Street Photography for Sale

The work of the photographer Vivian Maier has led to rising popularity for street photography. Unlike other types of photography concerned with a range of diverse subjects, street photography chooses one theme only: the city – but it is just a trick as this subject is multiple, shattered and diffused, impossible to fully grasp. The beauty of a city, its inhabitants and urban landscape… The practice of street photography pushes the photograph to sharpen his gaze, learning the complex science of capturing a fleeting moment.  

The interaction between man and his urban environment fascinates and inspires artists. The skyrocketing urbanisation seems to prove that the city is the environment that is most fitting to our human condition, yet the pollution, mass population and urban stress associated with the city life indicate the opposite. Whom are these odd animals living in these large hives of activity? What are their customs, their history? The photograph becomes their witness, as he captures ordinary moments that make up our everyday life: a man with a bouquet, a nighttime walk or merely a café's terrace. Like a documentary, each photograph holds a part of truth: to reveal the beauty of empty spaces where time stops, or moments full of life and spontaneity. Discover the best street New-York photographies or London photographies

Every street corner has its share of surprises, colours and activity. Whether empty or busy, the street always seems alive; it is the symbol of the human habitat. Streets are places of movement, of transition, a space that we pass through on the way to a destination. Staging and directing becomes obsolete, as surprise, colour and framing naturally come out of the urban frenzy. The poetic talent of the street photographer is revealed in the stolen moment of an inattentive city stroller?

Each of the photographers in this selection has made specific choices: their artistic approach is already distinguished between the ones who stages their photographs or those who let spontaneity guide their creative direction? Then, there are the photographs who prefer playing with human interactions, in the way of a theatre play, while others prefer empty spaces as unique spaces. Finally, the photographer is confronted to the question of colour or black and white: monochromatic photographs belong to the past as soon as they are taken, while colour gives life to the scene, rendering its energy and charm.

Whether it is a wide shot or a detailed photograph, street photograph sticks to the rule of revealing the extraordinary in the ordinary. A hand calling a cab, or Robert Doisneau's couple kissing at the terrace of a café, the sunlight passing through a wire fence… all the things that we see every day without looking at them. Now is the time to find poetry and delight in the trivial! Browse through Artsper's selection of street photographs.