“Street Photography Now” Book Review #4
I was given “Street Photography Now” by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren as a gift for Christmas this year and remember avidly flipping through its pages and reading about the photographers whose visual esthetic was most pleasing to me. It wasn’t until I had gone through the entire book that I hadn’t just picked up the interviews and personal information about the photographers who struck me visually, but I had learned much about “street photography” as a style of shooting. It is not always about hunting out that perfect shot, but instead in taking time combing an area for potential photos. Looking around in all directions and truly observing ones surroundings. It is about capture those perfect candid moments of everyday life that often go unnoticed to the untrained eye. And sometimes it is in these candid snapshot moments that we stumble upon something beautiful and perfectly representative of everyday life. It can also be a study on the life habits of humans across the world, touching on everything from morning transit to work, to relaxing afternoons in the park. They are hunters of the unexpected moment, and have the ability to capture something that if not captured at the correct second could be just another bland photo. They provide viewers with a glimpse of the realities of life in places that they themselves may never get to experience.
“They thrive on the unexpected, seeing the street as a theatre of endless possibilities, the cast list never fixed until the shutter is pressed. They stare, they pry, they listen and they eaves drop, and in doing so they hold up a mirror to the kind of societies we are making for ourselves. At a time when fewer and fewer of the images we see are honest representations of real life, their work is more vital than ever”
