and seems meaningful, exciting, interesting.

Another key aspect street photography - the feeling that the frame was taken unplanned, without prior agreement. Therefore, photographs taken at public events differ in sensation from random ones - in the first case, it is rarely possible to take a spontaneous shot. However, they can also be classified as street photography - there is always room for flexibility and experimentation within the genre.

"Okay, where do I start?" you probably ask. In principle, to begin with, all you need is a camera, the streets of the city and free time. Discreet clothes and a good mood will not hurt.
“Do I need a special camera or lens?” — absolutely not.

Technical equipment of a street photographer- this is exactly the camera that you have now, and which you can always carry with you. "SLR", "soap box" or even a camera mobile phone- any device that takes photos is worthy of attention.

Of course, "terry" street photographers prefer rangefinders, especially Leica (analogue M7 or digital M9). Mirrorless digital cameras of the micro 4/3 standard are now widely used - especially in combination with the old "film" optics, you can get very interesting results. In any case, for shooting "street" the size of the camera is primarily important, and the smaller it is, the better.

It's time to give you some practical advice.

Digital is everything

Let's say you are a beginner and you don't have a camera yet, but you are very confident in your abilities and want to start your journey with "film". This is a normal desire and I do not undertake to dissuade you in any way. However, there is a saying by Henri Cartier Bresson “your first ten thousand shots will be the worst”, against which you can’t argue. Note also that the quote is from the era of analog cameras, so... if you don't feel like you've crossed the line of at least 10,000 frames long ago - look away digital cameras. Over time, you will understand if you need an analog camera.

Pause

The city is like a living organism, the people in it are in constant motion, it is like a big anthill. And the photographer is also in this flow. But moving and shooting at the same time is not always the best option. It is worth pausing periodically, stopping (for example, at each intersection) for a few minutes and waiting, “scanning” the environment with your eyes. You can, for example, stand facing the human stream and "catch a fish." Surely you will be rewarded with an interesting story at the very first stop - and all you had to do was pause during the walk.

(ss) Mario Mancuso

Focus on the look

Emotion can be hidden, it can be faked, but the eyes will tell the whole truth. If you are shooting a portrait in the genre of street photography, better way than to focus on the eyes of a person, you will not find.

(ss) Dipayan Bhattacharjee

Details

Street photography is not limited to capturing a subject with a set of variables such as geometric, contrast, color or semantic rhythms. Sometimes it’s worth paying attention to details: hands, faces, wardrobe details or lonely standing object— removed close-up, they can "play" and tell something that simply cannot be seen on the general frame.

(cc) Liz Kasameyer

High sensitivity

If you are using digital camera, don't limit yourself to low ISO settings. Of course, in the daytime and in clear weather, using ISO 1600 or higher is pointless, but in low light conditions, chasing the minimum amount of noise will not be very reasonable, especially since even strong noise can be “beaten” in street photography - convert to b/w, for example. Another tangible plus from raising the sensitivity is the ability to shoot with short exposure. Sometimes you don't get a second chance, and a blurry image due to shaking can be an annoying misunderstanding.

(cc) takato marui

Long exposure

All street photo subjects are different and require an individual approach. And if in the previous paragraph I suggested increasing the sensitivity so that the shutter speed is shorter, now I will suggest the opposite. It is with the help of a slow shutter speed (for example, 1/30 sec) that you can convey movement in the frame, sometimes this is the only correct option. Even on a sunny day, you can achieve a slow shutter speed - closing the aperture and lowering the ISO will help you. In particularly difficult cases, gray filters can be used.

(cc) Gary H. Spielvogel

Shooting with "wiring"

Do not forget also about shooting "with wiring". Together with a slow shutter speed, it is a great way to show movement in the frame and focus on a moving object, naturally blurring the environment (the amount of blur depends on the shutter speed and speed of the object). Not the easiest way, it requires certain skills and practice.

(cc) Juan José Aza

Closed aperture

The "fathers" of the genre made all their famous shots small rangefinders. Have you tried sharpening them? If not, I assure you, it's not for the faint of heart to rotate the lens until the two images blend into one. Considering that many scenes were shot not just quickly - “from the hip”, I’ll tell you how the focusing problem was solved: the aperture was closed and hyperfocal sharpness was set. So if you want to get an old school street photo, it's not enough to make it black and white, you need hyperfocal sharpness and aperture values ​​​​of 5.6 and higher.

