What is Street Photography?

Street photography is one of those photography terms that is commonly misused. So what exactly is street photography? This article distinguishes between what is street photography and what isn't street photography as well as highlights the history and influence of street photography. Although street photography involves taking pictures of active subjects in their natural state who are oblivious of the picture being taken, it is not restricted to streets and roads or walkways.

Street photography simply covers pictures that are taken of active subjects regardless of the location. What street photographers do is to capture life in the most candid forms with the pictures they take. Candid, in this regards, means undiluted and unmanipulated: pictures taken just as they happen. The task of a street photographer is to recognize a moment and capture it excellently. Street photography can thus be explained as candid photography of natural subjects who are usually unaware of the fact that their pictures are being taken. The uniqueness of street photography is attributed to the fact that it shows life in the purest form.

Although different forms of street photography have been expressed from time immemorial, the 19th century is credied as when street photography was established. Photographers took to the streets and captured life, society, culture and emotions in the purest forms and established the street photography genre. In 1826, View from the Window at Le Gras, a picture taken by Nicephore Niepce was the first picture that showed streets although interestingly there were no figures in the streets. A few years forward and another street photograph which was properly documented was taken by Louis Daguerre of a street in Paris out of the window of his studio. Although the earliest street photographs were taken in France, street photography rapidly spread to other parts of the world and became an active part of culture.

The fact that street photography captures unrehearsed scenes meant everyone even those who do not particularly appreciate the arts could connect to them. Hence, the popularity of street photographs grew especially at times when the world needed symbols of hope like after World War II. Pictures that symbolized hope such as the Robert Doisneau's Kiss by the Town Hall which was taken in 1950 became highly popular because of the level of hope they portrayed for the future. The Kiss captured a young couple kissing on a Parisian street. Even with the uncertainty of the postwar era, a lot of people connected to the hope expressed in that picture.

Street photography involves capturing moments as they happen and have also brought deep insights into different cultures and the way life is lived around different societies. Although street photography is different from documentary photography, the pictures are taken to capture the entirety of a moment as it happens.

In recent times, street photography has received a lot of acceptance, and the genre keeps expanding. The evolution of life and creation of new cultures have only given street photographers more grounds to cover, and street photography still captures moments as they happen, mostly in public spaces.

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