Street photography is weird. That’s why I love it
- 28mmStreet
- Oct 23, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: May 29, 2025
October 2024
Blog #8
Say what!?
“Street photography is weird” I thought to myself while on one of my rutine daily photo walks walking up and down my favorite Copenhagen neighbourhood.
Let me go back in time, to the moment that lead up to this very strange statement. For the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about why I like Street photography, why I feel such a pull to go out on the streets every free moment I can spare.
I carry my camera everywhere I go and I mean everywhere, it is always attached to my left shoulder. Most of the time it's the Leica M6 loaded with my favourite film stock - Ilford HP5+ hand rolled, of course.
For a period earlier this year during the summer season I even carried my camera to work and a few times I snuck out during my lunch break to snap photographs.
I have also been talking and sharing with colleagues that I am a self-taught street photographer.
The topic of why I like Street photography often comes up in these conversations and has been on my mind quite a bit as I’ve also been pondering why I never been this passionate about any other hobbies I’ve had in the past.
What does it mean?
If we go back to the the moment I referred to earlier. I was thinking about the art of Street photography in its most classic or candid form. Where I as a street photographer try to collect street moments as authentic and raw as possible of an extraordinary situation or moment occurring out on the streets.
This is the form of Street photography I’ve been practicing since the end of 2023. I want close ups and I typically use a wide focal length - the king of focal lengths the 28mm (in my humble opinion).
This requires a great deal of practice but also courage from me as I am risk adverse and not so confident that it does not phase me at all.
It does.
Every close-up I’ve taken has been an effort combined with trying to be as stealthy as possible. I try not to be invasive or ruin the moment by making my presence known, while being respectful of people’s private space.
This is something I struggled with - my moral compass, where to draw the line. Check out the VLOG episode https://youtu.be/TeYITPUQcm4 on my YouTube channel.
A strange hobby
As I kept thinking about Street photography especially when I have to explain other people about a hobby that I’m oh so passionate about - what it is, how I go about it, the photographs I typically make.
The more I tell or talk about Street photography with others (people with no photography background or experience), this art form might seem so very strange to them and now me too.
To sum up, I go out with a camera, try to be stealthy, hide my camera or pretend not to take a photograph, then quickly take a close up of a stranger or a random person, preferably with a wide angle lens and all the while they are making gestures or movements that seem out of the ordinary but very interesting to me.
Rinse and repeat.
That’s a bit strange, right?
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