(cc) Bärenger ZYLA

The plot without a person in the frame

Street photography does not require the presence of a person in the frame. It is not so much about people, but about human nature itself, so you can not get hung up on the presence of people in the frame. It happens that the urban environment itself gives us food for thought and offers excellent stories in which people, by the way, can also be present: on posters, posters, posters. Also, a photo of the city without the presence of a person in the frame will help to better reveal the urban spirit, and the presence of a person will be somehow traced in such works.

(cc) Chuck Cocker

Of course, these recommendations cannot cover such a multifaceted and vast world of street photography. I hope I will have the opportunity to return to this exciting topic and continue our conversation. And that's all for today. Run to the streets, shoot!

Most genres in photography can be easily identified or described at least by the subject. If a photographer shoots natural beauties and landscapes, then, therefore, he is engaged in landscape photography. If he photographs people, their faces and emotions, then we are talking O portrait photography. It is much more difficult to define the genre of street photography.

At first glance, it seems that street photography is about shooting people, objects and interesting events taking place on the streets of the city, in parks or other public places. But in fact, street photography may not necessarily mean shooting on the street. Perhaps the main thing that distinguishes street photography from all other genres is the desire of the photographer to find some zest in everyday events and ordinary life of people, satisfy his curiosity in unexpected cases and capture the true diversity of the surrounding world in the pictures.

Therefore, a real street photographer is not limited to any strict definition of the genre of street photography - he can concentrate on comical situations that a person constantly encounters in his life, draw the viewer's attention to sharp social problems or choose to shoot a specific event that seems interesting to him. Be that as it may, a street photographer is constantly looking around for interesting scenes and curious incidents, focusing his camera, first of all, on people and their actions.

Becoming a street photographer is very simple - you just need to carry a camera with you at all times, wherever you go. That's how a lot of people started professional photographers, which became famous thanks to the genre of street photography. You don’t need to go anywhere, just walk around your city and strive to take interesting shots. This is the beauty of street photography. Take your camera with you and go to work, classes or just a walk around the city, and you can always find time to take some interesting shots.

Author: schaaflicht

By the way, for street photography it is not necessary to use an expensive SLR camera, because it will be hard to carry around with you. It is enough to acquire some advanced and convenient compact camera, which, thanks to its modest size, can always be put in a bag or pocket. Carrying a camera with you at all times is actually the rule for any photographer who wants to master street photography. Interesting and funny moments on the street often appear at the most unexpected moment. And if you do not have a camera at hand, you may later regret that you missed a great opportunity to take the most successful shots of your life. Street photography implies that anything can happen in the next second and the photographer must be ready for it.

However, in addition to the fact that the photographer must catch some interesting moment on the street, he must also correctly beat him in the context. Comparing the event that interests him with the environment, a street photographer always strives to create a certain story, a plot that can express the humor, irony of the author or the beauty of the world around him.

Usually photographers go to the city center, where a huge number of people pass through the streets every day and there are many interesting events that just need to be noticed. This is where the photographer needs to know how to wait. Although modern digital photography technology allows you to take hundreds of pictures in a matter of minutes, but in the case of street photography, the main thing is not quantity, but quality. Still, it’s better to wait for an interesting, curious moment and take just a few successful shots, having previously studied the place, the light, the actions of people and the surrounding objects.

The skier stayed until the summer

The behavior of the photographer and ethics are important aspects when it comes to the genre of street photography. When photographers first get into street photography, they are inevitably overcome by a certain timidity and stiffness. Many people simply don’t feel comfortable being on the street with a camera and taking pictures of people who immediately pay attention to you. If you really want to become a street photographer, then you have to forget about shyness and what other people think of you.

Regarding the very behavior of the photographer on the street, there are no universal recipes. Many famous photographers have used special tricks to get lost in the crowd and remain invisible. For example, someone covered the camera from prying eyes or filmed "from the hip" so that people passing on the street did not understand that they were being filmed. This street photography technique also means that you have to look like a typical representative of this urban area in order to be able to completely blend into the crowd and at the same time shoot people up close without getting into the frame. We can say that in this case, the photographer is required to possess real ninja skills. However, this is absolutely not necessary. Some photographers succeed, on the contrary, due to their directness, courage and openness. In short, here everyone should find their own approach.

It is believed that it is impossible to shoot people without permission on the street. People are often annoyed when they suddenly realize that they are caught in the lens of a camera. Some even openly express their dissatisfaction and go to conflict. Only a smile helps a photographer in such a difficult situation. Try to smile more often at strangers on the street, and a positive response will not keep you waiting. It is better, of course, to politely ask permission to take pictures from a person who has interested you in something. If someone does not want to be photographed, you need to show respect and leave him alone.

