French photog, Philippe Echaroux, has really gone above and beyond with his guerrilla style street portraits. In this video he hits the streets with 4 crew members and made this short video of how he approaches strangers, gives them a quick description of what he's doing. If they want to take part, Philippe then signals his crew and they very quickly style the subject, light them and even throw up a nice background on a stick. The images turn out really nice, and I would love to see more people thinking bigger and more outside the box like, Mr. Echaroux, when it comes to street shots. Enjoy! via Strobist
Related Articles
26 Comments
Sounds great if you have a crew!
Jesi you don't need a crew to photograph people on the street like this. I did kinda the same thing: stop random strangers on the street, take them to the closest non-descript blank wall in the shade and snap some pics. Sure, with a stylist, lighting etc it turns out way better but it's fun nonetheless.
yep ask 39 and one will do it.....
Welcome to street photography, mate. I was shooting business workers in NYC for my finals two days ago. I was mostly shooting service workers/persons with poor English skills. My yes to no ratio sucked hard, but I made the yes's count.
Phil, seriously? I think like 80% of the people I asked actually said yes. The ones that said no were usually older people, I think because they're kind of scared of modern technology and social media, they're afraid what may happen to the pictures I take. Not judging BTW.
It's all in your appearance and how you approach them. I would tell people I was doing an assignment for school where I had to photograph strangers in the street. I was really just doing it for fun and the experience, but I think a small lie like that is justified as long as you're not abusing the trust of the persons.
Bram, I agree. I mean, with a softbox, etc. You would definitely need a crew. Of course you could get the same quality with a good eye, backdrop and luck in lighting.
Jesi, the shade is your friend :) Sure, the lighting isn't exciting, but it's so incredibly easy and just fine if the person looks interesting themselves.
damn, i want digital back. and quadro :)
ok so ,
street photography that looks like studio photographs.
But you run around the streets with all that expensive equipment...
ooookay.
Glad it works out for him.
+1
people run around the street all the time with expensive gear like that for locations shoots... only difference here is the models are found on location too. like anything you do, you just have to use common sense on what locations you choose.
yeah well because i run around with 3 people helping me when doing "street photography"... bollocks.
You may not but this guy does.
The video is not a 3D mockup; they ARE doing street photography with 3 people.
Looks like amazing locations destroyed by too much gear. simply stupid.
*guerrilla, not gorilla.
*throw, not through.
Haters gonna hate... Its too bad a few great photographs have to overshadowed by the process used to shoot them... Great idea! Im sure the folks that were pulled off the street had a great experience with this!
I bet the people who participated in this project loved it, specially the people who were photographed. Who cares if the gear was too much, expensive or what not, who cares if the great locations were not used as the background, instead, it was a silly backdrop! Stop trolling people! This guy did something HIS WAY! You can not do it better, but you are welcome to do it YOUR WAY!
More power to Philippe, more power to people who's got the balls to go PRODUCE something, instead of cheap talk.
Quick Note for the title: What he did here in this video is not Street Photography. It's is Street Portraiture, a side genre of Street Photography. The description of SP can be googled, like anything else.
+1
Flogging Molly :)
I did the same thing in a Glasgow bookshop one afternoon.
The result can be found here: http://eddcarlile.zenfolio.com/p657817841
wow :) I like your work.
Thanks so much for turning us on to Philippe's wonderful work. His website is great. He's quite an artist.
Is this, then, street photography or street portraiture?
Good way to get robbed in NYC...
I kinda agree....you have sick locations, why even use the background.....kinda pointless.....
also, did anyone else think the dude in the hat/sunglasses with the big beard looked like the dude from Boondock Saints??
Really going to have to give this a try, seems like a ton of fun while also getting to meet some cool people. I mean who knows who you will run in to and you might just make their day.