I am not a street photographer

Oct 22

I have no idea how to start this blog post, so I’m just going to start typing. When I first started thinking seriously about transitioning from a hobbyist to a professional photographer, quite a long time ago actually, and no, I’m still not fully there, I knew I had to create a portfolio. All I knew was that I wanted to photograph people. I had visions of myself as this little old man that I would develop into in the future, with a wonderful condo in downtown Toronto with a great south-facing window, overlooking the lake. And I would create a little studio, and I’d have individuals sit for their portrait, and I’d make just enough to survive and be able to continue practising photography. I’d have these little sessions then I would walk the streets of my city and be moved to create images as they would present themselves. However, I knew to have people sit for a portrait, I would need to demonstrate my ability to make a compelling image to generate interest and find clients. Show, don’t tell. So, I followed the typical path of asking some of the people I new if they’d like to help with this, and I did have some success, made some nice images, had some fun, even found a client! The next logical step was to try and find local models who might be willing to collaborate and create images that would benefit both of us. But unfortunately I didn’t have much luck with this, as all I found were people that would work with me, but for a fee. I wasn’t in the position to pay these fees at the time, and the idea of creating these images and providing the RAW files to the subject, made no sense when it came to a collaboration. Paying a model for their talent made perfect sense to me if a third party was involved and they were covering that cost, but that wasn’t what I had in mind. So I gave up on that idea. And that is the reason I started walking the streets of Toronto and practising what is know as Street Photography. But I never set out to become a steet photographer. I just wanted to create images of people, and there were thousands of people walking the streets every day, so why not. But then I fell in love. And I never looked back. But I don’t think I fall into the category of ‘street photographer’, maybe I’m wrong. However, when I look at what is typically considered street photography, my images for the most part don’t really look the same as what I find. I mostly see images of interesting locations, far more so than what I would find in Toronto, usually with a sliver of light and a subject that walks through it and the image is recorded at that precice moment. Okay, I can try that. So I did. If found an interesting building with a nice façade, with the light raking across the contours beautifully, made my composition, and waited. And waited. But the sun was quickly moving away and I was losing all this beautiful light, and no one was coming, or at least no one of interest to me. But then thankfully before the light was gone I had a subject and I pressed the button right at the perfect time, just like I saw in all the example ‘street’ images I had seen before. It took at least a half hour or more for that to take place, and you can see the image above. But I have to tell you, I was completely bored out of my mind! And I couldn’t help thinking of all the time I was wasting, knowing that if I were back at my typical busy locations I would be getting far more images than this. So I never tried that again. As I’ve said before, when I’m out, every second matters and I like to increase my odds of success knowing how truly elsuive this is. So am I a street photographer, I keep asking myself? My images have people, and they are out on the street sidewalks or public spaces, and they’re photographed candidly, so I gues it fits. But I don’t consider myself a street photographer, at least I never set out to be one. Which I know would seem confusing because all my Instagram tags are mostly about street photography. But I don’t feel I fall into that category, at least when I look at my images. I feel I would rather be called a people photographer. Most of my images have the subject composed in a way to fill the frame and you don’t see too much of the cityscape behind them. Why do I do that? Because for me, it’s about the person, it’s about the face. It’s about the gesture, about the moment, the emotion, the look, the connection of the people around the main subject. The beauty of the individual; the complexity of the group. That’s what I’m after. That is what I’m moved to photograph. People living life and going about their day, and most importantly, not aware that I’m photographing them, so it’s unifluenced and candid. So I guess what I’m trying to say here, is that my images may look like they belong in the genre of candid street photography, and I’m fine with that, but I don’t feel that is what I’m doing, and again, it wasn’t my intent. It’s difficult for me to acutally explain what I’m doing with my ‘street’ photography because I’m still learning and trying to figure it out myself, even after twelve years. All I know is that I want to create. I’m moved to photograph people, mostly women, and I absolutely love to spend time to create as good a piece of ‘art’ as I can. There’s a million other reasons behind all of that, as to why I do what I do, and to the extent that I do. But I will save that for another time, if at all, or at least you can read my first blog that I wrote back in 2023. You can find it here on my site, called ‘Why Street?’.

Below I share a small sample of images, all of which are cropped, that would mostly be shared together with the full uncropped same image for context. I like the full image but it’s the crop that I’m after. The subject is mainly what I’m concentrated on when I press the button, the rest fades away. However, if I were to create a gallery of very large prints, it would only have the full un-cropped images. The subject would be large enough to be viewed as I would like, and the all-important background would put the subject in place. Wouldn’t that be something to see. When a look at these images, it doesn’t take much for me to be moved to tears. Until next time.

Thank you for being here, and for your time.

October 22, 2025 Michael Gordon White