How many times have you read or heard that the best focal length for Street Photography is 35mm?  How about 50mm?  Wider?  Longer?  The point is, everyone is an expert on the subject and every time you read it it’s a definitive “this is the best and no other will do” statement.  Well guess what?  They are wrong. There have been many photographers who would have laughed in your face had you told them the only good Street Photography could come from a 35mm lens.  Henri Cartier-Bresson was said to have shot so often with a 50mm lens that he could “previsualize” his photographs because he was so familiar with the size of the frame.  Was he doing it wrong?  The last time I read about Street Photography I was told that a 50mm is basically a telephoto lens and it wasn’t wide enough for good Street Photography! The image at the top of the page was taken by famous Street Photographer André Kertész, known to me more recently from his book Andre Kertesz: Paris, Autumn 1963.  Perhaps not as famous as Henri Cartier-Bresson but accomplished enough to have made it into several museums, newspapers, magazines, etc. well beyond his death in 1985.  I want to share with you an excerpt from the book I mentioned above……

Source: decisiveshot.com

John Barbiaux Street Photography