Over the years, I learned a lot about street photography. Through practice and repetition, I’ve been photographing every single day for over a decade now. What have I learned? Let’s dive deeper into this practice that brings me such rich meaning and fulfillment in my life.
1. The name of the game is in the mundane
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned after all these years of practicing street photography, it is that the name of the game is in the mundane. What this means is, you can walk the same lane every single day, but always find something to uplift with a photograph. No matter how boring you may find life to be, no matter how low of a possibility you may think there is within your city, I can promise you that there is a potential photograph to be made within everything in life. There’s infinite opportunity with the medium of photography to draw upon the world as a canvas. We can create instant sketches of life that describe what it was like to live during this time. This is the most beautiful and uplifting gift that you can practice each day that will fuel your lust for life and allow you to find endless joy in the most boring and mundane situations. Use photography as a vehicle to continue exploring, no matter how boring, blasé, or dull life may seem.
Create your own world and live each day like it is a dream.
2. Movement makes improvement
The more you move your physical body through the world, the more you will see. The more that you see, the more that you will photograph. It’s a very simple idea, the motivation is in your legs! I find that the joy of walking is what I am most grateful for in life. It’s such a simple thing. We are bipedal human beings for a reason. Think about it, when you walk through the city, the town that you live in, you can continuously find yourself on an endless adventure. Take the roads less traveled. Make a turn down a street you’ve never been before. Chat with the local shop owners. Look at something and observe it with much intensity. Uplift these things that you find beautiful with photographs and continue moving your body as a way for you to explore endlessly. Walk through the world with your head held high, shoulders back, chest open, and photograph with confidence. The more you walk, the more you will photograph. This is the goal- to continue making more pictures and walking through the world endlessly with curiosity.
The more that we explore, the more in life that we can adore.
3. Travel is the greatest teacher
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to various countries. When I studied at Hebrew University, in Jerusalem, I’ve probably learned the most out of any of my travel experiences. The reason I say this is because I was able to travel both the Israeli side of this country and the Palestinian side. I’ve experienced the entirety of Israel. I was able to traverse throughout the entire West Bank, different refugee camps, and observe the everyday life of Palestinian people. I was so inspired by my time there, that I returned after graduating and volunteered on a Kibbutz. I also lived with a Palestinian family. I was able to integrate myself within this community, learn about Islam, sleep on the floors of mosques, and ultimately become converted to Islam. I’m Catholic, but I did this for the experience. It was something that taught me more than anything I would ever find in an adventure book, or something about the history of photography. Through traveling the various Palestinian cities, volunteering, and living a different a lifestyle abroad, I’ve become so open to new experiences. This led me to join the peace corps as a volunteer in Zambia, Africa, where I worked as a rural aquaculture promotion specialist in remote villages. I lived there for one year, learned the local language, and spent everyday with a host family. Each day I was able to interact with life in a new way. I now understand that there are simple things in life that we take for granted here in the United States. I was completely dependent upon a clean borehole to provide me with water and a lake to get my fish and eat at night. Simple things like this teach you a lot about the life that we live. When I think about it, freedom exists under the thatched roofs in the villages in Africa. There’s something so special about living off the land and becoming one with nature and community. These experiences that I’ve had traveling throughout the different places in the world have been the greatest teachers in my life that I can draw endless wisdom from.
In order to learn and grow, you must throw yourself into the unknown.
4. Remain open to new experiences
When I am thrown into a new location, I’m always open to trying something new. Whether it’s a new food, cultural practice, religion, etc. I’m open without any preconceived notions of what I will find. To become more open is the goal with every new adventure. When you photograph new places, and experience new things, you never know what you might find! This is a beautiful notion, because at the end of our lives, it is the memories and experiences that we’ve had that give us this lust for life itself. I want to live in regret-free framework, where when I grow older, I look back at these photographs, and cherish these memories, and these new experiences as something that I can share with others.
Street photographers thrive in chaos.
