This document provides tips and lessons for street photography from photographers Eric Kim, Josef Koudelka, Trent Parke, and Sebastiao Salgado. It discusses taking street photography by working a scene without hesitation, asking permission from subjects, capturing candid expressions rather than posed smiles, and pretending to shoot something behind the subject. The traits of great street photographers include thinking long-term by frequently reviewing work, not settling and constantly pushing creative boundaries, and drawing inspiration from fields like history, sociology, and anthropology. The document also presents street photography assignments and information on connecting with photographer Eric Kim.

1. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101
Eric Kim / 4-20-2015

2. What is street photography?
SF, 2014

3. Why shoot street photography?
SF, 2015

4. How to shoot street photography?
Downtown LA, 2014

5. 1. Work the scene
SF, 2014

13. 2. Don’t hesitate
Lansing, Michigan, 2013

14. Martin Parr / GB. England. New Brighton. From 'The Last Resort'.1985.

15. 3. Ask for permission
Tucson, Arizona, 2013

17. Eric Kim / Tucson, 2013

18. Eric Kim / Tucson, 2013

19. Eric Kim / Tucson, 2013

20. Eric Kim / Tucson, 2013

21. Eric Kim / Tucson, 2013

22. Eric Kim / Tucson, 2013

23. 4. Ask your subjects not to smile
Istanbul, 2013

25. Eric Kim / Istanbul, 2013

26. Eric Kim / Istanbul, 2013

27. Eric Kim / Istanbul, 2013

28. Eric Kim / Istanbul, 2013

29. 5. Pretend you’re shooting
something behind your subject
NYC, 2014

30. 3 Traits of Great
Street Photographers

31. 1. Think long-term
Josef Koudelka / CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Slovakia. Zehra. 1967. Gypsies.

32. “For 17 years I never paid any rent [laughs]. Even
the Gypsies were sorry for me because they
thought I was poorer than them. At night they
were in their caravans and I was the guy who
was sleeping outside beneath the sky.” - Josef
Koudelka

33. Josef Koudelka / CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Slovakia. Rakusy. 1966. Gypsy.

34. “I’m willing to show my photos, not so much my
contact prints. I often work on small prints. I look
at them frequently, and for a long time. I put them
up on the wall, and compare them, to make sure
of my choice.” - Josef Koudelka

35. Josef Koudelka / CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Slovakia. Kendice. 1966. Gypsies.

36. “When I wake up in the morning, and I feel
good, I tell myself: ‘Today may be the last day of
my life.’ That is my sense of urgency. But I keep
wondering about what you just said, that I am a
conscience. People have told me that. People
much younger than myself have told me: ‘I would
like to work as you do.’” - Josef Koudelka

37. Josef Koudelka / ROMANIA. 1968.

38. “I am not interested in repetition. I don’t want to
reach the point from where I wouldn’t know how
to go further. It’s good to set limits for oneself, but
there comes a moment when we must destroy
what we have constructed.” - Josef Koudelka

39. Josef Koudelka / CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Slovakia. Zehra. 1967. Gypsies.

40. “I don’t care what people think, I know well
enough who I am. I refuse to become a slave to
their ideas. When you stay in the same place for
a certain time, people put you in a box and
expect you to stay there.” - Josef Koudelka

41. “I always photographed with the idea that no one
would be interested in my photos, that no one
would pay me, that if I did something I only did it
for myself.” - Josef Koudelka

42. “I photograph only something that has to do with
me, and I never did anything that I did not want
to do. I do not do editorial and I never do
advertising. No, my freedom is something I do not
give away easily.”- Josef Koudelka

43. 2. Don’t settle
Trent Parke / AUSTRALIA. Sydney. Martin Place, Moving bus. 2002

