Note: Every week, I feature street photographers with great skill and soul. For this week, I decided to feature street photographer Derk Zijlker from Amsterdam. Derk has an uncanny ability to create images which juxtapose characters and their stages. If you look at his images, you can almost feel that you are there. Want to hear where he finds inspiration and how he shoots on the street? Read his exclusive interview below and be blown away.
1. How did you get started in street photography?
For a long time I have been interested in photography and film. At the age of 13, my friends and I started skateboarding in our dwelling place. Skating the streets and shooting lots of footage (photos and film) of each other for a long time. During these years I have made a lot of images and got hooked on photography. In 2008 I switched from analog to digital and bought my first SLR camera, a Canon 450D. My passion for street photography got more serious since then, enhanced by the new techniques.
First I started to capture buildings, city landscapes, and architecture in Amsterdam. But after a while I got more involved in depicting people in public places. Last year I made series in Paris, Lisboa, and a small Belgium city called Liege. Besides these foreign cities I take lots of pictures when strolling the streets of my hometown Amsterdam.
My free work mostly consists of images of daily life, presented in black and white. For example people on their way, human interactions, and street portraits. I try to capture spontaneous human interactions in one strong well-composed image; unique ‘once in a lifetime’ moments seen through my lens. Besides catching these ‘decisive’ moments, I am interested in city dynamics to tell a story. For example how do urban citizens interact with each other in their natural (city) habitat? How do they use their environment to enjoy life, make new friends or go to work?
2. How do you shoot in the streets?
When I am planning to visit a foreign country to make s new city reportage, I always prepare before departure. I read about the city, check Google streetview for interesting sights and infrastructure, and look for inspiring street photos that already have been captured there. Ask yourself in advance what kind of photos you want to shoot (what kinds of style, composition, subject etc). I believe preparation is the key to a successful photo series. It’s like checking your gear or the right exposure before making a picture. An unconscious habit driven by intuition.
When I actually go out on the streets I try to go with the flow. Keep an eye on everything around me with great attention. I look right, left, up and down and move with the mass. When I find an interesting spot I wait until something interesting happens and everything (subject, composition and environment) falls into the right place. You need patience and sometimes a little bit of luck to capture these special moments surrounding us.
3. What do you love most about street photography?
Personally street photography is the most challenging and difficult form of photography. It’s a different way of acting and looking through the lens than for example a photo shoot in a studio. Street photography requires a lot of attention of your brains and it is adventurous and exiting. You never know what is going to happen when going out on the streets. As a graduated social psychologist I have always been interested in human behavior. Why do people act in certain ways they do? How do they interact within a group? Those kinds of questions I ask myself on a daily base. To me it represents the ultimate real-life field study to observe humans in their natural (city) habitat.
4. What is the #1 tip you have for aspiring street photographers?
I think it’s preparation before hitting the streets or visiting a foreign city as I described earlier, but also find your source of inspiration to get you started. Buy, rent or search for (online) photos, books, documentaries, movies etc. about street photography. Ask yourself; who is my favorite street photographer, why do I like him/her so much? What kind of pictures do I want to make? Why do I like those particular photographs. In short get inspired, prepared and just go out and hit the streets, enjoy!
Links
Website:
Blog:
http://derkzijlker.blogspot.com/
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/derkzijlker
Facebook:
Flickr: