You want to take a shot to the ego?
I was looking earlier at the work of a blind street photography collective in New York City. They had some really cool work.
Some of the photographs had these light streaks all over them. I don’t exactly know how the technique works, but I thought the photos were cool.
And these guys are blind, right?
It got me thinking, man, we hype this genre of photography up so much.
But street photography is actually easy.
Anyone can do it.
It’s probably one of the most accessible types of photography.
You really don’t need much equipment. You can start with basically nothing.
I hear all the time about how tough street photography is, and really, it’s not technically that hard.
You just have to do this.
Walk.
And then you have to do this.
Shoot.
That’s really all you have to do.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IS SUBJECTIVE
And it’s so subjective.
You could look at those photographs with the light streaks and say, “Nah, that shit’s garbage.”
But I think it’s cool.
So who’s right and who’s wrong?
How can you prove that you’re right and I’m wrong?
There’s really no way to do it.
That’s different from something like wedding photography.
If you’re a wedding photographer, there are at least some external measures of whether what you’re doing is working. People either want to hire you or they don’t.
Street photography doesn’t really work that way.
That’s one of the things that makes it so freeing.
IT’S NOT HARD, BUT IT TAKES WORK
I never really thought street photography was all that difficult.
I just think it takes a lot of dedication and hard work.
I’m walking around right now and I see some cool signs.
So I’m going to take a photograph.
A little Lee Friedlander.
I think I like the vertical frame a little bit more.
I’m putting the sign in the black of the tree. I think that’s the move right there.
Maybe something like that.
That’s it.
You walk around. You see something interesting. You take a photograph.
Here’s another little street photography hack: cut off the corners.
Build some tension.
Then keep walking.
YOU CAN START WITH YOUR PHONE
Seriously, I don’t think this has to be complicated.
You just have to walk.
If you shot thousands and thousands of photos over the course of a year, you’re eventually going to have something.
And you can start tomorrow with your iPhone.
I’m serious.
Say you’re watching this and you want to start a new hobby.
You’re 17 years old. You’re smoking weed all day. You’re playing video games. You’re playing FIFA. You just bought FIFA 27 and sunk $1,000 into Ultimate Team.
You tried to buy winning.
Then you get into Rivals and you’re still getting smoked by everyone.
It doesn’t matter what you bought.
It doesn’t matter if you bought all the icons.
You still suck.
So maybe it’s time to pick up a new hobby.
And I’m telling you, the barrier to entry with street photography is so low.
Take your phone out.
Go buy a $100 point-and-shoot camera.
Or buy a more expensive camera if that’s what you want.
It doesn’t really matter.
Then go shoot.
GO SHOOT 500 PHOTOS A DAY
Go shoot 500 photos a day.
Do that consistently for three months and you’re going to learn something.
You’re going to get better.
At the very least, you’ll have enough photographs that you can start editing and sequencing them into some kind of project.
And they might actually start looking pretty good together.
That’s what happens when you actually do the work.
You start figuring out what you like.
You start figuring out how you frame things.
You start recognizing photographs before you even take them.
I don’t know why we always want to talk about how hard our craft is.
Why does it have to be hard?
WHY OVERCOMPLICATE IT?
Street photography doesn’t need to be this mysterious thing.
You don’t need a studio.
You don’t need models.
You don’t need thousands of dollars worth of lighting.
You don’t even need recognition.
And honestly, you’re probably not going to get much recognition anyway.
Nobody cares what you’re doing.
You could walk up to a hundred random people on the street and ask them about Garry Winogrand, and most of them probably aren’t going to have any idea who you’re talking about.
Even the great street photographers exist inside this relatively small world.
And I actually think there’s something freeing about that.
You’re basically just walking around taking photographs because you enjoy walking around taking photographs.
LOOK AT THESE LEAVES
And then while I’m talking about all of this, I see some leaves.
I like this one.
It’s got some light, but this one’s got some shadow in it too.
So yeah, I like that because you get a little contrast.
That’s street photography.
I’m walking.
I’m talking.
I notice some leaves.
Now I’m taking a photograph of the leaves.
Then I keep moving.
There’s some band practice going on nearby.
I can hear some drums.
There’s a concert hall close to my apartment. I was looking it up and the tickets are kind of pricey, but I think I might go.
Get a nice little show in with the college kids.
Support their hobby.
And then I’m back to walking.
That’s the freedom of the whole thing.
JUST WALK AND SHOOT
So yeah, moral of the story:
Do a little bit of this walking right here.
Do a little bit of this shooting.
Then keep doing it.
Give yourself three months.
Shoot a ridiculous number of photographs.
Maybe after three months you enter some photographs into a competition and the judges look at them and say, “Damn, you’ve only been doing this for three months?”
And you can say, “Yeah, but I shot 50,000 photos in those three months.”
That’s how you got there.
You did the work.
That’s really what I’m trying to say.
Street photography doesn’t have to be complicated.
You don’t need permission.
You don’t need expensive equipment.
You don’t need to live in New York or Tokyo.
You don’t even need anybody else to think your photographs are good.
Walk.
Look around.
Shoot.
Do it again tomorrow.
That’s the freedom of street photography.