Street Photography As Process - Essay by Serge J-F. Levy - LensCulture

14/8/2019 Street Photography as Process - Essay by Serge J-F.
Levy | LensCulture
F E AT U R E
Street Photography as
Process
Street photography is both beloved and poorly defined—this essay offers a
considered look at what truly sets this genre apart.
Essay by Serge J-F. Levy
Over the past 20 years I have been creating, teaching and looking at street
photography. In that time of immersion in the history and contemporary practice of
this celebrated style, I have become increasingly interested in enriching the definitions
and language that we use around this tradition. My goal is to extend the scope of the
genre beyond its title (the streets, most often urban) and beyond its traditional content
—most often people and sometimes domestic animals (dogs, and more rarely, cats).
Furthermore, rather than using location or content alone to distinguish the genre, I
believe street photography is most clearly understood by how the process of creating
said images is different from that of working in the documentary, landscape or portrait
genres.
https://www.lensculture.com/articles/serge-j-f-levy-street-photography-as-process?fbclid=IwAR2A44-Q-f57g2ysFE7huOtH0-oTqCTgd7OUZVhLxQeg… 1/13
14/8/2019 Street Photography as Process - Essay by Serge J-F. Levy | LensCulture
Loop Between Woman and Dog, 1976 © Mark Cohen 

(https://www.lensculture.com/mark-cohen)

Street photography is a way of walking through a space while being constantly aware of 
momentary changes in light. It is a discipline and constant awareness of how one can
arrange and frame compositional elements in advance of a yet-to-be-seen sequence of
events that may or may not happen: for example, when out seeking images, some
photographers prefer the shady side of the street and will walk along a curb to utilize
the vanishing perspective lines of the sidewalk merging with the adjacent buildings.
Street photography is about being open to the endless possibility of what might make
an interesting photograph; arguing couples, balletic pedestrian movement, uncanny
and witty juxtapositions of seemingly unrelated subject matter. Street photography is
about spontaneity: the choreography of synchronizing an impulsive emotional or
cerebral response that may transpire over the course of milliseconds with making a
photographic exposure. And street photography is so often about not knowing what a
good photograph will look like, yet trusting the desire and impulse to pick up the
camera, frame the scene, and rely upon intuition to recognize the moment where form
and content are at an apex.
Weymouth, 2006 © Paul Russell (http://www.paulrussell.info/)
Some argue that street photography can only happen in public spaces, but because
street photography is a process, street photography can happen anywhere: in the
subway, at a political convention, at a private party, in the bedroom, and of course, in
the streets.
Yet none of these characteristics establishes measurable differences from documentary

photography and, indeed, street photography clearly has its similarities to the
documentary tradition. Street photographs often contain a narrative. Street
photographs, when collected together, often define cultures or places. And like
documentary photographers, some street practitioners are quiet observers of the street
tableau while others are participants who actively influence the events that transpire 
within the photographic frame; for example Bruce Gilden’s photographs made in

extreme proximity to his subjects
(https://www.lensculture.com/articles/bruce-gilden-face). 
Untitled from New York City, 1990 © Bruce Gilden

(https://www.lensculture.com/bruce-gilden) / Magnum Photos
Union Square, 2010 © Hiroyuki Ito (http://hiroitophoto.com/)
Like the documentary photographer, street photographers are responding to the

momentary fluctuations within a scene and they are always prepared to make an
exposure. But unlike the narrative parameters of the documentary essay, the street
photograph is created without being beholden to a greater narrative structure. The
street photograph has no duty to serve a larger whole (though it often does); while a
street photograph may resonate with other images within the context of a body of
work, fundamentally it can exist on its own. The street photograph needs no
companionship, explanation or context in order to be understood or fully realized.
Paris, France, 1967 © Joel Meyerowitz 

(https://www.lensculture.com/jmeyerowitz) 
Street photographs are not the only type of images that succeed without the 
accompaniment of context or companion images. For example, still life and landscape
photographs often don’t need context in order for their full meaning or experience to
be appreciated. However, another distinguishing aspect of creating street photography
is that the street photographer, as opposed to the still life or landscape photographer,
approaches each instant tabula rasa and without a prescribed narrative or intention.
The photographer happened upon the moment. Because street photographers are
always ready for the unexpected, always aware of the appropriate light reading, (and
always sensitive to the danger of stepping into oncoming traffic in pursuit of a coveted
moment), they are able to seize this unique type of image. Street photography is a
process of being constantly immersed in a theater of unbounded possibilities that life
has to offer.
So, street photography, which involves physically and mentally allowing oneself to
meander in search of a photograph, is diametric to a method focused on seeking out
images with a goal or purpose. When the intention of the photographer becomes more
defined and s/he begins to seek a type of image or specific subject matter, their work
begins to step out of the street photography genre and moves toward becoming a
documentary project—a documentary project defined, in part, by the photographer’s
intention to explore a subject or issue through a photographic inquiry.

