They wear out shoe leather. They talk to strangers. They move through our shared spaces like ballerinas.
For them, the public is the source of their art.
San Diego street photographers like Ariana Drehsler spend their days depicting ordinary life. Drehsler is also a photographer for Voice of San Diego.
“I actually started doing some street photography before I got into photojournalism,” she said. ”Just walking around taking photos.”
Street photography is one of the oldest photographic styles, according to Chantel Paul, the galleries and exhibitions coordinator for San Diego State University.
”Street photography is a style of photography that quite often is referred to as something that is really capturing the energy or essence of life on the street,” she said.
The desire to document San Diego comes out of a sense of pride, she said.
”I think the fact that people are working in our city in this way, it also elevates San Diego in a way,” Paul said. ”To say people want to share what the city is, they want to create a portrait of the city.”
Jason Santiago, another street photographer, said this style is a cousin to photojournalism.
”Street’s like photojournalism without purpose,” he said. ”You know, I’m just documenting everyday life.”
Drehsler said even on assignment, sometimes the street gives her something beautiful.
”Months ago when I photographed the Point In Time count I saw this woman at 7 a.m. feeding the birds, the light was amazing and you see all these birds,” she said.
Street photography is about the public and it’s made in public. So in some ways, it is public art. And it can be seen by the public on social media sites like Instagram, Paul said.
”You can filter your feed to look at certain hashtags, to find certain accounts, and then you can keep following those, there’s a huge community aspect to Instagram,” she said.
