By Editor Colin Dixon
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 1^st of September 2023

'Runaway brides' by Jared Lim

So what is street photography exactly?

Street photography’s definition has evolved alongside the changes in the medium with its technological advances from its origin of metal and glass plates to film to digital, but also its availability to the masses.

The definition of street photography (or photographer) has evolved from its beginnings to today. Most photographs in the beginning would be landscapes, a lot involving street scenes then of course people. It evolved into a photographer who would take portraits on the street for a fee. Therefore the first photographs ever taken were generally done in the streets. So the start of photography was the start of street photography.

During the First World War photography played a large part in documenting the action on the fronts - the format could also have been argued to be under the umbrella term of ‘war photography’ and possibly photojournalism. Photojournalism was between the wars and into the second world war, the street photography of its time. This was because apart from journalists, ordinary people could not afford such luxuries as cameras or the film for their cameras  during these tough years.

This of course changed after the second world war when cameras became more in use with the general population.
So an overlap between Photojournalism and Street photographers emerged, however there was still a difference between these.  The documentary photographer already has an end goal for his photos (expose the horrors of war, for example). The street photographer is only curious about his immediate surroundings, capturing  “scenes” within a public space.  But both types of photography have given us an eye into the past and the images we take today will give people of the future an insight on our time of life.

The history of this genre has some pivotal historic photographers.

EUGENE ATGET

It is generally accepted that Eugene Atget, while certainly not the first street photographer, is the one who laid the foundations of what will later come to be known as street photography. Atget’s work documented the streets of Paris from 1890 to the 1920s. You see, Paris as Atget knew it was to be demolished and rebuilt. So he lugged his large-format camera around the city and took pictures. He took photos of the streets as he just wanted to keep a record of places close to his heart before they vanished so with no people in most of his images this is not what we now know as street photography but a record of the past.

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

While Atget’s work didn’t give too much attention to the human element at the conception of this genre, Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the first photographers to shine the spotlight on the people on the street. Cartier-Bresson, an icon to street photographers the world over, he suggests that there is a split second where every element of a scene falls into place, with the resulting image communicating the captured event with perfect clarity, capturing a small slice of life.

1950’s boom. Cartier-Bresson was only one of the great photographers of the 1950’s who changed this genre for ever with his “moments of decision”;

ROBERT FRANK
with his American way of life and his book “The Americans”

SAUL LEITER 
and his Mastery of Colour Photography.  He brought through his saturated colours a change in direction for street photography.

WILLIAM KLIEN
His gritty, grainy, often blurred images of the 1950s would influence a generation of photographers.

From the greats of the 1950’s until today the genre has had many great photographers including our own community here on 1x.
Capturing a slice of our time and the life around us.

'Rain of sadness' by Antonyus Bunjamin

'Eternity of the moment' by Jure Kravanja

'Pride parade' by Alex Ogazzi

'Taksim' by Muratakan

'Lisbon tram 575' by Sasa Pezelj

'streets of hamburg' by Alexander Schönberg

Untitled by Antonio Grambone

'Untouchable' by Kirk Cypel

'Night tram' by Dragan M. Babovic

'STOP' by Pietrino Di Sabastiano

'DayDreaming' by Stefano Cicali

Untitled by Akiomo Kuroda

'Look throught the window' by Jure Kravanja

MIRROR by Takumi

THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY.

We are living a new chapter in the history of street photography.
The camera in our pockets.  
The technology that we have in our pockets would have been unimaginable even a 20 years ago. With smartphones, we can take thousands of photographs in just a day. Compare that to the film days and the long process of developing and printing photos.

Street photography also used to be a solitary activity, with few photographers sharing their images. Now with social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Flickr etc , and many others like our own everyone has the opportunity to share their images with the world. And with that, a lot of great work is being produced from every corner of the globe. Not only that, but many talented street photographers are now being discovered and appreciated.

'Take pictures together' by Rolf Endermann