Max Sturgeon: When Street Photography Feels Soulless
About this episode
Max Sturgeon discusses his unique approach to street photography and the emotional depth he seeks in his work.
Max Sturgeon on street photography, flash, and the emotion that layering leaves out. In this Eyeshot 50mm conversation the American photographer explains why he lowers the camera and waits for people to look at him before he releases the shutter. In this Eyeshot 50mm interview, Max Sturgeon, American photographer and winner of the Eyeshot Open Call in the series category, describes a practice built entirely outside the conventional route. Photography reached him through two other passions, cinema and travel, and after twenty years working on film sets he moved what was left of that creative energy into the street. He does not shoot at home, because nothing there surprises him any more, and he defends the position of the outsider without dismissing the argument for the local photographer. He breaks one of the most repeated rules of the genre on purpose: he frames through the viewfinder, lowers the camera, and waits for eye contact before he takes the picture. He calls street photography soulless when it stacks people and layers with no emotion underneath. He talks about the flash he swore he would never use, and about the trap it sets for the photographers who do. He admits…
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