Defining street photography is challenging.
“To me, photography is the art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
Elliot Erwitt
Wikipedia goes with “photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places usually with the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by careful framing and timing.”
It continues “Street photography does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment. Though people usually feature directly, street photography might be absent of people and can be of an object or environment where the image projects a decidedly human character in facsimile or aesthetic”
Probably a more concise definition is “ a genre of photography that records everyday life in a public place”
It doesn’t have to be in a street. It doesn’t have to have people feature. It can be monochrome (and often is) or colour.
It’s a genre that many of those that we consider the greats of photography have practised and still do.
“Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.”
Garry Winogrand
Nick Inston 