Why You Should Shoot With Other Street Photographers
In my earlier days, I never cared too much about doing street photography in a big group. I was so focused on improving my skills that I felt hanging with so many people would prevent me from creating my best work. Street photography is about being a fly on the wall so the idea of walking around with a bunch of people defeated the purpose for me, especially in a small city like Providence, Rhode Island. I was also turned off by how many people would get the same photo because when something interesting is apparent, we all instantly gravitate towards it. I had all these negative feelings built up and then the good people at pvdstreet set a meetup for photographers and since they’ve always been so kind to me I decided to pull up….Gamechanger.
My entire perspective shifted in that one night. All the good instantly overpowered any preconceived feelings I had towards it. Engaging in the community with other photographers, especially at a time where there wasn’t too many of us doing street photography in Providence, truly felt amazing. The negative thoughts of it preventing me from creating great work wasn’t true because all I had to do was learn to adapt. If I couldn’t just go for the obvious shots then I had to dig a little deeper and search for something else. Even if I wanted a street photo that someone else was taking, who cares? Take it. We’ll edit it differently. It’s not that serious especially if this rarely happens in most of my sessions.
I’ve had the pleasure of creating work that I truly Love during some of these meetups and have met some people who are very important in my life till this day. Yes shooting by myself makes the most sense for my day to day but once in a while these always feel refreshing because of the change of pace. Though my overthinking always prevented me from setting one up myself I’ve always been grateful to be surrounded by other photographers who’ve taken it upon themselves to get the community together. 2025 will definitely be the year where I start setting up my own meetups. I’ve already been proactive on shooting with different people so I’m excited to take the next step and continue helping contribute to the community. Shout out to Jay Davani, Izzy, Kev, Jay Ruzicka and the Vanta Guild fam for providing these spaces for photographers to get together. Always appreciative!
These photos are from the last time a few local street photographers randomly got together in Downtown Providence. My good friend Winslow was back in town and a group session was long overdue. By far one of my favorite sessions I had last year. The weather was warm for the end of December and everyone was in great spirits since we were entering a new year. A perfect street photography session to end 2024.
