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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.

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by Alex Russell

For the past couple weeks I’ve taken to the streets with my new digital SLR, trying to figure out a good way to do street photography. I’ve always been interested in photography, and I’ve always documented in words the people and world around me. Street photography seems like a perfect fit. But, of course there is some awkwardness to get over.

I found a video of Garry Winogrand and realize that the awkwardness never goes away when people see the camera and what matters is how you deal with it. Take a look at what he does:

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