I am teaching a two-day crash-course in street photography in Stockholm the next two days, and here is the presentation I am giving to my class. It is a collection of images from great Magnum and contemporary photographers (as well as some of my own work) in terms of capturing emotions on the streets, as…
(Originally written October 24th, 2014) I am being a little over-dramatic— but I recently had a near-death experience. It was another normal day. I was simply writing for my blog, drinking coffee, and just finished a workout. I was a bit hungry, so I went over to my kitchen, poured out a hand-few of cashew…
I recently was listening to a podcast interview with Tony Robbins (on the “Tim Ferris Show”) and was struck by something Tony said: progress is happiness. As you guys are probably well-aware of, I think a lot about happiness and progress in life. I want to live a happy and fulfilling life. I don’t want…
(A.g.’s note: I asked some of the folks over at Streettogs Academy what part of their street photography they want to improve on. One of the many things that popped up was people are still shy going out to shoot or finding interesting places to shoot in. Hopefully this article gives you new ideas on…
I recently read a quote that went something like this: “If everyone knew how much suffering there was in the world, and how much pain, anxiety, and sadness that their enemies had (and also knew how much love they had in their lives), the world would be a much better place.” Pretty much the concept…
There isn’t a lot of things you can control in street photography. However these are the things you can control:
I currently wrote an article titled: “Advice for Aspiring Full-Time Photographers” which had a lot of interest. I have also been connecting a lot of young photographers lately (high school and college students)— and wanted to focus on doing more blogging which aimed at the younger photography population. Of course this doesn’t just have to…
Tied into the previous chapter on how to live a happy life– I also encourage trying to live a purposeful life. What is the difference between a happy life and a purposeful life? I think simply a “happy” life is to be free of pain, to be overall joyful, and to be free of stress…
For this chapter I want to focus on a section which I think is important for everyone in life: learning how to be happy, fulfilled, and content with your street photography (and your personal life). Happiness is one of the most elusive things in the world– which we have always chased for millennia. However the…
I’ll admit it. I’m incredibly jealous. Whenever I see my close friends, other photographers, family, or anyone else doing “successful” things– I feel a tinge of jealousy. In the back of my head– I might think negative thoughts like, “That person didn’t deserve that recognition or success” – self-doubt myself “Why am I not as…
The recently concluded Assignment No. 4 yielded a lot of great and creative executions which you can view again here. Thanks again to everyone who joined and to Bertrand Domas who gave us that assignment. Moving on, it’s Editor’s choice Florin Ghebosu‘s turn to give us our assignment for the coming weeks! It is…
Recently I gave a short 2-hour presentation on street photography at one of the photography clubs at UC Berkeley. It was great being surrounded by students again– with all of the energy, enthusiasm, and passion that college kids have. Some of the students asked me how I went from college to surviving off photography full-time…
One of my biggest beliefs in life is in transparency. Whenever I learn something potentially useful or insightful– I don’t want to simply hoard the information to myself. Rather, I want to share it with as large of an audience as humanly possible. I wanted to share how I teach my street photography workshops— and…
There are so many distractions out there. We live in an age where it is almost impossible not to be distracted. Our phones are constantly buzzing. We see thousands of advertisements a day that are vying for our attention. We are bombarded with emails from spammers, we are bombarded with notifications, we are bombarded by…
I’m sure that at one point in our lives as photographers shooting the streets, there was a time that we get asked to explain what street photography is. When I was starting out, I had no concrete idea what street photography is, let alone explaining to my family and friends. So here’s a simple list…
Assignment No. 4 has probably the most number of beautiful images I’ve seen in an assignment. There were plenty of great photographs that adhered to our theme of “Strong Light” as well some creative executions that still fits the theme well. I give my thanks to all of those who participated for this assignment and…
It was an absolutely incredible weekend teaching the Intermediate/Advanced Street Photography Workshop in San Francisco. We had folks come from all over: Seattle, Texas, Zurich, Tokyo, and all over the Bay Area in California. I am so proud of the friendships we made during the workshop– and the huge before/after improvement after the workshop. Side…
This is Part 2/2 of my chapter on How to Deal with Negative Criticism. Read Part 1 on How to Deal With Negative Criticism.
We all want to make a memorable street photograph. An image that burns inside our memory. An image that touches our heart and touches our soul. We want that image to be epic, energetic, edgy, and emotional. And of course, we want external validation for our image (via respect from other photographers, validation on social…
For this chapter in my on-going “Letters from a Street Photographer” book, I wanted to write a topic that I am very familiar with– how to deal with negative criticism (and thrive and benefit from it). For those of you who have followed me and my blog for a while– you will know that I…
This is Chapter 1 on a series of blog posts I will do on the philosophy of Stoicism, and how I relate it to street photography. I draw upon the book: “On the Shortness of Life” from Seneca. The title of this series is inspired by “Letters from a Stoic” (also by Seneca). I have…
I have been a long-time admirer of the philosophies of Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Stoicism. In-fact, I have gained more insights about photography from these philosophies (than I have from any book on photographic theory). I recently re-read a new english version of the “Tao Te Ching“– the classic manual on the art of living.…
Life is short and limited. We only have so many days to live. We only have so many zeroes in our bank accounts. We all want to live happy, productive lives. We want happiness in our photography. We want to creatively thrive, and live a life which we don’t have any regrets. I have lots…
All photos copyrighted by Mary Ellen Mark. I remember when I first saw the work of Mary Ellen Mark, I was blown away. Her work had such a deep sense of love and empathy for her subjects. Not only that, but her compositions and framing was brilliant. I always noticed that around the edges of…
Hey Scandinavian (and European) streettogs– I am excited to share that I am hosting an intimate 2-day Introduction to Street Photography Workshop in Stockholm limited to 6 students (October 29-30th, 2014). I know it is a bit last-minute (and in the middle of the week), but I wanted to have a chance to host a…
I’m not 100% sure how I stumbled upon the book: “Minutes to Midnight” by Trent Parke. But when I did— I was blown away by Trent Parke’s incredible story-telling, visuals, and vision. It inspired me to write my first article on him: 12 Lessons Trent Parke Has Taught Me About Street Photography. Steidl has recently…
All photographs included in this article are copyrighted by Dan Winters. My good friend Bill Reeves recently bought me a copy of “Road to Seeing” by Dan Winters. I’ve always known Dan Winters as being a quite edgy portrait photographer– and had no idea that he was actually quite interested in street photography, and had…