As summer creeps up to autumn, the shadows get longer and the days shorter, street photographers sit at their desks and process their work.
Some affiliate links are included in the text. These links lead to the sales page where you can purchase the e-book
Original Image by Sean P. Durham 2023
Photos of the streets they love to walk, the buildings, the people, tourists and strange occurrences that only happen once in a blue moon all captured through a 50 mm camera lens.
I’ve spent the best part of my year putting together my first Street Photography in Berlin book. Right now, the e-book version is available, soon the paperback version will be available for purchase.
It’s filled with photos and words; the words that represent my philosophy of seeing the world through the lens. It definitely helps the beginning street photography to grasp the ideas and practices of what street photography is all about.
You can read it, think deeply about what I say, and mull over how that fits in with your own way of seeing and encountering what happens in the average street photography session.
All those hours spent breezing your way through the streets of your home town, reacting to events on the street rapidly and creating a piece of enjoyable art from the street.
Street photography is the practice of art with a camera.
There can be many debates and arguments about what street photography is, who does it best, and why we take street shots – in short, what drives us?
But really, isn’t simply because we are all looking for something that has more depth, breadth and meaning than the repetitive daily jobs that we have to do.
The fine Art of street photography is a way out of the rut of life.
Street photography allows us access to a world of wonder.
The book, Sean P. Durham, Street Photography in Berlin (The Fine Art of Street Photography) is available on Amazon, and through the distributor Draft2Digital where you can buy it through your favourite outlet of choice.
Paperback, coffee table sized books in self-publishing take time to get right. The formatting, adjustments, and the whole work process is different than self-publishing an e-book.
The e-book is well worth the buy if you view it on a Kindle or Pad. The important aspect is that you can view the photos at a decent size.
The writing definitely serves as deep food for thought for every street photography out there. I read other street photographer’s work often. It’s always important to be able to get out of your own head and listen or read the words and thoughts of others when they talk about their own experiences and practices.
Street photography can sometimes be contentious, the purpose and ways of photographers on the street vary according to their views on what a street photo constitutes.
Some demand that a close up portrait of a stranger is what makes an urban street shot, others bang on about how it must be in colour – they just don’t grasp the beauty of black & white photography. At the end of the day, there is no doubt that urban street photography is an art form.
Look back to the early and mid twentieth century and you’ll see some of the finest work done on the street, and it’s hard to sift through all the work that is offered today on the internet, a lot of drab, boring photos of people walking down the street do not mean that the person has taken street photography shots. Where’s the artistic element?
Even when a beginner street photographer shows an effort to create composition, but fails, or colours have worked out well, yet there’s no sense of framing the shot, well, that person is on the way to proper understanding of what the Art of Street Photography is all about.
Creativity with a camera. Understanding equipment, and going all the way with their photography craft.
In my book about street photography I talk about the art of street photography – I can’t imagine doing it without coming at it from a creative angle. But, there are people out there who claim they “just shoot” and the photos turn out interesting, well good for them, but they don’t know what they are missing.
Street Photography in Berlin – The Art of Street Photography, by Sean P. Durham.