(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…
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,…
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…
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…
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 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…
Photographs used with permission from Alex Webb One of the street photographers who have had a strong impact on my street photography is Alex Webb. Webb is a Magnum photographer who uses strong colors, light, and emotion to capture beautifully complex images. After picking up a copy of Alex Webb’s “The Suffering of Light” I…