Dear friends, street photography is one of our greatest joys in life. It combines our joy of walking, interacting with people, shooting photos, timing, courage, and risk taking.

I don’t think the goal is to become a successful street photographer, but a great one. What does that mean and how do we achieve it? Some thoughts:

1. First of all, shoot before thinking

Thinking is the enemy of street photography. The best approach in street photography is when you see something, and it instantly strikes your interest, to immediately take a photo of it without thinking. Too much thought and consideration will cause you to either not shoot a photo, or chicken out.

Ultimately realize and recognize the street photography is actually not that big of a deal.

A new approach I’ve been doing is whenever I see something, I just shoot it with my Ricoh GR 3X, and once the person makes eye contact with me, I just smile and nod my head, and move on.

2. Don’t use social media

Nowadays, it is expected for people to use social media, especially photographers. Yet, if you desire to become truly great, I say don’t use it at all. Don’t use Facebook Instagram. You do not want to outsource your self-esteem to an algorithm.

3. Make photography like breathing

You do not need to force yourself to breathe. Even if you force yourself to not breathe, you will still probably breathe.

I think photography is the same. Do not make a distinction between your life and your photography. Make it the same thing.

4. Everything is street photography

My belief is that street photography is more of an ethos and approach to life. Because I prefer to be in public, and walk around downtown, and be in cities, the place I happen to enjoy being, and my photography coincide. I like being in the city, and I like taking photos. Therefore, street photography is me.

And therefore as a simple suggestion, I suggest you to just think about your personal preferences, where you enjoy being. What you enjoy doing. And see if your photography coincides with that.

5. Simplify it

The simpler you make your photography, the better. For example, extra small JPEG, high contrast black-and-white, Ricoh GR 3X, or any simple set up. The goal isn’t for you to make your photography flow and workflow more “professional“, the goal is for you to streamline it. The further you simplify things, the more you can advance your photography.

6. What does it mean to be great?

Magnus. Great. If you think about Homer‘s Iliad and ancient Greek heroes, like Hector or Achilles, their greatness doesn’t come from how successful they were. Actually, even though Hector admits that he is the inferior fighter to Achilles, in Homer’s eyes, Achilles and Hector are equal.

For example, Achilles kills Hector in combat, quite easily. Yet Achilles and Hector are both equally great, even though that Achilles was the victor.

Perhaps then one’s greatness actually comes from one’s courage. And also one’s strength.

Then, the road to becoming a great photographer is to become stronger, and more courageous.

What is strength in the context of photography? Strong compositions. A stronger aesthetic. Simpler.

What is courage? Not chickening out before shooting a photo. Also, when you actually do encounter confrontation, to treat it like not a big deal, and to stand your ground.

Also the courage to live an alternate route in life, which actually prioritizes your personal freedom and photography.

7. Become a teacher

What is a Master? A master is a maestro, or a teacher. All grandmasters were once teachers. For example, all of the Magnum photographers are essentially pupils of Henri Cartier person, who is the original photography teacher.

Yet in becoming a teacher, what does it mean? It means to help facilitate the growth of other photographers. To think beyond yourself, and to think about photography at least 300 years from now.

What is the most effective way to teach? It could be in person, or online, via your blog or YouTube, or your podcast, etc. how much experience does one need before one starts teaching? I say none. In teaching you also learn.

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