Twenty Street Photographers You Need to Know!
Street photography is one of those terms that can imply an array of styles. Teaching myself photography in Japan, I always associated it with the more encompassing Japanese understanding of it all being “snapshot photography.” Which certainly saves a lot of time in trying to reconcile labels for everything from pictorial realism to Vivo & Provoke through to say a Hiromix that all share this commonality. It is with this, I approached this list perhaps challenging the western notion of street photography or certainly its hardcore elements into what it is understood here as simply going out into the world (in this case) with a film camera and shooting off the cuff. A lot of famous Japanese street photographers will confirm this in insuring you they are not professionals…a funny insinuation to most.
I was asked to do this list on behalf of the Japan Camera Hunter team and so for me it made sense to predicate a lot of my selections based off my Visual Interview series I have been doing for over half a decade. From there it is influenced by my geographic locations between Tokyo, my native Baltimore area in the US, and Stockholm & northern parts of Europe where I have worked. In general though, a lot of this just stems from being in various photo communities since beginning my own journey in 2009.
Street photography has always been a rather passionate genre with an ever passionate community. I have experienced countless heated discussions on what it all constitutes and saw the reasons behind the claims. Approaching several photographers became difficult for concerns for who else was involved or unfortunately just not following through after repeated requests. This would hopefully explain why some obvious photographers may not appear, but also through my own naivety I had assumed a lot of photographers were film photographers but in fact had been shooting digital or switched due to the ever increasing film prices…a very valid point. I also avoided legacy photographers in favor of active ones. These factors drastically reduced my initial list resulting in what you will see below.
In all, it was a real labor of love with a certain cloud hanging over it. The very nature of top lists brings upon criticism. We are a passionate, often tight knit community with several divisions, but my hope in this list is to expose lesser known photographers and reaffirm some that probably need no further introduction. At the end of it all, we share a commonality in the love of film and the process it demands.
Twenty Street Photographers You Need to Know!
Artist: Jake Ricker | Location: San Francisco, United States
Links: Website | Instagram
Jake Ricker is a documentary photographer living and working in San Francisco, California. He has spent the last 7 years documenting the Golden Gate Bridge virtually daily. In this time, it has been 3,000 rolls of film and over 10,000 miles walked, but most importantly through 2020, over 60 suicides prevented. His work goes beyond film photography while remaining its catalyst.
Artist: Todd Gross | Location: Queens, NY, USA
Link: Tumblr | Instagram
Todd Gross is a schlemiel from Queens, NY. His bio reads, “I wanted to be an illustrator or pilot experimental aircraft. I bought a camera instead.” His work deals with the everyday yet made surreal through saturated colors and visually irony. The result are these characters that stay in your mind’s eye.
Artist: Stephen Vanasco | Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Links: Website | Instagram
Stephen Vanasco is a N.Y. born, Los Angeles raised photographer. Entirely self taught he embraces the endless bounds photography offers as a medium in exploring as much as possible. Inspired by photos in the issues of Thrasher and Transworld magazines as a skateboarding youth in the early 90s, he understood the emphasis on transferring energy made in a photograph to the viewer. When exploring the idea of street photography he follows a point of departure every time allowing moments to present themselves to him and his camera.
Artist: Matt Stuart | Location: London, UK
Links: Website | Instagram
Originating from the leafy suburbs of Harrow, North West London, Matt Stuart was introduced to photography from his father after receiving books by Robert Frank & Henri Cartier-Bresson. Like those photographers his work exhibits an acute visual wit and compositional intelligence. His recently published book, “Think Like a Street Photographer” is then really a synthesis of this.
Artist: Jacqueline Badeaux | Location: USA
Links: Website | Instagram
Jacqueline Badeaux is an American artist working with film to express mysterious and hidden worlds of the anonymous subconscious. Her experimental technique and camera building relies on the tactile aspects of working with film, adding dimension and texture to her negatives and prints. She creates inspired by fantasy, plays with forms, and delights in the use of images and color without limitation or inhibition.
