The Different Types of Photography (and Their Difficulty) And Why Street Photography Needs Serious Curation

STUDIO PORTRAITUREMaking portraits in the studio is difficult. You need a studio. Some lights. Knowledge on how to use them. And a subject sitting for you. A bit of human psychology to draw out the expression you want from them. All those things take experience and skill. Plus access to a studio and subject. NEWS...

Projects, Self-Assignments and Games – The Need to Create

We all get motivation from various places. For some it's self-generated. (That would be me.) I have an insatiable need to create work, which I've written about many times. It makes it easy to be prolific. My way is to create goals--projects, self-assignments, games even. Whatever it takes. I have been working on the Roy...

Getting More Time for Photography (by Getting Away from my Phone)

If we knew what amount of time we spent each day hitting refresh and checking Facebook and Twitter and the myriad other social media apps that pop up with red-numbered alerts, plus email, plus "your favorite time-waster here," we'd realize that's enough time to do quite a bit. I want to get away from my...

Goals: 2022

Here comes a new year. What are we doing with it? What are our goals? I am quite prolific as an artist, working on a series of personal photography projects--The Wise Photo Project, Roy Stryker Photography Project--as well as teaching and leading other people and hopefully being an inspiration to some. But it's not enough....

My Favorite Photograph to Make…

There's an old line in photography that, "My favorite photograph to make is the next one." But it's so true. I sometimes think life would be easier if I were into watching TV and sports, but I'm not. I have an insatiable need to create. I do that with photographs and writing. I also write...

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,"...

Go To New York

Be wary of a comfortable position. A good job. A steady paycheck. Feeling safe. It might be a trap. I look back on my life as a photojournalist for a daily newspaper in the 1980-1990s and into the early 2000s. I loved my work, my colleagues, my world. It was based in Trenton, New Jersey,...

Nobody Photographs Like Me

I make photographs that are uniquely my own. The kind of photographs are not like what you typically see on Instagram or Facebook. Editors have even said that my photos look different than most photos--there's an authenticity to them. They look real. There's an emotional quality to them. I'll take that, that is exactly what...

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...

Two Types of Street Photographers

In my experience, there are two kinds of street photographer: The Coward and The Photojournalist. Which are you? The coward is omnipresent in street photography circles. Everyone who goes out for the first time is one--afraid of confrontation, worried they're going to get called out and get into a fight. Punched in the nose? Yep,...