Intimate alienation: street photography as a mediation of distance

Abstract

Street photography, in the last few years, has seen a resurgence of popular interest. Digital cameras, online tutorials, and social media platforms like Instagram and Flickr have introduced the quasi-documentary genre to a new generation of photographers. But this street photography renaissance is not just a consequence of new digital technology; it is also a response to it. Street photography, the author argues, is about getting “out in the world” and directly engaging with others at a moment when more and more of our lives are spent in front of a screen. And yet, this getting closer to others is itself facilitated by a series of screens, whether a digital viewfinder, the LCD display on the back of the camera, or the laptop where photos are stored and edited. This essay explores the inherent contradictions that underlie much of contemporary street photographic practice. Street photography, the author concludes, is a fraught medium through which we negotiate distance from others in the digital age. As such, it is a potent metaphor for the intimate alienation that defines so much of our lives today.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the street photography friends, colleagues, mentors, and teachers who have opened up this dynamic genre to me and generously guided me or accompanied on this journey. In particular, I want to thank Maciej Dakowicz, Joseph Michael Lopez, Gus Powell, Valérie Jardin, Eric Kim, Jorge Garcia, Sebastian Siadecki, Aik Beng Chia, Franco Savini, Christopher Fanelli, Aji Susanto Anom, Irwandi, Soeprapto Soedjono, Bimo Pradityo, Gilang Braja, Sam Barra, and Widya Amrin. Thanks also to Drexel University for awarding me the Scholarly and Creative Activity Award that helped me purchase my latest camera and attend workshops in Hanoi, Paris, and New York.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Drexel University Scholarly and Creative Activity Award.

Notes on contributors

Brent Luvaas

Brent Luvaas is Associate Professor of Global Studies at Drexel University. A visual anthropologist, his work explores how digital technologies shape the way we see and experience the world around us. He is the author of Street Style: An Ethnography of Fashion Blogging (Bloomsbury 2016) and DIY Style: Fashion, Music, and Global Digital Cultures (Berg 2012). He is also an avid street photographer. His book Street Style is the 2019 winner of the John Collier Jr. Award for Still Photography.