by Alex Russell
There’s a lot of great street photography out there, and many of the outstanding street photographers are photojournalists, like Seattle-based Joe Owens, who know how to find not only compelling compositions and people, but also the stories behind the moments they capture. Street portrait photography is along these same lines but different.
While street photography seems to be about candid human moments, street portraiture focuses on human individuality and an individual’s humanity. While street photography is about capturing people, far too often the people captured are simply frozen objects in a compelling composition. There are, of course, exceptions, and they are many.
Street portraits take this possibility for objectification completely out of the equation since the primary subject of the photo is an individual, the picture taken in a way that encapsulates his or her individual character. It’s not about cataloguing facial types or fleeting moments; it’s about documenting life.
Frequently street portrait photographers spend time getting to know their subjects before asking to take pictures. After all, as Canadian photographer John Reeves said, “Great portraits are given, not taken.”
As David Alan Harvey documents in Burn Magazine, taking pictures of complete strangers isn’t easy for your average shy photographer. However, seeing what some have done with it, the challenge of overcoming that shyness is well worth it. For a couple examples of the kind of outstanding work I’m talking about, see North Carolina-based Anthony Bellemare, and Berkeley-based Pete Pin to start. Meanwhile, I’m taking to the streets with my camera and candy for all.
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