For a while now I’ve been contemplating what it is about street photography that attracts me to it. After all, it’s not something anyone is ever likely to make money from. Maybe a few print or self-published book sales. Even the teaching of street photography workshops is another way to monetize it. But no one is going to get rich or even make a living from it. So that rules out fortune.
For a number of years now, usually every March, I’ve been travelling to the Costa Blanca in Spain, primarily to shoot some street photography. Basing myself in the holiday Mecca of Benidorm, I also travel to other places, such as: Altea, Alicante and Calpe.
I usually end up shooting hundreds and hundreds of shots whilst there. Here are a small selection of 25 images from my time there this year. All were taken on a Ricoh GRIII 28mm compact camera, between 9th and 16th March 2020.
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Last week I decided to get myself the Ricoh GR3 for street photography. Whilst I have shot Ricoh GR’s since 2012, and have been a big Ricoh fan boy since, this is the first time I’ve consciously decided to move to the Ricoh as my primary street photography camera of choice. I’ve even gone and sold off all my Olympus camera gear as a result. So why? What led to this?
When you talk about colour photography as a serious “art form” the usual names will come up as pioneers in this field: William Eggleston, Saul Leiter, Ernst Haas, Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz, Harry Gruyaert and Martin Parr. All these have certainly been acknowledged as photographers who took colour photography out of the gaudy catalogs of yesteryear and into the major art galleries from the 1970’s onwards.
Some days, as a street photographer, it just doesn’t happen. You might not be in the mood or are struggling to get into the zone. There’s nothing happening in front of the camera or not much capturing your eye. It’s just a crap day and you come home with not much or nothing at all.
It seems a simple enough question: what is street photography? but it’s one guaranteed to turn most photography forums into a never-ending meltdown of disagreement and argument. In many ways street photography has become different things to different people.
