Category: Photographers

I come from the design graphic world and I am used to creating and transmitting concepts following the instructions of a client. All this work involves a well-structured script and a meticulous methodology where there is no room for much improvisation. It has been liberating to realize that in streetphotography there are no rules or strategies to ensure success. The secret is in oneself, intuition, letting everything flow until “that” precise moment in which you take the photo. In the street, places, people, light… are not static elements, they change constantly. You can’t plan or search, they’re just there for a very limited period of time. You find them. The decision of what you are going to do, how and when is yours and, must be made quickly. There is no time to think. That instant gives us some improvised images, more spontaneous although not exempt of a visual complexity that goes beyond the apparent simplicity of the place and the moment. It’s also true, as a graphic designer, I can’t stop thinking about composition, playing with shapes from color, shadows and light. In this sense, Harry Gruyaert is undoubtedly one of my greatest inspirations. He is the European pioneer of colour photography. Nothing in his images seems superfluous. Their composition always appears right. He makes colour the central element in the construction of the image. His sensitive, non-narrative and graphic chromatic approach to the world is radically new.

My objective is not to do a report. I don’t want the idea of a concrete project to limit my creativity. I work more by intuition, looking for a potentially interesting place that allows me to be spontaneous. This is precisely my objective as a street photographer: to turn an ephemeral and unique instant into an eternal one.

“As fearless a Street Photographer as they come…”

– Spyros Papaspyropoulos (Co-founder of StreetHunters.net)

Forrest Walker is an award winning photographer from Portland, Oregon, USA. His work has been exhibited across multiple continents, bringing a passion for capturing candid interest in living color, along with a fearless obsession for exploration. He has been featured across media publications for his unique documentary projects and given talks at a variety of events and universities in over ten countries.

Followed online as the Major City/100 City Project, Forrest’s current photobook work had him walking 20km/day for over five years, as he explored and photographed all aspects of big city life on foot, finding small worlds within each major city, while connecting the whole world through its people and life.

Eyes on the street

Jamel Shabazz is best known for his iconic photographs of New York City during the 1980s. A documentary, fashion, and street photographer, he has authored 12 monographs and contributed to over three dozen other photography related books. His photographs have been exhibited worldwide and his work is housed within the permanent collections of The Whitney Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Fashion Institute of Technology, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Getty Museum.
Over the years, Shabazz has instructed young students at the Studio Museum in Harlem’s “Expanding the Walls” project, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture “Teen Curator’s” program, and the Bronx Museum’s “Teen Council.” He is also the 2018 recipient of the Gordon Parks award for excellence in the arts and humanitarianism and the 2022 awardee of the Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl book prize. Jamel is also a member of the photo collective Kamoinge, and a board member of En Foco, another photo collective. His goal as an artist is to contribute to the preservation of world history and culture.

Originally from the US, I’ve been moving around back and forth across the Atlantic since I was 6 years old. Since 2009 I have been here in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 2011 I was in a rut creatively with music. I did, like almost anyone else take photographs but it was a side thing and not taken very seriously. Eventually I picked up the camera and just decided to take pictures of the world around me, not just of the obvious (monuments, the castle and so on) but of things we just pass by and take for granted…how an alleyway is transformed by the way the sun hits it, rail tracks and so on.
The big revelation however came when I watched Genius of Photography and was introduced to street photography and the idea of the so-called “decisive moment”. It articulated what I had been slowly picking up on in the couple months prior: that underneath all the day to day mundanity, underneath all that we take for granted as we rush from point A to B, there are pictures, beauty and small details that speak volumes when framed in a rectangle amongst the movie that plays in front of our eyes. The streets and routines that I had grown bored of now had a new resonance and thrummed with a newfound energy.
Since then I have enrolled in a photography course at the local college/university which has introduced me to different genres of the medium but at the end of the day it is still the act of going out on the street and recording (and sometimes distorting) reality that really gets me to pull out my camera.

A street photographer’s poignant snapshots capture the humans of London

Alex Sturrock is a photographer who has spent much of his career documenting the lives of ordinary London residents. Sturrock explains how Instagram has “re-energized street photography” but can also make his subjects vulnerable to public shaming.

These photos were all taken over the last year. They were taken in areas of London that are very close to the center but predominantly residential and have a wide social mix. It’s something I have grown up with, but unfortunately there is an increasing feeling here that this is now under threat, following wave after wave of development and the move away from having some kind of social responsibility for others.

It’s very hard to choose who to photograph because everyone, on close inspection, has something about them which represents the history of their family, their culture and themselves. I do ask myself why I am choosing certain people, I try to rely on instinct more than premeditation. I just expose myself to the world and see what draws me.
I use Instagram to share my work, it’s this very public space which has re-energized street photography in a way that I didn’t think was possible. Unfortunately, it has also put the images, and people in them, in a position of vulnerability—because of the “shaming culture” which has developed online. The possibility that people would see my images as playing into that is something that I’m very concerned about.

