No Control Over What Comes So Come What May

I was thinking about doing the work, what that means and looking back at the photographs I've done in the past and it's clear that I don't have any control over what I create. I work with creating photographs based on who I encounter and the situations that present themselves. I don't have the ability...

The Evolution of a National Photography Show Exhibition Print

Click it to see it large on a desktop monitor. This photograph (Title: Surfside Motel Pool, Seaside Heights NJ) was selected for exhibition in the Louisville Art Association 28th National Photography Show. The show opens Memorial Day weekend and runs May 27-June 5, 2022. What a photograph. I love it. I am considering it as...

You Gotta Show Up and Do The Work (And Run to the Car for a Jacket When the Sun Goes Down)

Where you end up is anyone's guess, but if you don't go, you won't get anything for sure. Here's the story. I was getting happy hour drinks with friends on an outdoor patio in Boulder when the sun went down. Glad it did, as the temperature dropped, which made me run to my car for...

What Makes a Street Photo?

There are many street photographers nowadays. But what makes a street photo? It can't just be anyone walking along the street--I can see that out the window. To me, there has to be a story (or it gets the viewer to create one). If there's a story, it's a street photograph. If it has no...

The New Canvas, The Empty Frame, The Blank Page: GO!

Every time I sit down to write these photography essays I start with no idea what to write about. I have nothing but a blank page. (It's actually a blinking cursor at the top of this WordPress page, but you get the idea.) What to do? I don't know. If you don't know either, welcome...

Seeking a Publisher for my 1st Monograph–a Book of American Street Photographs

Every aspect of life is a journey. Growing up, surviving long hot summer vacations as a kid, getting to graduate from school, moving out, starting in the workforce. We all are a work in progress making progress. For me, I've worked as a photojournalist and commercial photographer my whole life. I have quite a body...

Faces: Making the Street Portrait

You really do have to be a little bit of an actor to be a good street portraitist. I was walking through the Mile High Flea Market in Denver this week and I brought a simple Nikon N80 with a 50mm f1.4. I set it for ISO 200 which is a stop overexposed for Ilford...

Working the Street Portrait

This was a fun photo, a moment that happened while I was walking through a flea market and saw a grown woman in a shopping cart. Of course, I pulled out the camera to make a photo. I got her attention first, and smiled, joking "Now, that is the best way to navigate this market,"...

You Have No Expectation of Privacy While in Public

After discussing street photography at length this week, I've concluded the photographers who are its proponents are a victim of the majority of people not knowing this one right protected by the First Amendment. And that Street Photography is a kind of documentary photojournalism. From the ACLU: "As a form of expression, photography is protected...

What’s the Point of Street Photography? Our History and We Can’t Look Away

There is an uproar over this Paul Kessel award-winning street photograph. People are saying he's exploiting the woman who is the subject of his photograph. They say it's creepy he didn't get her permission. Didn't even tell her he was making the photograph. Didn't get her consent afterwards. He made it surreptitiously shooting from the...