Silhouettes in street photography: yes or no?

Ooh, controversial! It’s a question that’s been debated a lot in street photography circles over the past few weeks, instigated by street photographer, Stephen Leslie, who’s claimed that too many people are out to copy the work of the great Alex Webb, resulting in the world being flooded with bland, meaningless silhouettes. What do you think?

I do think that silhouettes have a role to play in street photography - there’s even one on the cover of my recent book (buy it here!) - but they’re not really my idea of mainstream street photography. For me, images which rely on silhouettes are easily forgotten and, after a while, they all start to look the same. On some of my workshops we talk about the techniques for producing great silhouettes, then maybe practice them for a few minutes, but generally leave it there. I think the world probably has enough images of a guy in a hat standing by the Shard.

The debate will always go on about what is and what isn’t street photography and I don’t want to get too involved. I know what I like doing and, whilst I’m keen to preserve the integrity of what I believe to be ‘street photography’, I think it should be a case of ‘live and let live’.

Do check out Leslie’s video - it’s worth watching whether you’re a fan of this technique or not.

So . . . pictures like these . . . are they hackneyed or are they okay?