- Candid Street Photography: This is perhaps the most common form of street photography. It involves capturing people in public places in a truthful, candid manner without their explicit permission or knowledge. The photographer is often unnoticed, resulting in natural and spontaneous shots.
- Street Portraiture: In this type, the photographer takes the time to interact with the subject, often gaining their permission to take a photograph. The images are usually more poised and less spontaneous, but they often offer a deeper sense of the individual’s personality or mood.
- Documentary Street Photography: This type of street photography captures people, events, or environments to tell a story or document an issue. The objective is often to provide a commentary on society, culture, or current events.
- Urban Landscape Street Photography: This style focuses less on people and more on the urban environment itself – architecture, streets, signs, reflections, shadows, etc. The presence of people is optional and if they are included, they usually play a secondary role to the urban setting.
- Abstract Street Photography: This involves capturing elements of the street in a way that is non-objective or non-representational. It can involve focusing on patterns, shapes, lines, colors, or textures in the urban environment to create visually interesting images.
- Black and White Street Photography: While not exclusive to street photography, many street photographers choose to shoot in black and white to emphasize contrasts, textures, and the interplay of light and shadow. This style can lend a timeless quality to the images.
- Night Street Photography: This involves shooting on the streets during the evening or night time. This style often utilizes the unique lighting provided by street lamps, neon lights, or other sources of artificial light. It can create dramatic and atmospheric images.
- Street Fashion Photography: This style captures the fashion trends seen on the streets. Photographers might take candid shots of stylishly dressed people, or they might interact with their subjects to create more posed images.
- Street Art Photography: This focuses on capturing street art, such as graffiti, murals, installations, or other forms of artistic expression in the public space. The presence of people is optional in these shots.
- Social Documentary Street Photography: This type is similar to documentary street photography but focuses specifically on highlighting social issues or injustices seen on the streets.
- Decisive Moment Street Photography: Popularized by the famous street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, this style focuses on capturing a precise moment when the visual elements in the frame combine to create a compelling and often poetic image.
- Conceptual Street Photography: This style involves using the street to convey an abstract idea or a message. This might involve staging or arranging elements to get the desired result.
- Environmental Portraits: This is a type of street portrait where the subject is photographed in their natural environment, which helps to tell more about the subject – who they are, what they do, and how they live.
- Street Still Life: Instead of focusing on people, this style focuses on objects found in the street environment, capturing them in an artistic manner to highlight their details or symbolic meanings.
- Street Events Photography: This involves photographing street events like parades, festivals, demonstrations, etc. The focus is on capturing the atmosphere, the people, and the activities that make up these events.
- Architectural Street Photography: This style specifically focuses on capturing interesting architectural elements found in the streets, like buildings, bridges, and other structures. People can be included but the architecture is the main subject.
- Travel Street Photography: This involves capturing the essence of a place through the people, the culture, the architecture, and the daily life activities when traveling. It’s about capturing the feeling and the stories of the streets in a foreign location.
- Color Street Photography: This style uses color as a major component of the composition. The photographer utilizes color contrasts, harmonies, or specific color themes to create visually appealing images.
- Street Macro Photography: This type involves taking close-up shots of elements found on the street, like details of an object, texture, etc. This might include anything from a close-up of a person’s accessory to the texture of a graffiti wall.
- Street Sports Photography: This involves capturing people engaged in sports activities in the street or public areas, such as skateboarding, basketball, etc.
- Mobile Street Photography: With the rise of high-quality cameras on smartphones, this type of street photography has become increasingly popular. The convenience and inconspicuous nature of phone cameras allow photographers to capture street scenes with ease.
- Neon Photography: Neon photography is a style of photography that captures vibrant, colorful images featuring neon lights or signs. It focuses on the unique and captivating visual effects created by the intense glow and luminosity of neon elements against dark or urban backgrounds.
- Neon Portrait Photography: Neon portrait photography is a style of capturing portraits where the subject is illuminated by vibrant, colorful neon lights. It involves using the neon lights as the primary light source, creating a visually striking and atmospheric effect.
