Anonymous Street Photography
Photo by Antonio Trincone.
There was a little crisis in giving this blog a title. Of course, I have to tell you the back story. My most successful blogs have been about the types of street photography. I have written about 5 types: candid, street portraiture, geometric, abstract and intrusive street photography. I guess people search for that kind of information and they find my blog. I have been thinking that anonymous street photography qualified as a 6th new type. But as I sat down to write about it, I realized it was not a type. That knocked out the title, “Types of Street Photography - Anonymous”. I am not actually sure what it is, but it is a thing and it cuts across the candid, geometric and abstract types. In this blog I am going to tell you what can motivate people to take this kind of thing in street photography and along the way give some examples.
Photo by Antonio Trincone. If you are looking for an excuse to take pictures of the backs of people, anonymous street photography is it.
I have a friend, Emily Passino, who had one of her street photography images accepted for display in an exhibit at the Frist Art Museum. This is no small accomplishment. The Frist is a highly regarded art museum. They planned to make a book of the collection of photographs that were on display, but Emily’s image was not going to be included in the book unless she could get a model release. Think about the magnitude of that problem. There was a happy ending. Nashville is a relatively small community. Emily found her subject, invited her for a coffee and a chat and got the release.
Photo by Antonio Trincone. Hats and masks have provided a lot of anonymous opportunities this winter.
Street photographers typically never get model releases. It is really antithetical to taking street photography. The downsides are getting to be more significant. You cannot enter certain photography competitions without a model release. You cannot submit images for publication in certain magazines without a model release. In France and Germany, and no doubt many other countries, you technically cannot post on social media without a model release. You probably can sell street photography prints as fine art, but even that has gone to court in N.Y. While the photographer won the lawsuit, it set some precedents that could be unpleasant if someone is inclined to sue you.
Photo by Antonio Trincone. Shadows can be used to obscure faces.
Anonymous street photography removes the problem of getting a model release. If there is no identifiable human in your picture, then you are not going to have an issue. Is it any surprise that we are seeing more and more anonymous street photography these days?
Photo by Antonio Trincone. When a head is obscured by an object or cut off by the edge of the frame, it is sometimes called decapitated photography.
If you choose to take anonymous street photography, in my mind, you have to compensate by upping your compositional design. Generally, anonymous photos lack a story. In addition, you do not benefit from your viewer’s interest in human faces or gazes because they are obscured. This is probably an argument for deliberately adding in some anonymous photography to your mix. It is a practice in composition. Recognizing good composition needs to be automatic just like using your camera needs to be automatic in order to get the best candid photos.
Photo by Antonio Trincone. We finish with lovey abstract.
I am so pleased that Antonio Trincone was willing to share some of his anonymous street photos in this blog. You can see Antonio’s gallery on Facebook at Antonio Trincone , his gallery on Instagram at @trinconeantonio and get more information about him here.
If you have a minute, take a peek at my new Anonymous Street Photography Gallery.