JULY 6: SEPTEMBER STREET JUDGE Sandy Dimke, who will be judging our competition has sent the following comments for what she looks for in street photography. 

 

From Sandy:

 

I consider Street Photography a genre of photography, not strictly limited to "streets".  The most important aspect in critiquing a street photograph is that it is creatively composed to draw the viewer into the story. Yes, the story.  Without a story, the photograph fails.  If it merely documents an event, then it loses impact.  The subject must be obvious.  Does the viewer want to know more about the person or the event?

 

People?  my feeling is that it must relate somehow to people but doesn't necessarily have to have a person in it.  a bicycle would work.  Again telling a story, other than that it would be an architectural photograph or possibly a landscape.  

 

Candid?  In my experience candid are the most compelling and make the viewer respond but a posed photo - "environmental" photo that relates to what is going on the in background could work.  Most posed photos usually look more like environmental portraits so there's a fine line.  

 

Accurate representation - I'm more of a stickler on this.  I want to know the story therefore if the background is blurred I'm not able to experience the story that the photographer wants to tell.  There certainly could be exceptions: if the subject was performing some action that told the story without a background but that would be an exception (in my opinion)

 

Dogs or pets - possibly.  I have a photo of 2 dogs cuddling and it has done very well in photo journalism competitions.  Again, the story is the most important aspect.  Are the pets doing something that is unusual or thought provoking?  It's not impossible but certainly harder to pull off for street photography.