Overall, I have had a very positive reaction to my work. I try to take pictures without being noticed, and then if I think that there is a potential portrait, as opposed to an observed moment, I will speak to them and ask if it is okay to take a photograph of them. When people say “no” to a portrait it can stay with me for a long time; it can be very painful knowing it could have been something special.

BIO

Elizabeth Bick is a photographer and former dancer whose work explores movement and public space. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including Fraenkel Gallery, Norton Museum and Ogden Museum. She has received awards and grants from the Pollock-Krasner and Joan Mitchell Foundations, and the Rudin Prize. She’s been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and TIME, with commissions from Public Art Fund, The Atlantic, and NYT Magazine. Elizabeth holds an MFA from Yale.

STATEMENT

After a childhood dedicated to training in dance, I discovered a choreographic voice through photography. I photograph urban facades that I position as stages and pedestrians as unconscious performers.  I am particularly drawn to spaces and people that are naturally theatrical.  The subjects are sharply frozen in the pictures through the use of a very fast shutter speed. Through this stilling, dress, body movement, and backdrop transcend the quotidian urban space into that of an operatic performance piece. I present many of the works in multiples, to decontextualize them, and in doing so, I reconsider the street as a site of performance of everyday urban life.

Presence

A Great Divide offers a warm and candid glimpse into several beloved community celebrations within Oaxaca, México, where tradition and devotion blend through Catholic and indigenous practices. The zancudos, or mosquitoes in English, are stilt-walking performers who parade and dance through their community, their towering figures and long shadows resembling the slender legs of mosquitoes are excitedly celebrated. The priestly figures of Santo Tomás Jalieza are a rebellious form of adoration pursuing community members to douse with “holy” water and ash. The masquerade and devilish costumes significant to some of these communities lends to more of the mischievous and unexpected. From early afternoon, and late into the sunset, these community members catapult the spirit and energy of pre-Lenten traditions cherished for generations, and igniting the passion to practice it for those yet to come.

Complexities

“Complexities” is a continuing series exploring light and reflections in the urban environment. The images are multi-layered and collage-like. The layering of light and movement with the existing static environment of buildings and streets, and the inside and outside of things merging together for a brief moment, keeps me challenged and amazed at the beauty of the world. I have been engaged in finding these reflections for four years. This group is a current selection The series is ongoing. It is the merging of people and light, inside buildings and outside on the street that fascinates me. It creates a new reality that changes the visual experience, by overlapping scenes and creating a more complex layered image, but it is still a story of the street. Life is filled with layers. Layers of meaning, of experience and emotion. I try to capture that.

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I grew up as an only child in an unconventional family. Familial ties were not defined by blood and heredity. Through this upbringing, I have developed an acute appreciation for finding connective threads, even when they’re not obvious. My photos are a glimpse into lives lived in parallel. The dichotomy between connection and solitude. The space between solitude and isolation, and how the experiences of both can in itself be connective. There’s a lot I won’t write about here; some of those particularly hard moments that have inspired my work, this project specifically. I hope that what I can’t share in words will come through in the images of Only Child.

N’Gossip’

There is a large jewish community in Antwerp and New York. Antwerp is my hometown and the New York is the hometown of the love of my life. Both communities are close to my houses so I frequently go there whenever my schedule allows it to observe daily life and wait for beautiful light and shadows and compositions.

Where Do We

\”Where Do We\” is a street photography series that captures the spirit of South Korea’s anti-Yoon Suk Yeol protests, documenting the political crossroads of a nation. These demonstrations were sparked by President Yoon’s surprise declaration of martial law on December 3, 2024, in which he accused the Democratic Party (DPK) of subversive activities and conspiring with North Korean communists. The chaos that followed lasted six hours as shocked lawmakers from both parties rushed to repeal the decree. While legislators successfully lifted martial law, public anger and frustration remained. Since then, tens of thousands of citizens from all walks of life have gathered every Saturday in Seoul, demanding Yoon\’s accountability and his permanent removal as president. These images blend the raw emotion and surreal moments of a people fighting in an uncertain time. Using creative techniques such as shutter drag and double exposures, these photographs convey a collective sense of disorientation, leaving us to ask both: where do we stand and where do we go from here?

N’ China Girl’

From the vibrant energy of Brick Lane to the bohemian charm of Soho, from the nostalgic allure of Notting Hill to the eclectic vibe of South Bank, London’s streets are a tapestry of quirks and eccentricities that never cease to amaze. London is the city that always invites you to explore its treasures and embrace the splendour and variety of unique vibe and London street scene full of quirky characters.