I posted a photo on Instagram of somebody on their cell phone. A commenter accused me of shooting fish in a barrel and told me to go for harder candids.
I thought about it. And he might have been right.
People buried in their phones are the fish in the barrel. My standard is this: a true candid is caught naturally, with nobody aware of the camera. When you get a true candid, no one knows you are there. I do not mind a little eye contact.
There is a scene in the Gary Winogrand documentary where he is trying to get a candid and it is camera up, camera down, camera up. It is funny and it is real. That is the work.
So here is my question to you. Is catching people on their cell phones cheating at street photography? I have seen some decent phone shots. But I want candids with no eye contact and no phones.
The comments debated the wording. Cheating versus unoriginal versus boring. Most people agreed the phone shots are boring.
What do you think?
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