It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog, and even longer since I’ve actually done any street photography. It’s been a bit of a refrain over the last few years. There’s a lot of downtime during the year when I don’t get out onto the streets of Saint-Denis due to a lack of inspiration or desire. It was the same thing last year, and it seems to me that it was around the same time. I haven’t done much since last July. I haven’t stopped completely, but I haven’t been assiduous and there’s nothing really exciting to report. However, I’ll try to post a little slideshow of some of the photos I took during this period on YouTube.

I reconnected a little with Street Photography by watching a few videos of Tim Huynh commenting on the results of some Street Photography festivals. If you don’t know Tim, check out his channel. These videos are very funny, but above all very accurate when he analyses the finalist or prize-winning photos at these festivals. I’m not at all a fan of these events, which to me only partially represent what Street Photography is all about. It’s a mishmash of everything, with some very good photos rubbing shoulders with everything that has nothing to do with Street Photography. Even if the judges are often great photographers, very often they don’t do Street Photography and that’s a bit embarrassing for a festival dedicated to Street Photography…

In Tim’s videos talking about the finalists and winners, I saw very few photos that really made an impression on me. It’s not my thing at all. For several years now, I’ve been distancing myself from this whole circus where everyone endlessly reproduces things that have been successful. Take music, for example. No matter how much you recycle what’s already been done, you still manage to do amazing things without feeling like you’re plagiarising. In Street Photography, that doesn’t work. In the photos presented by Tim Huynh, we see photographers using the same recipes that have been used over and over again to present their infamous work at festivals. The worst thing is that it works! These photos are finalists!

I’m well aware that I represent NOTHING on the Street Photography scene. Many people must think that I have very questionable ideas of what Street is and that my work isn’t so great as to judge that of others… That’s true, I don’t set myself above others. I just have a vision of Street Photography that doesn’t fit in with what’s being presented and which is successful. In fact, I submitted some of my photos to a competition organised by Réponse Photos, a French magazine. Oh yeah, it’s good to spit on competitions and still take part in this great Circus as you say! That way I can moan about the winners afterwards, because I wasn’t chosen. I have to admit that the main reason I entered this competition in the first place was that it was free! The second thing was the chance to win a Fujifilm XT5! Yep, I’m greedy.

So I did it on the spur of the moment and quickly submitted 5 photos. All taken in Thailand. I didn’t go very far and I didn’t dig into my archives. I just took 5 photos that I liked and that was that. Looking back, I don’t think I stood a chance. Not that these photos are bad, but I’m not sure they’re catchy enough to attract the judges’ attention. And yet among the photos submitted was one that I consider to be one of the best I’ve ever done.

I’m talking, of course, about photo number 2 in this series. This photo represents everything I love about Street Photography. A chaotic street scene with lots of people that I’ve managed to organise into a frame. People closing the photo on the left and right. Different layers, different gestures. In short, nothing was left to chance in this composition. I waited for the guy on the left with the cup of coffee to enter the frame. It’s not a happy accident. I saw the bike with the guy who looks like a Power Ranger, I also saw the guy taking the photo with his smartphone. I don’t expect any judge to appreciate the photo the way I do. These are things I’m sensitive to and it’s very personal.

Today, as I was driving home, I began to look closely at certain situations in the street as potential scenes to photograph. I hadn’t looked at the street like that for a while. But I didn’t stop to take any photos. It was just interesting to see that life went on in the street with or without me (fortunately!). It was like a call from the street telling me to come back! I went there at the end of the afternoon to pick up the children and I didn’t stay long enough. But I did take the photo I showed you at the opening of this blog. It’s a photo that has absolutely no chance of being entered in any festival or competition, but I really like it very much!

I think I’m going to try and get back out on the street a bit. It’s going to be a bit tricky for the next two weeks because the kids will be on holiday, but at the beginning of November I’m going to try and get back into it a bit. Just to share a few more photos and blogs with you. But you know me, I’m not very assiduous …

All the photos were made with the Ricoh GR3 | Crop 35 mm.