Some Ideas About Street Photography

 All pictures from Coney Island People 50 Years ©Harvey Stein 2022, Text ©Harvey Stein 2025

I’ve been photographing on the streets and subways from the primary day of my photograph life. As a graduate pupil dwelling in Greenwich Village within the late 1960’s and commuting uptown to Columbia University on the #1 subway, I marveled on the number of faces and other people I’d continuously see on the practice and puzzled what it could be prefer to {photograph} them. A couple of years later, after getting into the work pressure in New York City, I came upon. Not simply. And not efficiently. I shot principally surreptitiously within the subways with the digicam on my lap. While difficult, it was additionally participating and for me, pleasurable to attempt. A couple of years later I purchased a used Leica M2 with a 21mm lens on the recommendation of my first photograph trainer (who finally I taught for on the New School), the nice road photographer Ben Fernandez. He urged that I purchase a Leica, a 21mm lens and go to Coney Island to shoot. Being the great little pupil that I used to be, I did and have been doing so for the final 53 years. 

During these 50 plus years, I additionally shot all around the world, from NYC to China, India, Haiti, Argentina and dozens of different nations and areas within the U.S. I turned concerned with making long-term tasks that concerned photographing individuals on the streets; this typically led to publishing books (ten up to now and three within the works). Mostly all my work is of portraits of strangers on the streets made with black and white movie and my trusty Leicas. 

I’ve managed to choose up some road knowledge alongside the way in which, listed here are a few of my ideas that may be helpful. 

But first a definition of road from Webster’s Dictionary: 1) A public highway in a metropolis or city, particularly a paved thoroughfare with sidewalks and buildings alongside its sides. 2) The individuals dwelling, working, and so on., on/within the buildings alongside a given road. 

-Street images is mainly utilizing the physicality and actions of the road as a supply of material; a spot to conduct our images. It’s an thrilling place to work, within the open air, with infinite material out there without charge and with many surprises, whether or not pleasant or not. Street images is endlessly difficult and really troublesome to make profitable photographs. The proportion of road pictures that we hold may be very low, a minimum of for me.

-Street images connotes: documentary, city, black/white, candid, confrontational, protest, socially oriented, individuals images. But it doesn’t all the time need to be performed on the road; it might probably occur in parks, seashores, subways, perhaps even roof tops. It’s not often indoors. And it doesn’t all the time need to be of individuals however it often is. 

-Street images is about doing, experiencing, confronting (topics and ourselves), studying, strolling, rising, sharing (to see and to grasp is usually to share), exploring, exposing (ourselves together with our cameras), probing, questioning, understanding, performing and reacting, wanting and seeing and, and, and…

-How we {photograph} is as necessary as what we {photograph}. Perhaps most necessary is the place we place the digicam—how shut or far, how low or excessive, how angled or direct the digicam is positioned vis-a-vie the topic.

-To get pleasure from, to not point out to be efficient at road images, we have to be interested by what’s round us; we must always like and be serious about individuals.

-We want to concentrate on the event of a method and a standpoint. Why are we photographing on the road, what can we wish to present/accomplish? No one can train the best way to be an excellent photographer. This comes from inside, a magical supply maybe. Teachers can present concepts, methods, recommendations, however finally, all of it relies on the person and the person alone. What and once we {photograph} is as much as us, you’re the just one behind the digicam and the one one clicking the shutter. I like images as a result of it’s all as much as me, nobody else is wanting by means of the viewfinder, nobody else is clicking the shutter, nobody else is succeeding or failing. It is all as much as us, the one wanting by means of the viewfinder. Ultimately, it relies on you and also you alone.

-We ought to be concerned with the method in addition to the expertise of creating photographs on the road. Be in contact with your self, with feelings, ideas, emotions and concepts as we become involved with carrying the digicam within the streets.

-Think positively on the streets. Our ideas affect our outcomes. We get what we expect, unfavorable ideas and approaches breed unfavorable outcomes and actions. Positive ideas improve the possibilities of success. What we put out we get again. Be optimistic and when essential be aggressive and danger taking.

-Be conscious of the doable dangers of taking pictures on the road. Our backs are all the time to somebody and we often carry costly gear. Be road sensible; we regularly stroll on new streets, are in new nations and might be susceptible. But we develop road knowledge the extra we shoot, an inside sense that may alert us to risks. Be conscious of the place we’re;  typically go along with one other photographer or buddy if in troublesome locations.

-The causes for doing road images are many. It is accessible to everybody, it may be a wealthy, fertile floor for locating all kinds of individuals and areas to {photograph}, it may be difficult with a way of journey of the unknown. It can result in a larger understanding of individuals and our place on the earth.  We typically meet fascinating individuals and even make some mates whereas taking pictures (I married a girl that I met whereas photographing her on the street).

-Photography is a method of self-expression and communication. Self-expression is private, inside however a sharing of our ideas, joys, fears, feelings with others in a method that displays who we’re. Communication is journalistic, exterior to our self, outward, about connecting with others, a method of letting others know what we expect and the way we see.

About Coney Island People 50 Years

The pictures for the e-book, Coney Island People 50 Years, had been made from 1970 by means of 2022. It was revealed in 2022 by Schiffer Publishing, LTD.. The great thing about doing books is that there aren’t deadlines till a writer desires to make the e-book. This offers us time to extra absolutely perceive our work and to play with the a number of potentialities that each one e-book tasks current to their authors. This is my third photograph e-book on the infinite topic of Coney Island.

The e-book is on the market on Amazon; signed copies can be found from me, I might be reached by means of my web site, harveysteinphotography.com.  Cost is $50 plus delivery. 

Where to purchase the e-book: