(A.g.: In the spirit of Open Source here on Eric’s Blog, this is a German translation of Eric’s 10 Things Henri Cartier-Bresson Can Teach You About Street Photography made by photographer Lukas Beinstein).
(This was initially sent to my newsletter) Dear friend, Long time no talk! I am excited to share that I just got back safely from New Orleans after an epic two-week trip there. I have to admit; it is my new favorite city in America (top 3 cities in the world, the other two being…
Check out the updated book: “100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography.” Dear streettogs, I am excited to announce my new free “open-source” e-book: “Learn From the Masters of Street Photography.” This book is a compilation of all the lessons I’ve distilled from my “Learn From the Masters Series” on the blog, in a…
Read as a Google Doc (where you can suggest edits, and also download as a PDF). I recently came across the excellent book: “Mary Ellen Mark on the Portrait and the Moment”, an educational workshop book published by Aperture, at the home of my friend Brian Sparks. Mary Ellen Mark is a photographer who endlessly inspires me,…
Dear friend, I want to share you with excitement a new idea that I got, from William Eggleston. The concept is quite simple (and I know I have shared this with you in the past) but it is this: Street photography is all about capturing beauty in the mundane. Almost a year ago, I ordered…
Read as a Google Doc. — “Over the last 10 years, what has interested me in taking photographs is the maximum — the maximum that exists in a situation and the maximum I can produce from it.” – Josef Koudelka I just finished the second day of my workshop here in Stockholm, and after an…
Eric Kim Draft v1 (8/28/2015) Special thanks to Paul King and Alan Morris who have contributed lots of edits! Introduction Dear streettogs, I am excited to share you the first draft of my upcoming book: “Learn from the Masters of Street Photography.” There is a ton of text, a lot of typos, grammatical error, incomplete…
Read as a Google Doc or download as PDF. — Hey Josh, I just wanted to write you this letter wishing you a happy (belated) birthday, and the lessons in life you’ve taught me, and how much I appreciate your love and friendship. Shit, I still kind of forget how we first met “virtually.” Was…
I am currently working on a new book: “Learn From the Masters of Street Photography”, which is a distillation of all of the lessons that I’ve learned from the masters of street photography. You can get a free sneak peak by downloading the PDF of the sample chapters here. If you want to learn more,…
Hey streettogs, just gave a free talk at EyeEm in Berlin last night titled: “7 Lessons from the Masters of Street Photography.” You can see and download the slides for free here.
“You are not supposed to be a slave of mechanical tools, they are supposed to help you and be as small and unimportant as possible not to disturb the communication.” – Anders Petersen There is a disease and a sickness out there. It afflicts thousands (if not millions) of photographers globally, and it costs people…
“Rather than catching people unaware, they show the face they want to show. Unposed, caught unaware, they might reveal ambiguous expressions, brows creased in vague internal contemplation, illegible, perhaps meaningless. Why not allow the subject the possibility of revealing his attitude toward life, his neighbor, even the photographer?” – William Klein There is a general…
“Sometimes photographers mistake emotion for what makes a great street photograph.” – Garry Winogrand Imagine this situation: it is a cold and rainy day. You are out shooting on the streets, and you are feeling miserable. You haven’t got any good shots all day, despite the fact that you left your warm (and dry) house…
“If you start cutting or cropping a good photograph, it means death to the geometrically correct interplay of proportions. Besides, it very rarely happens that a photograph which was feebly composed can be saved by reconstruction of its composition under the darkroom’s enlarger; the integrity of vision is no longer there.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson Another…
“I never shoot without using the viewfinder.” – Garry Winogrand Another common mistake that aspiring street photographers make is that they try to overcome their fear of shooting street photography by shooting from the hip (photographing with your camera at waist-level and not looking through the viewfinder). Personally when I started shooting street photography, I…
“My photography is not ‘brain photography’. I put my brain under the pillow when I shoot. I shoot with my heart and with my stomach.” – Anders Petersen Anders Petersen is one of the most influential contemporary master photographers. He shoots with a simple point-and-shoot film camera (Contax T3) and shoots soulful black and white…
Hey streettogs, I’m starting a new book on a distillation of all the “Learn from the Masters” articles I’ve written. I hope these daily lessons can inspire you, I know they inspired me! — “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” – Robert Capa One of the common mistakes that many beginning…
On October, 2014 Rene Burri passed away, at age 81. He had an incredible career of photography behind him, and produced many iconic images, which include those of Che, Picasso, and many other street photographs which perfectly combined geometry, story, and form. About a year ago I got a copy of his color street photography, which was…
I recently got a new book in the mail: “Dorothea Lange: Aperture Masters of Photography” (courtesy of Aperture) and was deeply inspired and moved by her work, life, and philosophy. I have always known Dorothea Lange’s work documenting the Great Depression (and her famous “Migrant Mother” photograph), but didn’t know much about her life and…
All photos copyrighted by Sebastião Salgado. I recently saw Sebastião Salgado’s “Genesis” exhibition in Toronto about a year ago, and was blown away by the body of work. It was the most ambitious project I had ever seen– essentially Salgado aimed to photograph the entire world. He photographed people, landscapes, and nature– and did so…
All photographs copyrighted by the estate of Harry Callahan. You can download this article for free as a .docx, PDF, or Google Doc. I recently came upon the work of Harry Callahan from a friend and former workshop student named Chris Giuseppe. This past weekend, I organized a small meet-up in San Francisco in the…
All photographs copyrighted by Todd Hido. This is part 2 of my write-up on Todd Hido’s new book: “Todd Hido on Landscapes, Interiors, and The Nude: The Photography Workshop Series“. You can read part 1: “Lessons Todd Hido Has Taught Me About Street Photography (Part 1).” You can also download the entire article free via…
All photographs copyrighted by Todd Hido. You can read part 2 here: “Lessons Todd Hido Has Taught Me About Street Photography (Part 2)“. You can also download the entire article free via .docx, PDF, and Google Doc. I have really been loving the “Photography Workshop Series” that Aperture has been publishing. They recently did a book…
As this article is very long, I recommend reading this by saving it to Pocket or Instapaper. All photos in this article are copyrighted by Henri Cartier Bresson / Magnum Photos. I recently picked up a copy of “The Mind’s Eye” – which is a great compilation of thoughts and philosophies Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote. Aperture published this great…
Josef Koudelka is one of my favorite photographers of all-time. I love how he has been able to craft his life around photographing only what he wanted to photograph, how he is able to capture emotional and empathetic images (especially in his “Gypsies” project), his ability to continue to re-invent his photography (switching from 35mm…
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…
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…
Richard Avedon isn’t a street photographer— nor did he consider himself one. However, he did shoot street photography in his life, in Italy, New York, Santa Monica, and more. I was particularly drawn to Richard Avedon because I have a fascination with portraiture and the human face. Even for my personal street photography, I might…
You can see the original article I wrote on David Alan Harvey here. I just finished a week-long workshop with David Alan Harvey as a part of the Provincetown Magnum Days event. I have already written an article on the lessons I’ve learned from David Alan Harvey– but wanted to use this opportunity to further…
Recently I had the great pleasure of being accepted as a scholarship student (under 30) for the Magnum workshop in Provincetown, Massachusetts with David Alan Harvey. Unfortunately David got stuck in Paris en route, so the first two days I spent with Costa Manos. And I’m glad I did, I learned so much from his…
While in NYC, I visited the ICP bookstore and picked up “Ping Pong Conversations: Alec Soth with Francesco Zanot” a lovely photobook/series of interview questions. I found it to have lots of great wisdom regarding photographing strangers, editing, and projects. I copied my favorite excerpts which I found was particularly helpful, especially to those of…
Helen Levitt is known as a “photographer’s photographer” a photographer who is admired by photographers everywhere, but not that well known. Since the raise of fame of Vivian Maier— I wanted to profile the work of Helen Levitt, and share the work of talented female street photographers.
