Lead photo by Jonathan Higbee.
Lots of cameras find themselves in the hands of street photographers, but a large number digital photographers these days have been working with a single camera: the Ricoh GR. It’s been a popular camera for a number of reasons: it’s small, has great image quality, a sharp lens, a built in flash, etc. Many photographers shoot with it in black and white. Others use color. But no matter, lots of photographers have been doing fantastic work with it.
Chris Leskovsek
Photographer Chris Leskovsek took up photography when he moved.
“Moving to New Zealand was a big personal change for me. A big cultural shock, new everything, homesick, etc It was both sweet and sour, and at times quite depressing. Thatâs when I saw myself picking up the camera just to head out of the door and go explore this new place. Maybe it was an excuse just to head out and clear myself while documenting the process.”
Martin U Waltz
Martin U Waltz: How to Evolve Your Style as a Street Photographer
âI always felt when travelling that the most interesting part was roaming in the streets, without any directions or goal.â says photographer Martin U Waltz. âSo it was actually a small step to street photography.â Based in Berlin, Martin describes his signature style as high contrast black and white.  Last year, he was voted as one of the 20 most influential street photographers and heâs won a number of aways including solo exhibitions in many big cities.”
Jonathan Higbee
Street photography isnât obviously the act of documenting every day occurrences in public as they happenâbut one of the biggest challenges that everyone who calls themselves a street photographer faces is getting their work out there. Photographer Jonathan Higbee never let that slow him down.
He loves gear, but he never let it slow him down or cripple him. In fact, heâs been fighting a struggle inside of him that only fuels his creativity and drive to succeed as an artist. The result: he actually makes taxable income from his street photography in addition to his other work. Indeed, Jonathan lives the dream of so many aspiring photographers out there.
And itâs not just us that recognizes it. The lead image of this story made the cover of the World Street Photography Awards 2016 book
Dimitri Keungueu
“New Yorker Dimitri Keungueu has spent the last two years, since moving to the big apple, developing and honing his skills as a street photographer. In his photo project, which he calls 8am /8pm, Keungueu captures the frenzy of midtown workers going to and from work â a necessity of his life, being a family man and having a demanding job. His work features a very high contrast black and white look, a focus on light and dark that he says is an important aspect of his style. âI like to play with daylight.â Keungueu tells The Phoblographer, âBecause most of my shots are on my way to work, I started to become used to the light and to understand which spot was more interesting for me at a certain time in the morning.â”
Rikard Landberg
Rikard is a street photographer that loves film! But also uses his Ricoh!
“Iâll be honest, I switched back from digital to film because it was so much cooler, at least at first. In the beginning it was so frustrating to only have manual controls without the ability to see the pictures in the camera. I missed the P-mode, AV-mode and so on. But the more I trusted my camera and my eyes the better became my pictures. What first made me frustrated now became a release. Suddenly it was all about taking pictures. When I photographed digitally, it was more about image processing and cool effects. Film photography taught me that it doesnât matter how good you are at Photoshop, if the picture is not interesting from the start, it will not become more interesting just because i know my way around Photoshop. Film photography makes me think about what Iâm doing before I do it. A roll of film holds 36 moments and every moment is going to cost me money. It forces me to choose the moments I want to capture.”
