My ups and downs with street photography

I had been into photography for only a few years when I fell in love with street photography - or, my own idea of street photography. Because after doing a few shoots I came across all the snobbery that surrounds the genre, with people creating extra rules, labels and more, and I didn't dare to call what I did street photography, just in case. There's way too much drama and debate around it and for a while I lost interest in it, but later I've learned to forget about all those opinions, do what I want to do, and enjoy the ride. Nowadays I do very little street photography, but that's for other reasons.

Most definitions of street photography say something like this:

“Street photography, a genre of photography that records everyday life in a public place. The very publicness of the setting enables the photographer to take candid pictures of strangers, often without their knowledge. Street photographers do not necessarily have a social purpose in mind, but they prefer to isolate and capture moments which might otherwise go unnoticed.”

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Another relevant description is:

"Street photography is a photographic genre that documents candid everyday moments of life in public areas. Contrary to its name, street photography does not have to be done on the streets. You can do street photography anywhere.

photographylife.com

These two sum it up really well. I've seen all sorts of rules being set up, the most stupid one being "don't take boring photos". Like.. WTF? Who gets to decide what is boring? Who does not take boring photos when they start out? Most (all?) photographers take boring photos while they develop their skills and learn to take the great photos. Even Henri Cartier-Bresson probably took boring photos at some point. To me, much of the modern style street photography based on contrasts, silhouettes and shapes is boring. There are different styles in all photography genres and we don't have to love all of them.

So let's just go out there and take the photos, and let's enjoy it too.
All the photos in this post are not necessarily what would be classified as street photography (not even to me) but simply photos I took while I was out and about. If something catches my attention, I take up the camera and that's it. Also, most of them are from about 10 years ago when I was very new to photography so they may not even be "good". But I loved taking all of them, they are part of my journey and some are important for documentary reasons.

I first started dipping my toes into street photography in the spring of 2016 when I did a solo trip to Italy. It had been a stressful time at work and all of a sudden a colleague wanted to come back from maternity leave and some of us were offered extra time off. I used mine to go to Italy, spend some time alone with my camera and rest my brain.

My first days were spent in Venice, and I just strolled around with the camera. Through a lady in my Italian class I had some instructions about where to go to see something different than the usual San Marco - Ponte del Rialto areas. I enjoyed exploring a little side canal with some interesting side streets and even found a very ordinary shopping street which seemed like where the locals go. I do love Venice but I don't love crowds of tourists so this was a nice treat! Obviously I also strolled in the more famous areas, got lost as people always do, and kept the camera going. I enjoyed capturing photos of interesting places and sometimes people (but it seems I haven't kept all of those photos) and what was going on in the area.

After a few days in Venice, I went to Milan. I have some mixed emotions about Milan - I was an au-pair there in my 20s and while my experience wasn't bad, it wasn't entirely positive either and I'm usually not a fan of big cities, but Milan is still a place I've wanted to go back to for nostalgia reasons. It's also very busy and full of beautiful architecture so there's plenty to photograph.

Here my stay was mostly about revisiting some of the places I used to go to, again with the camera in my hand. Here I had become more interested in including people in my photos, and capturing more activity, but I still worried about being noticed too much.

Later in the year I went back to Italy, this time with husband and parents, to celebrate my mother's 70th birthday and enjoy our usual summer holiday in Abruzzo. I took these two while sitting at a bar:

On the way down we stopped in Umbria to visit Norcia and Castelluccio. These are two places that have become special to us. Castelluccio with its spectacular floral display in late June to early July deserves its own blog post (we planned to go there for the flowering this year but had to change plans) and Norcia is simply such a beautiful, pleasant little town. This was the second time we went there, I missed the peak of the flowering this time too, but enjoyed taking some photos in Norcia, and I'm so happy I did.

A few months after we visited, a devastating earthquake hit central Italy and powerful aftershock hit Norcia in late October. Most of Castelluccio and much of Norcia was destroyed. The next time we visited Norcia, in 2018, most of the church with the arches was gone.

But there were still vibes of life and hope.

In Castelluccio the business people had rebuilt their bars and restaurants, although in modified form. It remains a special place and popular for hikers, motorcyclists, and people who want to admire the flowering in the early summer.

In 2024 we visited again and were happy to see the rubble of Castelluccio was cleaned up, and in Norcia they have come a long way with rebuilding. I took photos but it seems they have "disappeared" (often meaning I've been too harsh when cleaning up my photo library) from my hard drive. We'll get back there when we can.

With GDPR I stopped doing, or attempting to do, street photography. I worried about how people would overinterpret the law and if photographers would get in trouble for photographing in public places. Later that has turned out to not be the case, but with the years passing by I've become too shy and self-conscious. These are some of my last shots from my "era" of street photography.

Street photography still intrigues me but I'm not sure I'll put any effort in it going forward. With increased surveillance in our lives and societies, do I really want to add another element to it? Is it really ok to include random people in my photo stories without their consent? On the other hand, street photography is important for documentary reasons. If photographers stop doing it, will there be any documentation of our time in the future? I'm aware I'm now entering a whole different discussion of media, video etc as the current form of documentation, but whatever Big Tech is trying to say, still photography is and will always be a powerful form of media and documentation.

For that reason, I'll probably have a go at street photography again when I have the opportunity, and try it differently. There's the option to not photograph people. Some will disagree, but it's defined as "...documenting public life.." and as I see it, that means with or without people. I once followed an Instagram account with photos from Milan. Almost all of them were taken without people in them, and ALL of them still perfectly captured the vibes of Milan. It was thoroughly inspiring and since then I've wanted to do something similar.