What are the core aesthetic ideals that encompass street photography and why does this matter?
I believe that there is a certain beauty to a street photograph that is unlike all other genres of photography. At the core of street photography’s aesthetic ideals is its spontaneous, raw, and candid nature. The composition of a street photograph isn’t something planned or contrived. I believe the spontaneous nature of making street photographs candidly makes them so much more powerful. For instance:
Photojournalism Versus Street Photography
You could say that photojournalism and street photography go hand in hand. However, my idea is that a street photographer goes out into the world without any plans, projects, books, or stories in mind. A street photographer simply wanders the world aimlessly, following their intuition.
A photojournalist, on the other hand, has a story in the back of their mind—a plan, a destination, and an ideal end result for the work itself. A journalist might look for details that will tell a story or make a photograph in a way that can stand next to another to tell the visual story of a place, people, or event.
Single Image Versus Story
I can only speak from personal experience, so bear that in mind. When I’ve gone out into the world to make photographs, I’ve never planned. I’ve never gone out there with the idea of telling a story. I’ve always simply remained focused on this one goal: to make a single image.
Why Single Images?
A single image is something that can stand on its own. I believe a photograph that stands on its own two feet—without captions or accompanying images to tell the story—is much more powerful. The power of a single image encompasses the aesthetic ideals of street photography.
A strong street photograph is a single image.
The feeling you get from an image—the emotional impact it has—is just as important as its visual qualities. The problem with a photojournalistic approach is that it may prioritize emotional impact while leaving the aesthetics or visual side of the image as secondary.
A street photographer, however, is hyper-aware of geometry, shape, form, color, and the way these elements can combine to craft a strong, single image, without relying on the emotional impact of sensationalism.
Think of the photographs you see of war, famine, mining workers, protests, and the typical photojournalistic images from World Press Photo. They are almost always emotionally impactful but often visually lacking. This is why photojournalism often falls flat, in my opinion, and is aesthetically ugly.
Does This Matter?
As a street photographer, this absolutely matters. Why? Because at the end of the day, my interest lies in art and the creation of beautiful images. I’m not interested in telling stories—that’s never been my concern. My focus is on creating compositions that are striking, both visually engaging and emotionally impactful.
I’m drawn to the spontaneous, raw, candid, uncontrived nature of street photography that almost feels effortless when viewing the picture. I’m not interested in making photographs for the cover of National Geographic or any of these other boring photojournalistic agencies that produce lackluster imagery.
The sad truth is that many of these organizations, photojournalists, and even documentary photography groups like Magnum produce very boring and banal work these days. It’s best to stay true to the ideals of street photography if you’re looking to produce beautiful photographs.
A Call to Action
Don’t get suckered by these clickbait photos that win photojournalistic competitions or anything from the realm of traditional press photography. Their photos might get a lot of attention, but aesthetically, they are ugly.
Let’s strive to create aesthetically beautiful photographs! Let’s steal all the best qualities of photojournalism and documentary photography and blend them to create the most beautiful imagery through the aesthetic ideals of street photography.