Are Street Photographers Storytellers… or Just Witnesses?

Somebody asked me whether street photographers are storytellers or just witnesses, and I had to think about it longer than I would like to admit.

Here is where I landed. I am a witness. I show up, I see something, I take the picture. I am not constructing a narrative arc with a beginning, middle, and end. I am a guy who was standing there when the light hit the wall and the dog walked through it.

But let us be honest, every frame is a choice. I picked the lens, the angle, the moment. I left out everything outside the frame, which is most of reality. So there is storytelling in the edit, in what I choose to show you and what I quietly delete.

Maybe the real answer is that we are witnesses with opinions. The camera records what happened, and I decide which happening was worth recording. That is not nothing.

Either way, the job is the same. Go outside, pay attention, and do not overthink whether you are an artist or a reporter. Take the picture first. Figure out what you are later.