What is Street Photography ?
- Bill Shapiro
- Dec 1, 2025
- 2 min read
What is Street Photography?
The easy answer here would be to say that street photography is a genre, like landscape or wildlife or portrait or conflict photography. “Street photography” not only describes where the photo was taken, but also implies its subject matter: the candid, everyday comings and goings of life as it unfolds in real time in public spaces.
A slightly more nuanced definition would likely talk about how street photographers look to capture moments that speak to the extraordinary everyday ballet of daily life, with perhaps the most classic (and overused) example being Henri Cartier-Bresson’s 1932 “decisive moment” photograph of a man in mid-air leaping over a puddle at Gare Saint Lazare in Paris. Or, conversely, how street photographers look for incredibly unique moments that play out in public, like Garry Winogrand’s famous 1967 shot of a smartly dressed, mixed-race couple walking in New York City while, yes, holding a pair of chimpanzees as if they were their own children. You don’t see that everyday.
For me, the most seductive street photographs are those that not only spotlight the particularities of the people in the frame but also show them interacting with their environment; they isolate an extraordinary moment in a time when everything in the frame lines up and that, a split second later, would evaporate. In the case of Cartier-Bresson’s classic photo mentioned above, not only is the man caught in mid-air, not only is his image reflected in the puddle, but if you look closely, you’ll notice that behind the jumping man is a poster showing a leaping dancer. A truly magical moment.
The one other thing I’d add here is that, for me, a great street photograph also captures the essence of the city in which the action is taking place.
That, anyway, is a starting point. I’ve had hourslong debates on this topic — debates that have slid into table-pounding arguments — because there are, well, many opinions about what street photography is and what it isn’t. (You can listen to one of my debates here, in which I tangle with an English professor of photography.)
Because action on the street happens in the blink of an eye, street photographers tend to use smaller, handheld cameras (as opposed to larger cameras that require a set up or tripod) that do not draw attention to the person taking the picture. It’s worth mentioning that street photography had largely been the province of artists and oddballs for decades, but the smartphone tsunami, which put a discrete and disguised camera in the pocket or purse of everyone, has led to a wild resurgence of interest in the genre.
To get a sense of some of the top practitioners of street photographer, look here:
On BluePhoto:
Louis Stettner, who loved the streets of New York City and Paris.
Tria Giovan’s pictures of New York City’s Lower East Side.
Roger Deakins, the two-time Oscar-winning photographer.
Elsewhere:
Also, look at Alex Webb, Harry Gruyaert, Helen Levitt, and on and on.
Comments