I have only recently come to see the term, eye candy, used in the context of street photography. It was used as an argument for why street photography should be processed in b&w. I understand the argument. Color can be a distraction. In fact, the photo can be about color, in the same way it can be about light. If color or light is the subject, do you really have a street photo?

Photo by Neil O. Lawner. Used with permission. You can see Neil’s gallery at Neil Lawner Photography. Neil exhibits at and is a member of the cooperative Soho Photo Gallery.

Here is what works for me in this photo:

The leading line that is formed by the woman’s handbag
The repetition of a scarf/ collar around the necks of the real and painted women.
The repetition of curly white hair and a curly white headdress.
The repetition of red in both scarves.

Here is the story that I get from this: I knew a woman just like the woman in this painting. She had curly white hair. She dressed for success. Maybe this woman in the photo is even my friend. I am glad this was taken from the back as that leaves open that possibility. My friend was so elegant. I always wanted to be elegant. I think this woman is, too. I am drawn to her in the same way that I am drawn to my friend.

This is a bit of a conundrum for me. I like to look at eye candy. Apparently, I increasingly like to produce eye candy. I process more and more of my work in color.

Photo by Vicki Windman. Used with permission. You can see Vicki’s Instagram gallery at at @vbarn106.

Here is what works for me in this photo:

The intersection of the lines of the chain and the bar gives my eye an anchor for the flag.
The color palette is pleasing and helps to establish a clear figure to ground relationship.
There are numerous other parallel lines, both vertical and slightly diagonal that provide a nice compositional repetition.

Here is the story that I get from this: Vicki is what I would call the street photographer’s street photographer. In her top notch Instagram street photography gallery, she rarely posts a picture that does not include a human. This picture, which is a huge departure, seems like an entirely consistent addition to the gallery to me. It symbolically represents exactly how I am experiencing the pandemic in the U.S. Sometimes I feel strong, like the vertical pole behind the flag. I always feel locked down like the chain conveys. Life feels disordered like this flag. The focus is a little soft. Not much feels in focus to me these day.

There is a bigger problem. Eye candy is not just a color issue for me. Eye candy encompasses a wide range of pleasing aspects of composition in a photo, including rim lighting, geometry, juxtaposition, symmetry, and patterns. I suspect any one of these can sometimes even become the subject of the picture for me.

Picture by Ximena Hinzpeter Kirberg. Used with permission. You can see Ximena’s Instagram gallery at @xime_hinz.

Here is what works for me in this photo:

The way the figure fits in the frame.
The strong implied primary diagonal created by her hat that starts in the upper left hand. This pulls my eye into her smile.
The interesting texture caused by light filtering through her hat.

Here is the story that I get from this: Ximena shoots candid portraits in Santiago, Chile. She is very creative in her photo processing, so her work rarely falls into the street photography genre. This photo was taken in the “south” but not the southern U.S. And yet, for all the world, this lady could live in Alabama or Tennessee. The hat and the beads and the ear-bobs and the printed dress and the good willed energy are all a part of my impressions of certain ladies of a certain age in the communities that I have lived in for years.

If we talk about having a street photography bucket, which is the collection of all of the pictures we identify as street photos, excluding eye candy would make a smaller bucket. In my case, it makes a bigger bucket. This is because when I look at a photo, if there is any human way for me to add a story, and by that I mean feel a feeling or remember a memory or recognize a truth from my personal experiences, well, I do that. So all of those eye candy photos for which I can construct a story go into one bucket, my street photography bucket. I have a very big street photography bucket of pictures that work for me.

Photo by David Bland. Used with permission. You can see David’s Instagram gallery at @david_bland_photo and his gallery on Facebook.

Here is what works for me in this photo:

The timing is absolutely perfect. The man’s collar continuing the line of the leg on the street art is amazing.
The separation of the man from the street art, in particular, his head.
The color repetition between the man’s clothing and the street art.
The primary diagonal of the street art and the parallel lines of the brick.

Here is the story that I get from this: I call this kind of photo a “walk by” photo. I take some number of them. They do not typically impart a strong story. Their value, for me, is chiefly graphic design. Never-the-less, this image gives me a sense that there is an order in the world. That particularly speaks to me in a pandemic.

This fact that I generalize by identifying a lot of different kinds of pictures as street photography did not exactly occur to me when most of the pictures I viewed were on Instagram. Being in a Facebook group dedicated to street photography is an entirely different experience. The rules for posting are quite specific. One may be required to discern the difference between street photography and event photography or photo journalism or animal photography or portrait photography or light photography. I am not always a very good discerner. I just have one big bucket.

This blog is dedicated to street photography, but it isn’t necessarily always going to be on script. Perhaps it is just an exploration into the art of life photography.

Exercise

How big is your street photography bucket?

Dedicated to Street

As I See It - Bring on the Eye Candy