A New (Old) Approach to Street Photography

At a recent meeting of the local camera club, there was a discussion of the difficulties today in street photography. Subjects are in an interesting dichotomy. No one seems to care about pictures being snapped with a smartphone, but pull out a camera with interchangeable lenses and the reactions tend to go negative very quickly.

I do not know why this is as a smartphone image is just as much a step inside privacy as an image made with a traditional camera. Some psychologists have been quoted saying it is related to “paparazzi fear”. Apparently the same people who will walk over spikes to see pictures of so called stars as they actually are, are loathe to be seen the same way. I don’t know if this is accurate, or based on actual data, but it is true that the general public are less likely to want to be photographed, presuming a “real” camera is used.

This brought me to think of the work of my favourite street photographer, Vivian Maier. Ms. Maier made thousands of images, certainly in a different time, never published them, and never developed many of her rolls for financial reasons. While she photographed real people nearly every day, she was no paparazzi and often her subjects, when aware of her presence, did not appear angry or threatened. She didn’t curate her work, so we have a better sense of her books of work than we might with a professional photographer today, although we do see the mass of unculled crap that gets posted every day if we choose to look at social media.

Club member, and long time photographer Tom Smith may have hit on one of the reasons that Ms. Maier was successful then, and smartphone photographers may remain successful at street photography today. The image for this article is a clue.

Ms. Maier never had a camera to her eye. She was never obviously pointing a camera, with some gigantic lens at anyone. She worked in close with what back in the day we called a “normal” lens, this being a lens that delivered an angle of view similar to the human eye.

She used a film camera (obviously) of the type called a Twin Lens Reflex. This kind of camera typically used 120 roll film and produced 12 images per roll in the 2 ¼ square format. The photographer looked down into the camera onto a ground glass that showed the image from the upper lens, and when the shutter was squeezed, a leaf shutter in the lower lens would expose the film. TLRs as they were called were nearly silent. and because they were not used at eye level, never looked to be aimed at anyone. Making photographs from waist level (the viewing area was / is called a waist level finder) was unobtrusive and non-threatening and the work had to be done reasonably closely because lens choices if available at all, were limited. These cameras, under the brands Autocord, Rolleiflex, Rolleicord, Mamiya C220 and Mamiya C330 amongst others were simple devices, operated fully manually and had no light meters built in. Use required a level of skill in the hands and brain of the photographer. No one could ever call them point and shoot. The large negative size delivered excellent resolution, and those lenses were incredibly sharp for the time.

Some street photographers tried using the shoot from the waist technique with smaller autofocus cameras with excellent lenses, such as the Fujifilm 100 family. These are terrific cameras, although their standard angle of view is of a wide angle rather than a normal lens. Photos made from waist level benefit from this because the photographer is not seeing anything through the viewfinder and the results are often useless or requiring of massive cropping to make a vaguely decent image. Unlike a TLR, this kind of photography is surreptitious, and has earned itself (rightly so in my opinion) a nasty reputation.

I offer a new route for the would be street photographer, likely best served with a mirrorless camera fitted with what I would refer to as a normal lens. For a full frame, that would be something in the 50mm focal length range. The camera must have a rear screen that can be oriented parallel to the ground with the display facing up. The camera is held at waist level, and the photographer composes using only the LCD display. Manual, semi-automatic, and fully automatic modes are available as are the functions of the built in light meter. A mirrorless camera can be set to be completely silent, something a DSLR can never be. In this way, one can make images without appearing threatening and without visibly aiming the camera at a subject.

I still believe it is important to thank subjects and often to offer some form of thanks if it fits the culture of the subject. One of course should be cognizant the some cultures find photography of any kind to be a threat and those folks should be left in peace.

The waist level viewpoint changes how the photographer sees, and as consequence, how the photograph is composed, and with a little effort, often results in images that are more compelling than images shot at eye level. Female photographers tend to be seen as less threatening than males, particularly when the subjects are other females and always when children are involved. A big man with a large camera with battery grip and enormous white barrelled lens is never welcome for street work. It is what it is.

Thank you as always for reading. If you shop with B&H Photo Video, please do so through the link on the main page. There is no cost to you and your purchase pays me a small commission. I’m Ross Chevalier and until next time, peace.