New Orleans (Cherries), 2005 © Paul Graham

(https://www.lensculture.com/articles/paul-graham-paul-graham-
speaks-about-his-photographs) 
Of course, many street photographers develop stylistic and content themes in their
work. Some seek humorous, unlikely contrasts, visual puns. There’s the popular subject
of dogs and an endless coffer of “odd-looking” people. Many photographers work solely
in the style of flashed street portraits. Each of these types of inquiries or approaches
could suggest intention—which by my definition would fall outside the parameters of
street photography.
Los Angeles, 2013 © Ola Billmont (http://www.olabillmont.com/index)
Juggling Boxes after Plainedge High School Homecoming Dance, North Massapequa,
NY, 1975 © Meryl Meisler (http://www.merylmeisler.com/)
Perhaps a murky distinction appears here: when is a photographer responding to

unconscious impulses—without intention—versus becoming aware of their conscious
interests and seeking images that define those interests—with intention? Many street
photographers will curate their own work in retrospect, only later learning that there
were themes that were developing while they were making their photographs. In this
case, the act of reflecting upon one’s own work (or with the assistance of an astute
observer) reveals one of the greatest rewards of working so spontaneously: the
unconscious concerns of the photographer become revealed through an instinctive
approach to making pictures.
From the project “Public Relations” © Garry Winogrand

(https://www.lensculture.com/garry-winogrand)
Admittedly, my initial definition of street photography knocks out some of the most
familiar street photography from being recognized as such. Garry Winogrand
(https://www.lensculture.com/garry-winogrand), one of the most revered
practitioners of the genre, created a series of photographs exhibited under the title of
”Public Relations
(https://photographyinamerica.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/garry-
winogrand-public-relations/).” Many of the images were made at dinners, dances,
press conferences and other indoor venues, and in the streets. He approached this
work with the intention of portraying “the effect of media on events.” Because there
was a finite intention behind what he was seeking to photograph, much of this work 
would be excluded from the genre under my definition of street photography. However,

for me, many of the “Public Relations” images extend beyond fulfilling his initial
narrative and branch out into what makes Garry Winogrand’s photographs so uniquely 
strong: their ability to defy a singular reading or purpose and to feel so spontaneously
spot on. I believe the success of those images is found in much more than their
commentary upon “the effect of media on events.”
NYC © Jamel Shabazz (http://www.jamelshabazz.com/)
Having rescued Garry Winogrand from the brink of excommunication, street

portraiture is another type of photography that deserves closer examination. In this
practice, interacting with the subject can dilute the spontaneity of the moment and the
photographer often seeks a type of person to fulfill the structure of a narrative idea. For
example Bruce Davidson’s (https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?
VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZTH6) “East 100th
Street” work (which he would agree is not street photography), Robert Bergman’s
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120283879) “A
Kind of Rapture” and Jamel Shabazz’s (http://www.jamelshabazz.com/) “Back

in the Days” are three projects which are on the indistinct border between street
photography and portraiture. Yet the genre is too rich and too important to be
overlooked altogether. So perhaps street portraiture resists straightforward
classification within the genre of street photography…
Insofar as genres are useful, I hope these reflections provide insight toward defining
street photography. However, more often genres limit the possibilities of how a
photograph can be approached and experienced by an audience. To me, Diane Arbus’
recently uncovered photograph
(http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/arts/design/diane-arbus-met-
breuer-in-the-beginning.html) of a newspaper stirring under a gentle breeze
amidst a dark and oppressive ocean of pavement, is much more than a street 
photograph, a still life, or even a landscape; it is everything a photograph can do that

words can not.

—Serge J-F. Levy
Windblown headline on a dark pavement, NYC, 1956 © Diane Arbus

(https://www.lensculture.com/diane-arbus)
Serge J-F. Levy (http://www.sergelevy.com/) lives in Tucson, Arizona where

he is currently working on a body of street photographs created in the desert
landscape. There is almost no pavement in his recent images.
Serge greatly enjoyed his conversations and correspondence with Bruce Gilden,
Frank Gohlke, Michelle Groskopf, Meryl Meisler, Ola Billmont, Melanie Einzig,
Andrew Kensett, Kimi Eisele, and Hiroyuki Ito while thinking about this piece.
SERGE J-F LE VY (/SERGE-LE VY-2)
United States
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14/8/2019 Street Photography as Process - Essay by Serge J-F.

Essay by Serge J-F. Levy

Loop Between Woman and Dog, 1976 © Mark Cohen 

Weymouth, 2006 © Paul Russell (http://www.paulrussell.info/)

Yet none of these characteristics establishes measurable differences from documentary

Untitled from New York City, 1990 © Bruce Gilden

Union Square, 2010 © Hiroyuki Ito (http://hiroitophoto.com/)

Like the documentary photographer, street photographers are responding to the

Paris, France, 1967 © Joel Meyerowitz 

Los Angeles, 2013 © Ola Billmont (http://www.olabillmont.com/index)

Perhaps a murky distinction appears here: when is a photographer responding to

From the project “Public Relations” © Garry Winogrand

NYC © Jamel Shabazz (http://www.jamelshabazz.com/)

Having rescued Garry Winogrand from the brink of excommunication, street

Kind of Rapture” and Jamel Shabazz’s (http://www.jamelshabazz.com/) “Back

Windblown headline on a dark pavement, NYC, 1956 © Diane Arbus

Serge J-F. Levy (http://www.sergelevy.com/) lives in Tucson, Arizona where

SERGE J-F LE VY (/SERGE-LE VY-2)

View Profile (/serge-levy-2)

Trending this Week

Announcing the 2019

Call Me Heena: Hijra, The Th

Life from a Tube: The London

Drift Yo Soy Fidel: Crossin

captures the visual clutter of our Following the “Freedom C

Prairie Fluid Forms: Oliva M

American wilderness in an Artistic Director Oliva M

Visual Haiku Alter Ego: Avatars an

Masao Yamamoto seem to come Photographer Robbie Coo

Linear Constructions Home Sweet Home Announcing the 2019 LensCulture

VIEW MORE (/)

© 2019 LensCulture, Inc. Photographs © of their respective owners.

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