Street Photography Tips, Interaction, Travel, Guides
*A Shooter Files interview series featuring photographers from around the world with a focus on capturing Street Photography in their own cities and countries
Martin is an internationally acclaimed photographer based in Berlin, Germany.
This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken on Svobody Avenue in Lviv, Ukraine. This is the city’s main street and a great place for some Street Photography. It’s lined with architecture, restaurants, shops and has a nice square along the middle of the avenue that ends at Lviv’s famous Opera Theater.
While walking along the buildings on the side of the street, I noticed this small empty room. It was the only empty room on the street and I liked how the light was coming into it through the window. The yellow color was nice too so I took a few shots when all of a sudden a man came out from the door in the back. He matched the color of the room and gave me a look so I took one more shot as he walked towards me. He didn’t say a word, though, but just continued walking on by me.
My last stop in Ukraine was also many locals’ favorite city in the country. Lviv is mixture of old architecture, churches, coffee houses and uniquely themed shops wherever you walk. All this packed into an extremely walkable city. There’s a very charming and unique vibe to the city that people refer to as “the Lviv Spirit.” When you walk around, you feel something special.
* “Master Profiles” is a series profiling all the great photographers of uncontrolled life. Unlike the rest of the blog, I’m doing these in a straight profile format to make it easy for quick access to facts, quotes and knowledge on all the masters. I’ll also group them together here every time I add a new one.
Josef Koudelka (1938-present)
Czech photographer famous for his black & white work capturing the human spirit amidst dark landscapes.
This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken in Lviv, Ukraine along a popular shopping street on the way to Market Square. Wedding photography is extremely important in Ukraine. There’s wedding photo shops all over the different cities. It’s a big deal and big business here. Nowhere I went in Ukraine was this more true than in Lviv. The center of Lviv is packed with cobblestone streets, old churches, and beautiful medieval architecture. The atmosphere and scenery are perfect for wedding photos so every few streets you’re bound to run into a wedding shoot.
I was walking towards Market Square when I saw this bridal party in the middle of the street. The bride was getting fixed up by one of her bridesmaids, while the rest of them were sitting on a bench. I liked the juxtaposition with the bridesmaids sitting on the bench to the left of the bride standing up. I also liked the expressions and gesture of the bridesmaids. It was just before sunset and it looked like they were tired from a long day of shooting. There was something authentic about it, as opposed to the cliche look of wedding photos in Eastern Europe. So I captured this shot and kept on walking towards the square.
My time in Ukraine finished off at the western corner in Lviv. This is the city that most Ukrainians told me was their favorite. They told me about the coffee houses, themed restaurants and bars, the architecture, the culture and the special, old world charm some call “the Lviv Spirit.”
It’s one thing to hear about it, but it’s another to experience it and make your own impressions of the place. Experiencing a city through Street Photography can give its own perspective compared to just going as a tourist too.
So here are my first impressions of Lviv, from my personal Street Photography perspective…
*A Shooter Files interview series featuring photographers from around the world, with a focus on capturing Street Photography in their own cities and countries
Eduard lives in the east of Spain in Xàtiva, Valencia. He is also a member of one of my favorite photo collectives, APF.
This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken in Market Square in Lviv, Ukraine. This is the main square in Lviv, where all the action is centered. Coffee houses, restaurants, chocolate shops and more surround street performers and crowds of people enjoying this lively place. There’s also a popular trolley stop here that I was walking around just as the sun was setting below the walls of old buildings. I liked the sunlight on her blonde hair and there was something nice about the colors and tone of the scene, especially her through the trolley window. So I snapped the shot just as she looked at me, right before the trolley rode off.
During my time shooting some of the bigger cities in Ukraine, I made a detour to Poltava to visit my good friend there. Poltava has a population under 300,000 so it doesn’t feel anything like a big, urban city. Life is a little slower paced and relaxed. The scenery, while less modern, is beautiful and full of parks everywhere you walk. And while there might be less to do compared to the big city, there was still plenty to see and photograph.
I didn’t have any expectations, but ended up getting a good amount of Street Photography in because of how great Poltava was. It was such a great experience shooting in a smaller city for a change that I even wrote a post about it.
So here are 33 street photos I took during my 5 days in Poltava…
StreetHunters.net is one of the best Street Photography websites out there and one of the most unique things to come from the site are their Street Hunt Episodes. In these episodes, co-founder Spyros Papaspyropoulos produces a filmed Street Photography walk in cities around the world.
I was involved in their last episode in Istanbul, Turkey, where I’m currently based. You can check out more on that here and watch the episode too. It was such a great experience that Spyros asked me to be involved in their next episode in Rome, Italy. So I made a short detour to Rome during my Eastern Europe trip to make sure it happened.
