Street style photography is really impromptu portrait photography - if you're doing it right - which can be a blessing or a curse, depending on a few factors. Is your subject uncomfortable? Are they in too much of a hurry to unwind a bit for the camera? Do you have to be in the middle of a busy street to compose the shot well? Seeing how people react when you ask to take their picture and while they're having their picture taken is telling, as not everyone settles into the role like Louis XIV. The street shots on this blog are all of total strangers I accost (less this one) and the diversity of the resulting portraits is always intriguing and, when I do a good job, quite satisfying. Today, we take a look at two recent shots (neither of which I got hit by a car for) to consider the role that gender identity plays in these impromptu street portrait sessions.
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I am totally and completely, head-over-heels in love with the first photo here because that guy is dRiPpiNg with...dare I say it? Swag. Swagger. Swaggu. The fur trim! The hat! His jeans tucked into his socks! [sidenote: pants tucked into socks is a big new trend we'll be discussing later.] When I asked to take his picture he laughed and said, "You think I look fly?" Un-ironically using the word fly in 2013 while sporting the biggest fur collar below East 60th? That's swagger.
However, I find his picture all the more compelling when paired with the bottom photo of this lovely lady in her art-school chic uniform. Why, you ask? What on Earth do they have in common? How is this happening right now? Well, well, well: both of them are looking directly into the camera in ostensibly the exact same pose - they even both cocked a foot for me - but their body language reveals two people speaking distinctly different dialects. (Did that work? Embrace it.) He's definitely projecting some machismo whereas she, on the other hand, is much softer. I don't know if it's necessarily a gender thing, but I'm going to posit that it is and see how the internet responds. What say you?
