Wage love not War! Interaction with my subjects is key for me with my Street Photography

Inspired by a podcast from https://streetphotographymagazine.com/conversation-with-thomas-hackenberg/ I realized there may be as many different ways to shoot Street Photography as there are topics of photography. I agreed with everything that Thomas had yo say on the subject and could tell he has spent many hours with a camera in hand. I do feel like I use it differently.

One of the greatest inspirations in my creativity is going someplace new and letting it fill me up with newness and different. For me, it is always the people that make up a place or town, people want to see what other people are doing.One of the things that Thomas said in the blog was ” you have to have heart as well as a great eye in street photography, ” This I feel to be so true, especially in capturing people in any given situation. If you can’t feel what they are feeling, you can’t project it to your viewers in a image.

As a photojournalist for 20 years I tend to focus on the people and engage in most cases, then there is opposite side of the spectrum that I call Sunday morning side walk. It came to me when I heard a song by the same title by Johnny Cash. As in the song, I reflect on feelings and thoughts as I walk through a place created for people but no one is there. My images are a direct reflection of the mood and state of mind I am in at the time, it can be amazing the layers that your images can peel back for you in this meditational time with just you and your Camera.

Whatever your choice of capture or taste in photography, I highly suggest spending some time alone with your camera.

New York, Santa Fe, street photography