Urban photography is not a genre persé, but has been making its presence in the photographic community as slang or as a sub-genre of photography. I believe that it can happen thanks to the clash (or not) of three genres of photography.
For me Urban Photography is compound by all the disciplines that can happen by nature or serendipity inside urban contexts. This is why I personally think that Fashion Photography goes beyond the Urban scope, but this is completely personal. I’ll be talking about the most basic definitions of the elements that I consider could build up Urban Photography.
Street Photography
It is said that Street Photography happens in streets, but for me, this is false, it can happen everywhere, from streets to kitchens, from barns to hospitals.
For me is about capturing the everyday situations of life. But of course, many of these situations, happen in our comfortable urban contexts. Urban Photography is vastly nurtured by Street Photography, and is a great exercise to connect with people in a more human way.
Documentary Photography
As well as Urban Photography is nurtured by Street Photography, Documentary Photography owes a lot to Photographic Essays. Cities have an unlimited amount of resources to create amazing essays. The only things you need to remember about photographic essays are two.
The first one is that they need to tell a story as a whole. They are narratively rich. And the second one is that any image, that isn’t enough by itself, has the large potential of becoming an essay.
Keep your eyes aware at all times; you can have a great photo-story in your hands with one single image. Exploit it in order to create a beautiful essay with deep meaning and content.
The best essays that I’ve ever seen, focused in extremely simple elements of urban decay, like the ones of Nadav Kander included in the monograph titled Dust.
Urban Landscape Photography
Landscapes have split into natural landscapes, and urban landscapes. Our presence in Planet Earth has become way more than obvious, and we have dramatically modified our geography in line with our urban necessities. Those urban necessities can be seen as a harsh evidence of devastating existence, but behind every urbex, there have been talented architects that have created beautiful things, and those things are photography worthy.
Light shifts dramatically in urban landscapes, and when buildings and clouds are contrasted, the results are beautiful. Every city has it’s iconic charm, exploit those landmarks with your own personal approach. Challenge yourselves to capture urban landscapes the way nobody does.
Whatever you do as Urban Photography, don’t ever forget about composition. Composition is known to be one of the most important elements in photography. The most tangible characteristic of photography if you like. Composition is demanded by the readers’ eyes, and is the photographer who decides how and which of the elements are inside one shot.
Urban Photography Inspiration
Here are a few more free urban stock photos from our free gallery, download them and study them: