Street Photography – the short stories of street life
Amlan Barua
When my wife, Sahelee, told me that I have to write something in ENGLISH for the
Durga Pujo 2017 Poland, magazine, I was like...."OK [long pause after gulping down an
empty burp].....what shall I write about?" Sahelee, "Write about your
hobby...photography".
Come on, it’s only a hobby and I am not even a trained photographer. Above all I do it for
myself and my pleasure and I never thought of sharing this with an audience, big or small.
Of course I enjoy doing it but when the enjoyment is intended to be shared then the initia-
tor (someone like me) become cautious. He searches the internet, read blogs about the
hobby, tries to incorporate all the correct facts and know- hows of the trade, so on and so
forth.
But believe you me, I am not going to do any of that. I am going to write impromptu, un-
prepared and try to share my experience.
I have always loved photography, however, I have never thought that the street form of it
is where I will find my attraction. It was during the Easter holidays of 2015 that I went
out and took some random photographs. Later on that day, while exploring them, I was
left astounded because I have never captured anything like these before. Only people,
their faces and expressions with regards to their immediate surroundings. I became more
intense and started reading blogs and explore more about street photography and found
out that unknowingly I have ventured myself into the short stories of street life. Now I
needed a mission statement and found it in Roland Matos' blog - "To me street photogra-
phy came in a very natural way, because I have always been attracted to knowing more
about human social relations and interactions with the environment in general". Couldn’t
agree more with those words!