Street photography; Art or voyeurism?

Why do I shoot the street because I am interested in people.  I go uptown several times a month, and have gotten to know many of the vendors.  In some cases I will stand off and shoot them as they cook hot dogs and serve drinks from their stands.  One woman has been selling from her cart for 25 years.  Sometimes I have even given the vendor a letter size print of a shot I have taken of him/her.  There are several good books on street photography.  One I really like is "Bystander, A History of Street Photography" by Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz.  One of the early examples is labeled 1846, so you see people have been doing this for a long time.



I was standing right next to this woman as we watched Alex Wagner, who was making a live broadcast for MSNBC during the Democratic National Convention.  Shot using the G3, with 14mm lens.  Converted to b&w using Silver Efex Pro.  Did she know I had taken her picture?  No.

I have lots of work both street and work that has been published, but I am showing more b&w than I have in the past on my site.  I am retired, and now shoot what I love to shoot and have been doing this for over 50 years.

www.photosbypike.com