44. “I went each evening, for about 15 minutes, when the light came in
between two buildings. It happens only at a certain time of the year:
you’ve just got that little window of opportunity. I was relying so
much on chance – on the number of people coming out of the offices,
on the sun being in the right spot, and on a bus coming along at the
right time to get that long, blurred streak of movement. If I didn’t get
the picture, then I was back again the next day. I stood there
probably three or four times a week for about a month. I used an old
Nikon press camera that you could pull the top off and look straight
down into, because I was shooting from a tiny tripod that was only
about 8cm high. I had tried to lie on the ground, but people wouldn’t
stand anywhere near me. I finally got this picture after about three or
four attempts. I shot a hundred rolls of film, but once I’d got that
image I just couldn’t get anywhere near it again. That’s always a
good sign: you know you’ve got something special.” - Trent Parke

45. Trent Parke / AUSTRALIA. Sydney. Dream/Life series. 2001.

46. “If I can’t go 100 per cent at something, it’s over.
I need to live what I do from the moment I get up
to the moment I fall asleep (and then to dream
about it some more). I didn’t play sport to be
average I played to be the best that I could be.
It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about making
sure you are giving it your best shot with the
abilities you have been granted…” - Trent Parke

47. Trent Parke / AUSTRALIA. Sydney. Dream Life/series. 2001.

48. “There’s definitely that point where you know you’ve
got something special, but it’s when [you’re doing
something such as] using the camera with movement
or where you take a chance on something. You
think, “that’s a great picture, but how do I make an
even greater picture?” Often it’ll be something that
I’ve been trying for maybe weeks before, that I’ll be
working up to in technique, that might all of a
sudden come to fruition in that particular picture. But
I’ll push something, and push something and push
something, until I get it.” - Trent Parke

49. Trent Parke / AUSTRALIA. Sydney. From Dream/Life series. 1998.

50. “It’s not enough for me just to be out on the street
and shooting people – I need to be trying to push
medium of photography as well. I want to create
new and interesting pictures rather than stuff that
has been seen before. It’s a multi-layered thing. I
don’t feel I’m clever enough to be able to set
images up. I’d rather see them happening around
me, grab them and let chance play a part in it …
And when the photograph works it has a kind of
epic quality.” - Trent Parke

51. 3. Draw inspiration from other fields
Sebastiao Salgado / Greater Burhan oilfields, Kuwait. 1991

52. “My pictures gave me 10 times more pleasure
than the reports I was working on. To be a
photographer was, for me, an incredible way to
express myself, an incredible way to the see the
world from another point.” - Sebastião Salgado

53. Sebastiao Salgado / Serra Pelada gold
mine, Brazil, 1986

54. “You should have a good knowledge of history,
of geopolitics, of sociology and anthropology to
understand the society that we’re part of and to
understand yourself and where you’re from in
order to make choices. A lack of this knowledge
will be much more limiting than any technical
ability.” - Sebastião Salgado

55. Sebastiao Salgado / Korem camp. Ethiopia . 1984

56. “Photography is not objective. It is deeply
subjective – my photography is consistent
ideologically and ethically with the person I am.”
– Sebastião Salgado

57. Sebastiao Salgado / A malnourished, dehydrated woman in the hospital in Gourma Rharous. Mali . 1985

58. “I don’t believe a person has a style. What
people have is a way of photographing what is
inside them. What is there comes out.” - Sebastião
Salgado

59. Sebastiao Salgado / Worker resting, Covered in oil, Oil wells, Kuwait, 1991

60. “I very much like to work on long-term projects.
There is time for the photographer and the people
in front of the camera to understand each other.
There is time to go to a place and understand what
is happening there. When you spend more time on
a project, you learn to understand your subjects.
There comes a time when it is not you who is taking
the pictures. Something special happens between
the photographer and the people he is
photographing. He realizes that they are giving
the pictures to him.” - Sebastião Salgado

61. 3 Street Photography
Assignments

62. 1. Compliment everybody for a day
Downtown LA, 2013

63. 2. The 5 Yes/5 No Challenge
San Diego, 2014

64. 3. The .7 Meter Challenge
Downtown LA, 2015

65. Questions & Answers

66. Let’s connect
• facebook.com/
erickimphotography
• Twitter/Instagram:
@erickimphoto
• erickimphotography.com
/blog