Why Street Photography

As usual, I do not have experience writing a blog and, with my dyslexia, it is not easy either. But as people often ask me to write and even to create a YouTube channel to explain my work and passion, I am starting and hoping to connect with people like me.

For this first blog, I thought I would speak about what attracts me to street photography. I think it is the fact that I have always been told I am different, that my ideas and ways of seeing things are not common. So I grew up observing everything around me, but not finding anyone to share it with.

Even though street photography is not inherently male-dominated, its history and visibility are. But this is the field I like because it is challenging and unpredictable. When you go out, you never know what you are going to find. It has become a game for me: observation, waiting, following, calculating light, weather, elements, fast thinking and fast linking of ideas and knowledge, and noticing strange things, almost like finding hidden stories in everyday life.

I also follow my instinct by going the same way as some interesting individuals, or entering places that others do not even see.

When I started, I was rather shy, and I still am. But I learned not to question so much whether I should take a shot or not. Also, I have become more confident with security staff and the public.

I have my own rules: no children’s faces, never photographing anyone in a way I would not like myself, and when possible, no faces.

I also have the game to find interesting things or frames in ugly broken places. I never touch or add anything. I must observe and look for the best place to take a photo.

I also love textures. I think we don’t realise how light reflects on different materials and surfaces, and I like to document it.

I am trying to transmit what I see, but also what I feel and think.

I notice I am very influenced by paintings and movies, but also by my obsession with trying new materials and papers, as I look into the fibers of the paper and see the ink become like watercolours.

I am looking for community and to explain how I see the world, to be calm, and to teach that if you don’t try, you will regret it. It is not difficult to become invisible and observe what is around you. That makes me an observer, not even a participant in the frame, like a painter would be, or like a poet describing what they see.

I do not use prompts; I learn to use whatever I find on the streets. I become a very fast thinker.

But to show you, I will give you an example.

Walking in Budapest, on Margaret Island, I went to see a small Japanese garden. There was a small pond with fish and a statue. The light was warm, and I saw a yellow frog, but at the same time the colours and plants (the frame) reminded me of the famous English painting Ophelia by John Everett Millais. Can you see the resemblance? What do you think?

It is amazing 😊 I laughed a lot after taking it. But look how the light creates similar colours, you cannot say photography is not art.