I must say that not all street photographers share the opinion that you should try to ask permission to take pictures from people just walking down the street. In particular, many believe that true street photography must be impartial, which means that the photographer is not at all responsible for the fact that a person or event is in the frame while shooting in public place. However, if you decide to become a street photographer, then you cannot avoid communicating with strangers, and therefore you need to learn how to properly talk to the person you just photographed.

We must not forget about respect for people. On the street you can find a lot of photographic scenes that can capture a person, to put it mildly, from a not very beautiful side. Sometimes photos of homeless people taken on the street look like pure exploitation of their misery. Photographing such people just to take a photo is probably not too much good idea. But to come up with an interesting subject for photography that would evoke in the viewer a feeling that encourages him to help the homeless is a completely different task.

In terms of shooting technique, street photography requires the photographer to get as close to the subject as possible. Always try to get close to people and take more detailed pictures. For street photography, it is important to use wide-angle lenses. Such lenses, firstly, look much less menacing than large telephoto lenses, and secondly, they create such a frame perspective in which the viewer will feel part of the scene, and not an outside observer. In street photography, you can also shoot black and white, monochrome images, thanks to which human emotions captured in some decisive, interesting moment are better conveyed in the photograph.

When shooting outdoors, you should always pay attention to the background and lighting features. The background should be chosen so that it can add additional expressiveness and attractiveness to your photo. And at the same time, it should not distract from the main subject. Light is important for any genre of photography, and street photography is no exception.

A street photographer is the exact opposite of a studio photographer, who tries to set up the light correctly, optimally position the subject, determine the appropriate camera settings in order to get the desired result. The street photographer is different. Its main task is to capture any curious moments and unusual things, isolating them from the whirlpool Everyday life metropolis. Therefore, for him, the characteristics of photographic equipment are not so important. But, despite the fact that for a street photographer, in general, it does not matter in principle which camera to use - a reflex or a "soap box", he must clearly know how best to use it. A street photographer doesn't have to waste their time changing various camera settings. All this should happen almost on a subconscious level.

Beginners who are just taking their first steps in the genre of street photography often have a variety of doubts and difficulties. They simply do not know how and where to start shooting on the street, what plot to choose? But it is worth immediately discarding these doubts and indecision. After all, this is the essence of street photography - you cannot plan what will happen in the next moment and what subject will suddenly seem interesting to you. You just need to start, take your camera with you and go out into the street, where you will find a wide variety of interesting moments.

Ilya Shtutsa is not just a talented street photographer. Photography for him is a way of interacting with the world, a kind of game, the rules of which he shares with pleasure.

A few years ago, when I first discovered street photography, and at the same time photography in general (school experiments with Smena 8m, apparently, cannot be seriously considered a photographic experience, there was no awareness there, besides, after I abandoned " shift”, there was a break, no less than 20 years old), I happened to be among the participants in one of the photo quests in Vladivostok, just at the moment when they were given tasks. The tasks were quite diverse, 12, it seems, themes, one of which was "through the looking glass".

It would seem that what is easier - open your eyes wider and go to the city, seize the moment and bring a great picture. But… almost all of these people chose to take a staged shot. And for this they had to be wildly perverted - I heard the conversation of the participants who were going to buy frozen chicken, put it in the toilet, light it red and do a few more strange manipulations, I don’t remember the details anymore - and all this instead of just going and seeing that the dear universe will offer to the existing request.

Actually, the main buzz of street photography is that it is an extremely addictive game for two players - the photographer and ... the world? Cities? Environment? The easiest way, of course, is to say that the game goes with the world, and it goes on an equal footing - if you, with wide eyes, go out into the city, as if into an enchanted forest, firmly knowing that unknown miracles await you around the corner, then peace will surely be for you. will show miracles.

It looks like a fairy tale, but the very principle of street photography is best expressed just by ... a line from Russian folk tale“Go there, I don’t know where, bring something, I don’t know what.” You can, for example, tell the story of a photograph in which a cardboard box with legs is chasing a fleeing girl.

I am often asked if this is a performance. No, of course, no staging. It happened in Blagoveshchensk-on-Amur, in June, there was a forty-degree heat, I was returning home at night and suddenly I saw cardboard box, from the window in which the light of a cigarette looked out. Leaning down, I found a grubby face in the slot, and took a picture - with a flash, because it was very dark. Three guys ran up to the flash from the darkness and said - wait, he will scare the girls now, you take it off, it will turn out cool. I stepped back into the darkness, and a couple of minutes later, when two unsuspecting girls walked by, chatting nonchalantly about something, the box quietly got to its feet, ran up to them and began to push in the ass. The girls turned around, squealed, and ran away. Then the situation repeated itself with another passerby. After taking a few photos, I asked the guys - why are you doing this? And I heard in response - ah ... still do, it's boring.