Artist: Colby Deal | Location: Houston, TX, USA
Link: Instagram
Colby Deal is a photographer born and raised in Houston, Texas. Recently inducted into the Magnum Photo Agency, his work explores the culmination of elements of the psychological environment as well as the physical. He shows the dynamic range of family, community, and the individual directly inspired by his upbringing. This appreciation for slowing down and concentrating on photographing what’s right in front of him, “The Now”, has led him to be more in touch with using analog photography.
Artist: Chrystofer Davis | Location: Newark, NJ, USA
Links: Website | Instagram
Chrystofer Davis is a Newark, NJ native and fine art photographer, teaching artist, and filmmaker, whose work is influenced by street/portrait photography and contemporary culture. When photographers say they are apart of a community I think of Davis who is constantly organizing photo walks, classes, and public library lectures. All of his photos then compound this sentiment all resulting from real interaction within the community.
Artist: Joe Greer | Location: Franklin, TN, USA
Links: Website | Instagram
Joe Greer was born in Flint, Michigan and now resides in Franklin, TN. He has been making photographs ever since 2010. He simply sets out to document life as he experiences it…which I will add includes a lot of travel. Alternating between 35mm and 120, his work of late features that beautiful lush color that only film can render. He was most recently featured as the one of the photographers to help launch the new Leica M6.
Artist: Joey Maddon | Location: Mesa, AZ, USA
Links: Website
Joey Maddon is a photographer from Mesa, AZ. As he puts simply, “Father to Coral & Giuseppe. Deeply in love with Natalie.” Professionally, he works in fashion, editorial, and portraiture…all of which carry a realistic street photography approach. This makes his professional work refreshing and relatable for any street photographer and sure his clientele as well. The selection above is from his personal film photography.
Artist: Ola Belmont | Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Links: Website | Instagram
Ola Belmont is a photographer based in Stockholm, Sweden. With various cameras, he works in medium and large format that heightens the aesthetic austerity his photography exhibits. The slight skew of ordinary life that he captures permeates making you look at things you would pass by everyday much more significant.
Artist: Patrick Joust | Location: Baltimore, MD, USA
Links: Website | Instagram
Patrick Joust is a self proclaimed, “middle aged librarian living in Baltimore with his wife and two children.” He has been photographing for about 20 years in Baltimore, Pennsylvania, California, etc., for a beautiful slice of Americana. The timeless quality that his (often medium format) images evoke are as powerful as his compositions (often taken at night). Yet, it is also his portraiture that is equally if not more remarkable for the mutual warmth they bring.
Artist: Alison McCauley | Location: Geneva
Links: Website | Instagram
Alison McCauley is a photographer based in Geneva and Cannes. Her approach to the people and locations she photographs is instinctive, open-ended and subjective. Alison’s work often explores the idea of identity, belonging and memory, while remaining infused with melancholy and feelings of restlessness and loss. Alison is especially interested in presenting her visual narratives in books that she makes by hand and in traditionally published books.
Artist: Artyt Lerdrakmongkol | Location: Nonthaburi, Thailand
Links: Website | Instagram
Artyt Lerdrakmongkol is a photographer based in Nonthaburi, Thailand and with his wife runs an analog photography shop in Thailand appropriately called, “Husband and Wife.” His photography is vibrant wide angle color street photography and personal photos. The repetitions of color and compositions grab you while the textures keep a hold.
Artist: Thanh Tùng | Location: USA
Link: Website | Instagram
Thanh Tùng was born in Viet Nam and moved to the United States at ten. A self-proclaimed wedding photography burnout, he photographs his personal life and the communities he inhabits. He doubles co-running the DXLab, a mail-in film developing lab, and is a part of the Beautiful Noise Collective. Working entirely within the everyday, I am always surprised at how surreal he can make anything from a trip to a park to protests for equality…proving there is nothing more surreal than the real.
