History of Street Photographers, Track A, Part 12 – Elliott Erwitt

And now, after a five-year absence, here we are again as though nothing has happened. In truth, nothing much has. We suspended the series primarily because blogging turned out to be a horrible way of reaching people. Though we get intermittent readers, most of the people who stopped by were other bloggers, doing so, in…

Photographic Clichés – Vol. 1

As a photographer and editor, I’ve recently become distressed by those few photographers who insist on taking photographs that don’t conform to common photographic practice. That is to say, these frondeurs ignore 180 years of tradition and insist on taking shots that are unique, having little or no banality to speak of. I don’t understand…

Do They Care If You Shoot?

The one comment that people always make, when I tell them I’m a street photographer, is, “I don’t think I could ever work up the nerve to photograph people like that.” Often, that statement is followed up with, “Don’t they ever get mad at you?” Since I first started taking candid photos in the street…

Photo of the Day: Swapnil Jedhe, 2013

In our attempts to advocate for color street photography, I’ve decided to scour Google the Earth for color photos I can find the best color photography available. I ran across this one by Indian photographer Swapnil Jedhe, from 2013. It’s a very clever shot, with the man’s appearing to emerge from the wall, his t-shirt…

Days of Art 2017-09: Dat Street Jazz

There’s something pure about mainstream jazz in combination with street photography. Back before I began going on shoots with my wife, I used to wait until I was in a dark shitty mood, load up with a couple of Nikons, plug jazz into my ears, and go on a shooting spree. My favorite shooting opus…

Days of Art 2017-05: Halcyon Days But Incendiary Nights

The purpose of our Days of Art series isn’t meant to be self-aggrandizement, and I rarely do “selfies” except in a mocking manner, but it disturbed me to realize that the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination passed yesterday without my noticing. I’m not going to weep for the man here, and in fact I…

Days of Art 2017-04: Life Imitates Art

After my recent “discovery” of Ashley Stevenson, I’ve been thinking a lot about Ed Sheeran’s song “The A Team.” Coincidentally, which is to say, in the Universe’s divine, randomized, perfect organization, I’ve also been mounting my life’s portfolio of street photography and encountered the photo, shown below, of a young woman who was seemingly living…