Of course, it’s not enough to see something interesting, you also need to be able to show it to others, that is, in fact, to take a good photo. But here I will not discover any America, almost everything good photographers They advise the same thing - shoot a lot and select very carefully, ruthlessly rejecting 99 percent of the shot, and look at a lot of other people's good photos. Start with the Magnum website, for example. By the way, it’s better not to limit yourself to photographs alone, it’s also useful to go to museums, watch good movies and generally cultivate visual literacy in yourself. But these are all common truths.

The “go there, I don’t know where” mentioned above is the perfect instruction for a street photographer. Ideal, but, of course, far from the only possible one. Of course, it's great to just casually wander down the street in search of a unique, impressive moment, relying solely on your sense of smell, but to shoot something on given topic very useful, at least as an exercise.

For example, I was very lucky three years ago (that is, almost at the very beginning) to find and connect to the Street Photography Now Project. The project was launched in mid-2010 by London's Photographers Gallery with Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, the authors of Street Photography Now, which almost immediately became something of a bible for a new generation of street photographers. During the year, 52 well-known photographers such as Alex Webb and Bruce Gilden of the Magnum agency, Matt Stewart and other members of the In-public collective, and others gave each week some kind of instruction that everyone could try to follow simply by uploading their a photo taken during this week to the appropriate group on the Flickr photo hosting.

Why do I say I'm lucky? Firstly, it was, in fact, a free one-year street photography course from the best masters of the genre, and sometimes the authors of the instructions actively commented on the work of the participants - what else can a beginner dream of? It is also important here that, since about 500 people took part in the project, their common intention to carry out the next instruction created a huge flow of force, which greatly facilitated the task. For example, my photograph of women rolling a piece of tree trunk down the street was taken in response to Gary Alexander's Surrealism Today instruction.

I then had a particularly busy week, there was absolutely no time to wander around the city with a camera, and I was able to allocate only three hours to complete the instructions. That is, in three hours I had to go and find some kind of surrealistic scene. The task seemed impossible, but I was sure that something would turn up - and now, having wandered for two hours in vain, I turned into another alley and saw this.

Secondly, a friendly community has formed from the permanent participants of the project. These people did not want to stop the game after the official end of the project - and continued it on their own for the second, and then the third year! The only difference is that it is now called Street Photography Now Community and instructions are given half as often, which is why the flow is somewhat weakened, but not critical. A side effect of the continuation of the project was, in particular, the creation of the international collective of street photographers Observecollective.

Photographers who lived in the pre-digital era never dreamed of such a thing. The Internet offers incredible opportunities for extremely fast learning, but it also has a downside (there are no free cakes - my department head at the institute used to say). When thousands of pictures flash before your eyes every day, you quickly begin to realize that most of them exploit a rather small set of the same stamps.

This also applies to your own photographs - what until recently seemed like a good find, suddenly turns out to be another stamp, worn out before you by hundreds, if not thousands of people from all continents. What to do if you run into this wall? There is no definite answer to this question, but I think that we should just keep shooting, catching the buzz from the process itself (otherwise what is all this for?), Perhaps postponing the photos for a while so that we can return to them later with a fresh look. One of the instructions of the above mentioned SPNP project, which was given to the participants by the wonderful Indian photographer Ragu Rey, sounded something like this: “Until the supernatural comes into play, the picture is just information.” It means that Good photo must have some kind of magic.

It's hard to explain, but sometimes something happens, some kind of click, and something passes through you, breaking the tight cage of clichés and mental constructions. Such pictures, strictly speaking, cannot even be called our own, they are presented by some forces that are greater than us, and the one who held the camera in his hands is, at best, a co-author. But only they, by and large, matter.

Thanks to the advent of smartphones, street photography has found a second life. People began to film what was happening, capture random moments and convey what was happening without embellishment.

Losko chose 5 of the most influential photographers of all time in the genre, whose work was ahead of its time by several centuries - we tell you why.

street photography

The specific date of the origin of this style is unknown, butphotos in this genre were seen at the end XIX century. Then in the process of filming, large and bulky cameras were used, which, naturally, people noticed. Because of them, all the charm of such a photograph was lost, therefore, instyle directionthose pictures would rather be attributed to documentary or pictorial (artistic) photography. In addition, those devices were filmed only at long exposures. Therefore, the photographer had a choice- take a picture with smeared figures of people, or catch a moment when the street is deserted. Most often, preference was given to the second option.