Artist: John Sypal | Location: Tokyo, Japan
Links: Website | Instagram
John Sypal is a photographer from Lincoln, Nebraska, who has resided in Tokyo for nearly the last 20 years. He regularly exhibits at the photographer run gallery, Totem Pole Gallery, while documenting his encounters with other film photographers as “Tokyo Camera Style.” Perhaps his last show titled, “An Endless Attraction” at the Leica Ginza 6 boutique best sums up his approach to the medium as he exhibits bi-quarterly.
Artist: Jon Laytner | Location: Toronto, Canada
Links: Website | Instagram
Jon Laytner is a photographer who lives and works in Toronto, Canada. His color flash deadpan photos are simultaneously quickly absurd and surreal. It is a layered social documentation of life, coupled with a unique eye. I was actually impressed with how he managed to replicate this medium format style into digital as I had a hard time telling the difference when I made his selection.
Artist: Sean Lotman | Location: Kyoto, Japan
Links: Website | Instagram
Sean Lotman is a native of Los Angeles living in Kyoto, Japan, with his wife, Ariko, his son, Tennbo, and the family dog, Monk. He has produced four photo books: Sunlanders (Bemojake), The Sniper Paused So He Could Wipe His Brow (The M Editions), Middle Life Notes (Neutral Colors) and Amoeba (Neutral Colors). Riffing off of surrealism he invokes strong color emotions in the establishment of visual narratives. All prints are handmade through experimental trial-and-error processes in his color darkroom, that account for his aesthetic surrealism. There really isn’t much out there like it.
Artist: Sophie Hustwick | Location: UK
Links: Website | Instagram
Sophie Hustwick is a British photographer. Her collective body of work is not only distinguished by a recording of everyday surroundings, but really as an investigation into the interplay of color, composition and content. She is drawn to pops of color, the subtle shifts in light and the textures that shadows create. “I often wait for that magical moment when everything bathes in a warm, consuming glow. When colours become richer, shadows become deeper, and everything drips in gold. Just like honey.”
Artist: Shan Wallace | Location: Baltimore, MD, USA
Links: Website | Instagram
Shan Wallace is a visual artist, photographer, and educator from East Baltimore, MD. Her work is inspired by the nuances of day-to-day life of her surroundings in Baltimore, not as fixed narratives but a multiplicity of experiences. This aspect philosophically leads into her other medium of collage where she has won awards for both.
Artist: Shin Noguchi | Location: Tokyo, Japan
Links: Website | Instagram
Shin Noguchi is a Japanese street photographer based in Kamakura and Tokyo. He describes his street photography as an attempt to capture extraordinary moments of excitement, humanism, and beauty among the flow of everyday life. With his discreet, poetic, and enigmatic approach to his art, Shin is able to capture the subtleties and complexities of Japanese culture. He shares, "The subjects tell me the meaning and value of life. To take a picture is to affirm the existence of peopleーthe human nature and karmaーand it's also an opportunity to affirm my own existence and accept it as it is."
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Jesse Freeman, in his own words:
I am from Maryland and have been living in Tokyo for 14 years. I fell in love with literature once moving to Japan in 2006 and that carried me into films once I understood auteur theory. Seeing film as a director’s novel, the pen his camera, and actors his characters, I came to understand that style and prose came from overall shot style and composition. This brought about my expression in five different mediums. The first is photography, I mostly do film in black and white. I self-develop and darkroom print images of everyday life exhibiting quarterly. The second is filmmaking, I have written and directed 12 short films, holding my own screenings in Tokyo. My films usually arise out of my own problems or curiosities playing more to aesthetic theories of films. The third is ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement), I have been studying under the avant-garde Sogetsu school for 13 years and am a master level (Shihan) teacher. I appreciate the structuring you learn in the balance of ‘shin, soe, hikae, and jushi’ and subsequent space in between. The fourth is collage that I started creating a half decade ago using materials I find in recycling bins as a much more direct form of expression. The fifth is quilt-making, I recently started after seeing the expression and history of the Gee’s Bend and have since made 20 quilts and continue to make them on my Bernina. In addition, I write art reviews, essays, and my film scripts, while working my day job, a part of the Japan Camera Hunter Team. In all, I basically just have an idea and see which medium is best to express it…offering my perspective.
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