Diving into 28mm street photography
In his Journals, photographer Josef Koudelka writes:
“I try to photograph what doesn't exist. What exists so rarely that we are sometimes not even aware of its existence or that only a few people can realize its existence."
I deeply identified with this quote.
In the recent months I’ve been gradually switching to using 28mm for my street walks after using 50mm for about 4 months exclusively. Perhaps it was initially just me looking for a breath of fresh air or just its small size factor but slowly I began to create a strong bond with 28mm focal length.
Many photographers rightly say that with 28 mm you have to get close to the subject. I think this observation doesn't really represent its true essence. The spot where it truly shines is in its ability to capture a wider scene - a microcosm of human interactions. Getting closer is just a necessary side effect. The close proximity becomes more a byproduct then a feature.
The look I tried to achieve with 50mm where one frame tells multiple "stories", the image that appears chaotic but contains an order began to take a shape and a form and the switch felt like a revelation. The photos that dance between chaos and order.
The scenes captured through 28mm often don't look very close to what they look like in reality due to its wider view and compressed look which gives them a certain renaissance paintings feel. It makes people appear as if they live inside the picture itself, rather than the real world. This is the type of existence that I understood from Koudelka’s quote. The creative playground of the flattened perspective of 28mm focal length that gives photos almost dreamlike quality fully immersed me..
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