National Geographic Talks Street Photography with Wayne Lawrence

In this episode of National Geographic’s fantastic series "Exposure," you go behind the scenes with street and portrait photographer Wayne Lawrence who describes photographing the “real Detroit.” Lawrence describes the challenge of shooting such a diverse city, one that includes familiar, comfortable suburbs and rundown, abandoned spaces.

Lawrence describes his work as a continuing search for people with stories, and judging by his beautiful images, Detroit has plenty of stories to tell. “It’s always about the people. No matter what you say about the city, what the politics of the city is, the economy, all this. All this stuff when you get down to it, it’s always about the people.”

Here I am looking for desolation, and blight, and abandonment, and I find life.

— Wayne Lawrence

Below are a few of Lawrence's photographs shared on his Instagram:

While I'm not much of a street photographer myself, it's incredibly humbling and inspiring to see a new generation of photographers like Travis Jensen (previously featured here) and Wayne Lawrence creating original and breathtaking new work, creating with new (and old) mediums, taking chances, and pushing the art of street photography forward.

Who's your favorite new/modern street photographer? Link to his or her work in the comments below.

[via ISO 1200, National Geographic, and Wayne Lawrence]

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Austin Rogers joined Fstoppers in 2014. Austin is a Columbus, OH editorial and lifestyle photographer, menswear aficionado, pseudo-bohemian, and semi-luddite. To keep up with him be sure to check out his profile on Fstoppers, website, drop him a line on Facebook, or throw him a follow on his fledgling Instagram account.

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