Street Photography Techniques Used for Fashion Photos

Street Photography or Fashion, I Can’t Really Tell

If you’re familiar fashion photography, then you’ve probably heard of Bill Cunningham…the nice elder gentleman that use to run around NYC and snap pics of whacky and glamorous fashionistas roaming the streets. He captured some funny characters, but the images would be much better if he considered composition (image below).

I wanted to mention his work to give us an example of what we should always strive to work past. Yes, we can easily see an interesting character running around the streets, but we should also try to capture them with a pleasing composition, to give the image visual clarity. Maybe we can even tell a story too. He’s not Bresson for street, or Leibovitz for fashion. Bill’s type of photography doesn’t move past representation, but it served it’s purpose which is great. Much like anyone can take a picture of an apple, but it takes an artist to make it look like something more.

In this next image by Annie Leibovitz, we see it leans more on the fashion photography side, but we can see hints of street photography being used. We see a candid, decisive moment being captured to present movement (see Day 15). Of course, the big fan blowing from the right side helps, but the gesture the girl is making is key. She’s moving forward and pretends to be longing for something outside of the frame. Gesture is one of the main things we look for in our street photography, and here it is being incorporated into a fashion photo. Nicely done Annie!

What is the Decisive Moment?

This term is well-known in the street photography world, but for any aspiring or professional fashion photographers, keep reading.

The decisive moment is a term coined by good ol’ Henri Cartier-Bresson…basically the father of street photography. He defined it as being selective with your shots as you watch the moment unravel before your eyes. This is a technique we can incorporate if we want to capture a fleeting moment with the most visual clarity possible.

If we shoot, shoot, shoot, without thinking, then maybe the picture we hoped for was in-between. We have to be decisive and be consciously aware of what we want to capture, and how the main subject fits into the background.

The image below isn’t a Bresson photo, although it very well could be without the Prada logo. This image by Annie Leibovitz utilizes the technique

Bresson had geometry on the mind 24/7, so it could’ve been a fraction of a second longer before he snapped the shutter and locked the subject on a reciprocal diagonal, or a baroque diagonal of the 1.5 grid etched into his mind.

Dynamic symmetry within your street or fashion photography is a great tool. It reminds you of the importance of diagonals and helps you incorporate unity, movement, and rhythm with techniques like coincidences (see Day 48) and gamut (see Day 38). In the image below with the 1.5 grid over it we can see that the left leg locks into the reciprocal, and the right leg locks into the dropped vertical. The distant wall locks into the center horizontal…all major elements locking into the simple dynamic symmetry grid. If you were skeptical before, this is certainly proof of it’s use by Annie Leibovitz.

Lines Are Blurring Between Street and Fashion Photography

Here we have a photo by Garry Winogrand…a prolific street photographer (see #402). This could totally be a fashion ad for some swanky company like Versace or something. It’s got all of the elements…candid moment, hair blowing, gazing direction (see Day 99) not directly at the camera. He’s even got nice figure-ground relationship (see Day 21) and nice separation between the shape of the car, woman, and sign (see #374).

Here’s an ad for Louise Vuitton with the same elements as the above image. I actually like it less than Winogrand’s.

Here we see another fur coat photo that could be a Louis Vuitton ad as well, but it’s by the recluse-nanny street photographer, Vivian Maier (see Day 239).

Another fur coat ad, but this time it’s by Vogue magazine. Are you starting to see how the line between street and fashion photography is being blurred at this point? This model is most definitely posing in a street, decisive moment kind of pose. The aspective view (see Day 78) is speaking the same language of street photographers around the globe.

Another fur coat photo, but this time by Garry Winogrand. Street, fashion, street, fashion. Back and forth we go, erasing the line that use to define each genre.

The composition is lacking a bit, but could be edited further for a magazine ad.

Not to say there still isn’t a clear difference between them, but when fashion photographers incorporate the style and techniques of street photographers they get something far more appealing. The image comes alive compared to a posing shot were they are looking at the camera.

Here’s a nice photo by Casey Brooks that captures a nice gesture, hair movement, and figure-ground relationship.

Ok, now that you’re starting to understand what I’m talking about, let’s burn through some more examples.

This next one is by Vogue magazine. I love the way they incorporate the shadow into the image, the hair blowing, and they use a large soft shadow to improve the FGR.

Guy Bourdin is known as a fashion photographer, but he’s definitely using a lot of street techniques.

We can see in his image below that he is quite artistic too. Capturing the walking woman, and her shadow in the reflection on the wall. Nice aspective view, movement, and lighting on her face.

Tons More Examples

I’ll burn through these next examples quickly and list the company or artist below the image.

This next one could be improved dramatically if the photographer captured her about one step before to get her on the light background. As it is, her dark hair and coat mix with the dark window in the background. Squint and blur your eyes and you’ll see it right away. The decisive moment was a second off.

This one is funny…similar to the image above, but with Guy Bourdin, he has to make it a bit quirky.

Gotta love the extreme toning in this next one! They have several in a series toned like this.

This next photo of Lady Gaga slamming a New York hotdog on the streets will transition us to the next section.

Street Photos with Fashion Logos

This next section is full of fun street photos with logos slapped on them…just to show us how easy street can transition into the realm of fashion.

This next one is by the quirky Magnum photographer, Martin Parr. Who would’ve ever thought that one of his photos could be considered a fashion photo!

For fun, I threw in a couple of my own street photos (also found in the new book). I hope you pick up on some of the sarcasm!

This isn’t a fashion photo, but I couldn’t resist!