What's so great about street photography? Plenty!

Sidewalk Serendipity

By Mason Resnick

You'll never get rich doing street photography. And unless you're Martin Parr, Joel Meyrowitz, or Jeff Mermelstein, you probably won't become famous, either. But you'll hone your skills as a photographer, and grow as a person.

I've been doing street photography since 1976, when I had the good fortune of attending a workshop with the legendary Garry Winogrand. While my career has gone more towards writing about photography and editing photo magazines and contributing to photography-related web sites (like I said, street photography won't make you rich), the streets always entice me back.

 

34th Street, New York City, 2010. Photo © Mason Resnick. Camera: Leica M9, 35mm f/2.5 Summarit  lens.

There are a growing number of digital cameras that can quickly catch the fast-changing action on the street, from the Leica M9 to new, small mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras with big sensors that can match or exceed film quality. Street photography practitioners need to take a lot of pictures and that used to be an expensive proposition, but now with digital, the ongoing expense of processing, printing and buying film (usually in bulk) is much less.. (read the rest)


Note: This article first appeared in the Adorama Learning Center and is reprinted with permission of the author...me!