For me "Street Photography" is defined by Vivian Maier's work. For someone else it may mean something else.
It's all too easy to take a photograph of someone in the street. I think it needs to be a photo of something that combines several of these elements:
- A sense of place
- A sense of time
- A sense of intrigue
- A sense of humour
- An unusual take on something.
I have many, many, photographs taken of people on the street, in an attempt to capture those elements, but only once do I think I combined a worthwhile number of them.
Unfortunately I had the crappiest camera with me.
It's very difficult to get something that isn't just a photo of some human beings outside.
Luck plays an enormous part of it of course. I think my clown photo is devalued if his index finger isn't raised like that for example, because he seems to be making a point about something, and I'm intrigued to know what it was. (It may just be the way his hand is resting of course, but that's the luck of it).
If I'd been truly lucky then Boris Johnson would have been sat behind him, instead of the woman.
