The allure of street photography without streets?

Following on from my previous post. I have mentioned before (here, or directly here) that one of the main reasons for being on HIVE is to help me get organized. I am a disaster when it comes to organized photo archives. Thinking about publications gives me unprecedented self-discipline.

It was during one of these sessions of discipline, looking for street photos taken on my last vacation, that I stumbled upon the ones I am sharing today. I excluded them from the batch because I couldn't find an argument, a justification, to integrate them into the street photography genre. Although...

That was when I came across an article on Medium entitled “The Art of Street Photography Without Streets,” which perfectly matched my predicament.

Now, if we consider that photography, par excellence, should maintain the city and urbanity as its backdrop, what would happen if we changed that background and kept everything else the same?

The author of the article, William Sidnam, has this genius and gives the answer: "Taking pictures of strangers on a ferry is very similar to taking pictures of strangers on the street: you try to capture spontaneous moments that tell a story. The only difference, of course, is that instead of cars and roads, there are seagulls and, needless to say, a large body of blue water.

I tried to take pictures of people while they had their backs to me, unaware of my presence. The idea was not only to protect their identities, but also to avoid awkward situations. Street photography always seems like playing with fire in that sense, but usually you can at least walk away if necessary — an option that simply doesn't apply when everyone is confined to a ship."

It is curious that the photographs he uses to illustrate the article have something in common with the ones I present: the background. I suggest you read the rest of the article, which is well worth it. Medium is my favorite platform for articles on photography. It is a source of inspiration, and you can always get good insights for publications. Like this one, in fact.

In addition, Medium is a friend of HIVE. This means that we can publish our HIVE articles directly on Medium. This mutual exchange is an interesting one.