In the 20th century, technology has made significant advances. Cameras have changed, and with them the approach to the process has changed. With the appearance of small mirrorless cameras on the world market, discreet photography, “from the hip”, became possible. Pictures on such cameras could be taken not staged, as a result, more alive. Some photographers tried to be invisible, while others - came close to the person. As a result, each picture had its own characteristics, its own atmosphere.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1908-2004 - father of black and white street photography

Cartier Bresson, 1935

The founder of the genre of street photography is considered to be a Frenchman Henri Cartier Bresson . He came from a family of entrepreneurs. Thanks to the influence of his uncle, Bresson received an art education, which was reflected in his future activities.

The main principle of work for Bresson was the need to remain invisible to others. He also coined the term "decisive moment" used by many of his followers.

“All manipulations with the camera, aperture, shutter speed, etc. should be carried out at the level of a reflex, like switching gears in a car"

Behind the Gare St. Lazare, 1932

Transatlantic arriving in the harbor, New York City, 1959

Paris, circa 1955

Soldiers In Front Of Saint Isaacs Cathedral, Leningrad, Russia, 1973

Later, his eponymous article was published, in which Henri talks about his development as a photographer. Bresson took pictures not only ordinary people but also very famous personalities. Among them are Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Marilyn Monroe, William Faulkner.

Robert Doisneau, 1912-1994 - a contemporary and successor of Bresson's work

Robert Doisneau, 1949 in Villejuif, France

The Frenchman was also a contemporary and successor of Bresson's work. Robert Doisneau . In 1934, Doisneau took up photography professionally while working for a magazine. Five years later, he leaves the publication and takes pictures for himself, trying to earn something along the way with a completely different craft. In 1949, Doisneau comes to Vogue magazine.

A year later, the Frenchman takes his most famous photograph - a kissing couple against the backdrop of the streets of Paris. A little later there will be a publication in Life and a trial, since the picture violated the laws of France of those times.

Doisneau throughout his life was not an adherent of only one genre and did not create any new direction. Some of his photographs were equated with the surrealist movement, others with the avant-garde.

Le Baiser de L'Opera Photo Robert Doisneau, Paris 1950

Helping a woman over a puddle, 1960

Madrid, 1953

On the Rhine, Germany, 1956

In 1936, color photographic film appears, which opens up new horizons for both the genre and photography in general. However, it was not used for a long time due to its high price. Some even considered taking color photographs- bad manners, as if the cards themselves give off the covers of glossy magazines.

Saul Leiter, 1923-2013 - first attempt at color street photography

Saul Leiter, 2010. . The world saw his work only when Leiter was 77 years old. The artist explained this fact with his modesty, only an acute financial need, according to him, forced him to show his pictures.

“I am not trying to convey any philosophy in my work because I am not a philosopher. I'm a photographer. This is all."

Waiter, Paris, 1959

Paris, 1959

Pizza Paterson, 1952

Snow (variant), ca. 1960

It is noteworthy that for a number of his works he used gouache, applying paint to film and finished photographs.

Alex Webb (b. 1952) - a new approach to street photography

Another master of color street photography will be noted Alex Webb - a man with his own unique style and vision. Due to the presence of foreground, middle and distant plans in his photographs, the viewer had a feeling of presence directly at the shooting location.

Webb is the owner of a huge number of awards, the author of five books. Many of his works have been published in major American publications. Since 1979, he was a member of the Magnum agency, founded by Bresson. He started out shooting on black and white film, but at a certain point, as Webb himself said, he reached a "dead end" in this direction. Since the late 70s, the photographer has completely switched to color film.

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 1996

Kinshasha. , 1982

Kampala, Uganda, 1980

Dance Hall, Lake Ontario, 2013

Stephen Shore (b. 1947) - American everyday life in color

Stephen Shore - Another cult artist in the genre of street photography. He became one of the few whose work was appreciated during his lifetime. His photographs have been presented in many famous galleries of the world, includingMetropolitan Museum of Art.

Shor was greatly influenced by his uncle when he chose his occupation, giving him a set for printing photographs. By the age of 11, Stephen decided to devote his life to this cause. Three years later, several of his works were bought by Edward Steyhain, head of photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). At 23, Stephen was able to organize his personal exhibition in this organization.

most famous work Shora is his series of cards of everyday life in America. The photographer, traveling with a friend by car, took pictures of everything he saw, from food to city streets.

We gave examples of the brightest, in our opinion, photographers in the genre. Some captured the horrors of war, others- moments of peaceful life.There are also innovators, such as Bruce Gilden or Daido Moriyama, who abandoned the old rules and introduced their own. But main goal The task of a street photographer was and remains to convey that atmosphere of the place, that spirit of the time without embellishment, as it is.