Robert Capa is one of the greatest photographers to have ever lived. When he was still alive, he was proclaimed as “The Greatest War-Photographer in the World”. He captured some of the most intense wars during his time, including the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion (covered in 1938), the European…
This article is written by Ayman Oghanna, an award-winning photographer and journalist based in Istanbul. I step into his office and humanity explodes. People everywhere. Moments everywhere. An ocean of smiles, frowns, scowls, and yawns drowning the sidewalks. Since 1981, he has worked these Midtown streets and he’s walking them now as he always has, a step…
All photographs copyrighted by Vivian Maier / Maloof Collection A street photographer whose work and life I hugely admire is that of Vivian Maier. For those of you who haven’t heard her story, she worked and lived as a nanny her entire adult life– and shot street photography on the side for herself. She created…
All photographs in this article are copyrighted by Richard Kalvar / Magnum Photos Richard Kalvar is one of the contemporary masters in street photograph, and also a member of Magnum. I have always loved his quirky and observant street photographs, and am quite pleased how active he is– especially on Facebook and the Magnum Blog.…
All photographs in this article are copyrighted by Jeff Mermelstein. I love the street photography of Jeff Mermelstein. Hailing from New York City, he is one of the most prolific street photographers and photojournalists out there. Besides his personal street photography work, he has done major assignment work for Life Magazine, The New Yorker, and…
All photos in this article are copyrighted by David Alan Harvey / Magnum Photos David Alan Harvey is one of the living legends in street photography. He is a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos agency, and also quite active in the contemporary photography world– featuring emerging photographers through burn magazine while teaching courses all…
Download this article: Google Docs PDF .docx All photos in this article are copyrighted by Alec Soth / Magnum Photos. Alec Soth is a photographer whose work I strongly admire. He is a member of Magnum, although he is not the typical “Magnum” photographer. He is generally identified in the “fine art”/documentary crowd– and certainly…
All photos copyrighted by Zoe Strauss / Magnum Photos. About a year I stumbled upon the work of Zoe Strauss in her book: “America.” I was amazed with the power of her portraits as well as how she masterfully combined them with signs and urban landscapes. Also in terms of the book, they are some…
All photographs in this article are copyrighted by Mark Cohen. I think Mark Cohen is one of the greatest street photographers out there who isn’t as well known as his contemporaries. I’m sure you might have seen some videos of him on YouTube shooting with a flash without using the viewfinder. I have to admit, even…
All photographs in this article are copyrighted by Joel Sternfeld. Joel Sternfeld is one of the most important and influential photographers of this generation. His large-format color work: “American Prospects” was one of the most revolutionary color works of the time– when “serious” art photographers were only using black and white. Inspired by Robert Frank,…
All photographs in this article are copyrighted by Trent Parke / Magnum Photos. Trent Parke is one of the most phenomenal contemporary photographers around. What I love about his work is the strong emotional and personal connection he has in his photographs, as well as his fanatical passion to street photography. One of his seminal books, “Minutes…
All photos in this article are copyrighted by Joel Meyerowitz. I am surprised I haven’t written an article about Joel Meyerowitz yet. He is one of the living legends and masters in street photography, currently at 75 years old. He shot in the streets with other legends such as Garry Winogrand, Tony Ray-Jones, and even…
“The most difficult thing for me is to take pictures from far away.” – Jacob Aue Sobol Jacob Aue Sobol is one of my favorite contemporary photographers. Not only are his images visually powerful and stirring– but they exude a sense of emotion that pours from the seams. His emotions have depth and soul to…
I recently attended Elliot Erwitt’s “100+1” exhibition at Fotografiska, which will be in Stockholm from December 6, 2013 to March 2, 2014. We were given a brochure with great practical advice for street photographers– which I have shared here. This text for the article is extracted from the foreword dedication written by Elliott Erwitt for the book…
In the late 1960’s, photographer Tony Ray-Jones wrote a hand-written note on his “approach” when he took photographs. I think these tips are lessons all of us as street photographers can learn from him. Read more to see some of his inspirational images (and this list typed out):
I can’t remember the exact moment that I discovered the work of Saul Leiter. I think I remember seeing some link on the internet about the discovery of one of the earliest “pioneers” in color street photography. But upon hearing this, I didn’t dig into it too deeply. About a year ago when I was…
Eugene Atget has always been sort of an enigma to me. When I started to delve into the history of street photography, a lot of people credited him to being one of the “fathers of street photography.” But when I first looked at his work, I was a bit confused. Most of his photos didn’t…
If you are not familiar with the work of Elliott Erwitt, you have definitely seen many of Elliott Erwitt’s iconic work all around the globe. As one of the original Magnum members and former president, he has one of the longest spanning photography careers- spanning over 50 years. What I most appreciate about Elliott Erwitt…