5. Champion humanity
Perhaps a good goal when you’re out there with your camera making photographs of people, is to uplift humans and humanity. Let’s champion humanity through our photography! I believe that when you’re looking at a person on the street, a moment, whether it’s a funeral, a conflict, a mother and child, any experience that is happening in front of you, treat the people like heroes and uplift them through the pictures that we make. Let’s transcend and go beyond and champion humanity through the practice of street photography.
I desire to uplift the human experience to great heights.
6. Photography takes time
I believe that some street photographers will become unmotivated over the time that they spend photographing because they realize that they’re not getting the results that they desire. Don’t stress! Photography takes a lot of time. You have to put in that work. When I think about my time over the past 10 years, photographing every single day, guess what, I probably get only a few images per year that I deemed to be successful. This is something important to consider because it will hopefully guide you in the right direction. Essentially, photography takes a lot of time because it’s not easy. It’s easy to pick up a camera, the medium is accessible, and we can continuously make pictures, but to get better at photography takes a lot of time. Just recognize this simple fact and don’t become frustrated by the lack of results. I highly suggest embracing photography with the autotelic mindset. What this means is, we photograph simply to photograph. We do the thing itself because the thing itself brings us joy. Don’t worry about the outcome and take your time.
Go slow and enter the zen zone. When I photograph, I exist outside the passage of time!
7. Don’t take yourself too seriously
Sometimes I think street photographers and photographers in general think that they are some serious photojournalist or documentarian that needs to take themselves so seriously. Don’t do that! Just have fun and recognize that the less seriously you take this thing, the more enjoyable it will become. When I travel to new places I oftentimes engage with locals playfully by gifting them instax prints, chatting, drinking tea, dancing, and even beatboxing with a gang of youth following me through the streets. I find this to be a fun way to engage with life. Just don’t take it so seriously! I have fun when I’m on the street. Don’t make yourself into this serious photographer that needs to go out there and tell these “visual stories” about particular things. Just shoot and have fun!
I treat the street like a playground. I am just a big kid with a camera!
8. There’s no such thing as good or badphotographs
What? There’s no such thing as good or bad photographs?! Yes… When you think about it, this is a subjective medium. Nobody can tell you what photograph is deemed worthy of praise. It’s only you who decides what makes a good or bad photograph. I say, let that ships fall as they may! Forget about the contests, the books, the galleries, and all of the fancy nonsense. Just shoot for yourself, and recognize that the photographs we create are all beautiful. Don’t let anybody punk you around about your photography and tell you that it’s bad or not worthy. Only you decide what makes a successful photograph.
Everything is fair game!
9. Curiosity is the goal
At the end of the day, curiosity is the goal. We want to wake up in the morning with our eyes wide open and ready to tackle each day with a camera in hand. I desire to wake up each morning, with this sense of wonder like a child. Ask questions with each photograph that you create. Treat the work like a stream of becoming where with each photograph, you learn something new. View the world every day anew with a unique perspective, sharp visual acuity, and openness. The medium of photography will fuel your curiosity and give you meaning within life itself. Treat the camera as the passport or the key that will unlock multiple doors throughout life and enjoy these new experiences that this gift will give you.
Wield the camera like a sword and cut through the chaos of life and put order within your frames!
10. Street photography is an ethos
Ultimately, street photography is merely an ethos. What this means is, it’s just a way of doing things. It’s a way of seeing the world and experiencing photography as a medium. It’s my personal belief that’s street photography is the way to become closer to the roots of the medium. A lot of the time other photographers will decide that “this is street,” “this is not street”, “you need a unique character for it to be a street photograph,” “that’s not street photography- there’s no people in it!” These people don’t know what they’re talking about… People like to make rules and games and make things up as they go. Honestly, I say let go. Just treat street photography as an ethos. You make the rules, you make the guidelines, and you set the ethics for yourself and yourself only! Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise, and just do you.
There are no rules, there are no guidelines, there are no ethics to street photography!