Blog Post #37

Book Review : Think Like A Street Photographer

Last week I was away on holiday, a Norwegian cruise, but more of that later. Having a bit of time on my hands away from other distractions I decided to try and actually read a book. I have a low attention span so books, especially fiction or biographies, dont tend to hold my interest. Reference or photography books on the other hand do so I decided to read a book I have had for a while and do a bit of a personal review of it. The book in question is “Think Like a Street Photographer” by Matt Stuart. Its an A5 size book, broken down into 1-3 page chapters on specific topics which I liked. Straight to the point and no rambling on. It also includes numerous examples of Stuart’s street photography images which I found to be excellent. In most of the chapters there is a “Try This” panel where the author encourages us to apply some of the techniques in that chapter.

The Foreword is by the magician and street photographer Derren Brown. At first I though it was strange that he was chosen to write the Foreword, but the more I read it the more it made sense. Brown describes how the magician and street photographer have a lot in common. When performing, a magician makes sure that we only see what he wants us to see for the trick/illusion to work. Similarly, the photographer manipulates a scene, framing the image so that the viewer only sees what the photographer wants them to see.

One theme that runs through the chapters is the need for having a permanent positive mental attitude to your photography. He talks about having “bad days” photography wise but spins this as being a positive because at least he had been out with his camera, learned things and sharpened his seeing eye. Although he mentions pearls of wisdom quoted by numerous greats in photography, he believes that luck also plays a big part in street photography. The great golfer Gary Player once said, “The more I practice the luckier I get”, and Stuart is a believer in this. He believes we should always take the shot. His mindset is interesting when discussing what to photograph. He talks about the concept of photographers taking lots of shots of a subject being akin to an artist producing numerous preliminary sketches prior to deciding on which creation to commit to canvas and framing. Although he sees himself as being a prolific street photographer he is happy if he gets around ten “keepers” in a year. He also talks about street photographers as not being reporters. We are there to record and hopefully cause those viewing our images to think more.

Stuart doesn’t come across as a super confident person when it comes to street portraits but explains how important it is to know when instances of engaging with the subject will or will not work. He discusses that when on the street we should try and predict the future by watching, listening, anticipating and reading where the situation is going. Again luck is discussed but my favourite description of having luck is, “When preparedness meets opportunity”. He stresses street photography is not easy and needs the photographer to be fully engaged.

Another interesting chapter is where he discusses what he calls “Graphic Bullshit”. It can inspire creativity but also destroy it or make the photographer lazy by just photographing the low hanging fruit so to speak, rather than going for the killer shot. I know I see a lot of this, street photographers trying to be their heroes, but it rarely works. He doesn’t discourage it but stresses that to be different, it needs to have your take on the subject otherwise you are just regurgitating what’s been done before, and possibly badly. He directs us to a website called streetrepeat.org that studies the most repeated themes in street photography and hopes that we can learn from this.

Many of us create photo books and we probably have our own ways for compiling and producing these, but Stuart explains in one chapter his process which seems very logical. He discusses the need for aesthetic and logical arrangement when either producing a book or visual display.

In the closing chapter he talks about keeping the faith and how street photography is good for both your physical and mental health, so long as you are doing it for yourself and that you are happy doing it. He believes positivity, luck and discipline are key. He covers many more topics than I have mentioned here but these are the ones that I noted.

I really enjoyed this book and took a lot from it with regards to the mental approach to street photography and the need for a positive approach every day. The realisation that I will have to create many preliminary sketches before I achieve excellence in my day to day street photography was also something that resonated with me, as someone who still thinks I only have 36 exposures in my camera! I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone that is passionate about their street photography. It makes you think about yourself and is not loaded down with technical details, camera settings etc., because whats the point of being technically competent if mentally your not in the right place?

So what about the cruise I hear you ask? Well from a photography point of view it was a non-starter. We sailed to the Norwegian fjords and all we saw each day was low cloud and fog. I took a handful of pictures when we disembarked at a few places but landscapes were out. The lighting was dark, grey and flat. On the upside we did have the deluxe drinks package on the ship so that helped to numb the disappointment somewhat.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and thank you for reading it. If you want to comment on this blog post please do so below or you can contact me by using the “Contact Me” facility in the website header.