Best Cities for Street Photography

<p>In your experience, what's the best or most interesting city to do street photography in? For me, it's far and away New York, but then to this point I've only traveled in North America and Europe. Considering population density, I'm thinking cities in Asia like Hong Kong must be high up on the list. What's your take? </p>

<p>Here's a ranking of cities for pop density, certainly only one factor a street photographer might consider:</p>

<p>http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/largest-cities-density-125.html</p>

<p>hi ray,<br>

i think this depends rather a lot on the photographer's ability to get the best out of any given situation. new york certainly has been covered the most, alongside maybe paris, but all the large european and north american metropolis cities have been photographed by many. contemporary legislation and extremism factors makes it difficult to shoot at times in cities like london and new york freely. so if you are looking for a little more freedom and perhaps more willing participants, eastern europe would certainly be a good start. here, while there is poverty, however, the occupants would not be looking at a camera and photographer for the first time. in most of the third world cities, while you would not have problem shooting, it is possible that one could stick out as a sore thumb.</p>

<p>Hanoi, Marrakech, Palermo and New York.</p>

<p>I've never photographed outside of LA and a little bit around San Jose but Tokyo always seemed to hold some kind of allure for me. Someday...</p>

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<p>contemporary legislation and extremism factors makes it difficult to shoot at times in cities like london and new york freely</p>

 

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<p>What's your experience in these two cities? New York is one of the easiest to shoot in, in my fairly extensive experience, and London has been fine for me, nobody has ever bothered me. Paris is the only city where I encountered regular resistance to photographing. So tell us what has happened to you so we can understand this better.</p>

<p>I love shooting in Baltimore!</p>

<p>Michael J Hoffman</p>

<p>So does John Waters. You're in good company.</p>

<p>Philadelphia and New York City work for me as street-shooting locales, and that's with either the 24-70 or 70-200 on the body--not exactly discreet gear. But at other times I'm carrying the three essential zooms, two bodies and two flashes, so it's all relative, isn't it? Working discreetly is a state of mind.</p>

<p>Hi Ray, NYC is the best but my other favourites are New Orleans,Dublin,Niagra Falls Canada,San Francisco,Toronto,Paris. All this talk about the difficulty of shooting in Paris has me puzzled on a recent visit I decided to abandon my normal discreet shooting style and test the waters just for fun. Mounted my largest lens(80 to 200 2.8) and adopt an in your face style.What a disapointment!.No reaction.I was quite looking forward to being sworn at by a pissed off Parisian. Same in NYC except for one poor fellow who I almost whacked with the lens after getting too close.Bill is right,working discreetly is a state of mind.</p>

<p>Paris; I've shot and shoot there extensively and not once have had a problem there in more than twenty years. In London I've only been a few times, will go there again come november, so far not a single problem. Berlin, great. Amsterdam, fairly small in comparison but great for photographing, especially with events going on. Rome, now there's a city worth going to just as Barcelona.</p>

<p>Funny thing though, although I've never been so far, I always hear a lot of you going on about SF as being something of a street shooters paradise but so far it's only Philip that has mentioned it.</p>

<p>I was chased down the street in Paris by a maid. I was warned off by someone who I think ran a group of beggars. I had a couple in a park flip out. And I speak enough French to discuss it, but nobody wanted to discuss it except the maid, who told me I was not allowed to photograph her.</p>

 

<p>I had one guy in NY get his feathers ruffled. The closest I shot him was from about 20 feet, which is almost an urban landscape shot. I tried to explain to him that he was in white and there was a silver car behind him that I thought might be interesting. May just as well have been talking to a Martian. In general though in NY, people are so much in a hurry and in their own little world on cell phone or whatever- the place is a piece of cake.</p>

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<p>Didn't have any trouble at all, except some old guy almost popped me with his cane, but I think I deserved it ;>}.<br>

Jeff, though I haven't been there, I've met some photographers that had traveled through Hanoi, and it indeed looks like a beautiful, interesting and colorful city. They had some really stunning work. i would love to go to Hanoi.</p>

<p>NYC - didn't have any trouble at all, except some old guy almost popped me with his cane, but I think I deserved it ;>}.<br>

Jeff, though I haven't been there, I've met some photographers that had traveled through Hanoi, and it indeed looks like a beautiful, interesting and colorful city. They had some really stunning work. i would love to go to Hanoi.</p>

<p>Hong Kong has always been my favorite....with Seattle in 2nd place. I'm looking forward to spending some time in Tokyo and Shanghai.</p>

<p>You should consider Havana.</p>

I have yet to shoot in a major city that has not provided good opportunity.

<p>boston is a pretty good place for street pics--boston common, chinatown, red light district all close to each other</p>

<p>Niagara, Copenhagen and Los Angeles </p>

<p>I second Baltimore. I do most of my street shooting in Baltimore after being cronfnted bt police in my home town.</p>

<p>I take this as a "where should I go?" question, here is where I have been the past few years. I have great shots that are hanging on walls in homes from each of these places so here are my thoughts...<br>

Washington DC (Home, we miss it) Just can not beat the beauty.<br>

Niagara/Toronto in January, wonderful.<br>

Keywest FL we live in South Florida now, but the water in Key west is unbelievable.<br>

Boston, amazing history great trip.<br>

Atlanta, too much traffic not a lot happening. <~ I'm sure someone will not like that.<br>

Chicago/St louis, fabulous time fireworks over lake Michigan.</p>

<p>Most places in Southeast Asia are good for street photography. Because it's warm or hot most of the time, and there's not much air conditioning, a lot of life takes place in public areas. Some of my favorites there for photography are Hanoi (Vietnam), Phnom Penh and Battambang (Cambodia), Vientiane and (in spite the tourists) Luang Prabang (Laos), and Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai (Thailand).</p>

<p>In East Asia, Seoul and Busan (Korea) are both good. Tokyo is a great place for street photography--it would takes months to explore even half the possibities. Fukuoka is also a fun city (prettiest women in Japan). I've only spent one day in Hong Kong, but it didn't really grab me. I'm sure there are more-interesting parts than the area I was in, though.</p>

<p>Pretty obviously New York. Never had a problem with bystanders, although after looking at shooting I'll find that somebody is looking into the camera. There are so many tourists here with cameras, performing arts people with exhibitionist tendencies, film shoots, urban scenery, as well as the self-absorbed in their own worlds, that it highly unlikely that you will get hassled while shooting. It also helps that street noise tends to obscure the sound of a shutter firing, as well as the visual noise of the sheer volume of people passing, both of which make it difficult to pick someone shooting out of the overall white noise.</p>

<p>That said, I still use my Contax G1 for the purposes of minimizing size, and the Hasselblad simply because people don't recognize it. Most people shoot with big DSLRs and often big zooms, which seems overly obtrusive to me, but whatever works.</p>

<p>Osaka-Kobe-Akashi; Kyoto, Tokyo.</p>