Candid pictures are the ones in photo albums I’ve always loved the most; there’s something special about people’s sincere reactions, unstaged movement, and unpolished environment. And these examples from “Urban Street Photography” cover it all.
Founded in 2013, the group is made up of, in their own words, “enthusiastic beginners and seasoned photographers from all over the world who all share a common love for street photography.”
People’s opinions differ about who to call the pioneer of street photography. However, one name seems to pop up more than others; it’s Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Born in France in 1908, he started his relationship with photography in 1931, after literature studies at Cambridge University. Years later, in 1947, he co-founded “Magnum Photos”—an international photographic cooperative, up and running to this day.
Henri Cartier-Bresson described Magnum as “a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.”
#5 The Fishermen Know That The Sea Is Dangerous And The Storm Is Terrible, But They Have Never Found These Dangers Sufficient Reason For Remaining Ashore. -- Vincent Van Gogh
Artist: Jawad Shahid
Canadian photographer and writer Michael Ernest Sweet pointed out that one of the reasons Henri Cartier-Bresson is considered the father of street photography is timing. The genre became popular roughly the same time the artist emerged as a photographer.
Another fundamental condition was the introduction of the portable 35mm camera. It bolstered both the genre and the photographer, as the compact camera eased the process of taking pictures on the go and allowed the skilled artist to fulfill his potential. (You can view some of his works right here.)
Michael Ernest Sweet himself is an expert in street photography as well. Based in New York, he is not only a professional photographer but also the author of two books covering the genre—”The Human Fragment” and “Michael Sweet's Coney Island”. He is also a master of the 35mm, which he used for photographs displayed in another book, “Disposable Camera”.
In an interview Street Photography Magazine, Michael Ernest Sweet said it takes a certain type of personality to be a street photographer. He pointed out that you’ve got to be willing to get out and do what needs to be done to get the picture.
According to him, “Dancing around to make sure everyone’s happy around you” might stand in the way of that. He admitted that there have been a few times when he was shouted at or even hit with a woman’s purse.
#12 Every Time I Have Been In The City Centre For The Last Year, I Looked For Someone To Walk Past These Boards Who Matches Them
Another representative of the same genre, Dimitri Mellos, said that fearing upsetting the subjects in the pictures affects him as a photographer. When the artist was asked to describe the difficulties he encountered when he first started taking pictures, Dimitri revealed that it was the guilt about invading people’s personal space.
“With time, those fears were mostly assuaged, as I discovered that (at least when a photographer is quick and discreet enough) most people don’t even notice when they are being photographed, and, even if they do, they don’t react badly,” he told his fellow photographer Eric Kim.
Some people are not only okay with photographers taking their pictures; they even agree to share their stories, too. And that’s how Humans Of New York—also known as HONY—came to life.
HONY is a project that was started by photographer and blogger Brandon Stanton back in 2010. His initial goal was to take pictures of 10,000 New Yorkers and put them into a catalog. But over time Brandon started interviewing the people and adding snippets of dialogue or stories along with the pictures.
What started as a photoblog grew into a project of monstrous proportions. Humans Of New York expanded to feature stories from more than twenty countries, its Facebook page currently has 17 million followers (and an additional 12 million on Instagram), and there are two published books about it—”Humans of New York” and “Humans of New York: Stories”.