Street Photography

Philadelphia's Chinatown (FP-100C)

While my photos largely focus on nature, urban streets offer something different—sharp corners and jagged shadows, man-made intricacies and unpredictability.  While the results of many street photographers' work may look the same, their methods can differ widely.  The type of camera and film used can affect the process greatly.

Say one photographer uses a huge camera with a long, obtrusive lens that also happens to make a loud CLICK as the shutter button finds the recessed position to take a shot.  On the other hand, some photographers go for a more subtle approach, with a smaller, discrete camera with a pancake lens (, one that has no optical zoom and is generally considered more classic,) to abstain from attracting the glances from passersby.

Me?  I'd have to create a third category.  Well, I'll expand with an experience from a day of shooting with my polaroid land camera (see previous posts for pictures) in Philadelphia exploring colleges of the city and the city in general.  The bitter cold pushed my film to its limit.  The overall darkness combined with the emphasized blues of the photos hint at my once freezing fingers that could meagerly hold on to the notably large camera.

Land cameras are neither subtle nor discreet.  Imagine me in Philadelphia's Chinatown, crouching to get my preferred angle of the giant archway (above).  I'm on the street with what looks like an accordion slung around my neck with tupperware on the bench next to me while I scavenge my winter coat to find the metal clip that keeps film warm during development.  The clip makes sense, but the tupperware's purpose, you might ask, is to keep the developing film from spreading the gooey bright pink developer chemicals all over anything it touches.  Trust me, it's not fun.

Though some street photographers love catching city folk in the midst of their daily routines or struggles, street photography, for me, focuses less on people and more on what those city folk create.  More specifically, architecture and structures' manipulation of light and shadows.  Architecture, with its defined edges and predetermined angles bring order to something as untamable as sunlight:

Arches of Philly (FP-100C)

Not only do man made structure bring order, but they also make composing photographs much more simple.  Aligning the given edges with the frame of the photo and planning the shot in general is much more formulaic and predictable in this sense.  There is a fairly obvious use of the rule of thirds below:

Philly's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (FP-100C)

Much of the fun of street photography, however, is being in the city where you're shooting.  Experiencing the sights, smells, and people of a busy city is something that cannot be replaced with photos.  I'd like to think, though, that they can get close.

For example, the photo below is of an alleyway in my hometown of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and while it might look pretty plain at first, you can look closely to find some intricacies.  Look at the stairs and the light on the stairwells.  The various depths and heights coupled with careful composition.  Kennett Square looks like a quintessential little town from the outside, and for the most part, it is.  Look deeper into its cafes, restaurants, and people, though, and the best parts are revealed. 

Kennett Square (FP-100C)

Anyway, who says you need a huge city to take street photography?