25 Of The Most Powerful Street Photos As Selected By The AAP Magazine

"With the world shrinking due to the pandemic, I have explored the limited stretch of the Nice waterfront over and over again. I had expected boredom and endless repetition and found the contrary. The one mile of the world at my doorstep held all the magic I had been hunting throughout the world.
 
Looking more closely and feeling totally tuned in to my environment, many totally unexpected and wonderfully whimsical moments unfolded in my lens. From a senior swimming club celebrating Halloween in their own facetious way and medical students having back-to-school fun to a tricycle transformed into an amphibious flamingo float, the Promenade in Nice turned out to be a spot of renewed wonder. The sky shining in bright blue became the canvas against which the beauty of everyday scenes was set. The signature line of blue chairs looking out to the sea or the wall running along with the shore host many human moments that become fascinating if only we are ready to slow down our pace and watch."

"Shot in Hongkong in 2017."

"People enjoying last rays of summer 2021 at Tel-Aviv beach, Israel."

"Cities are often full of drama, some more than others. The intensity of the drama within city life is balanced by simple, less dramatic vistas that may provide food for thought, humor, comfort or wonder. I present some of these simple tableaux."

"Somalia has an emblematic role to play in any attempt to understand the refugee crisis today because this country on the Horn of Africa - together with Syria - is the state from which a large proportion of the population is fleeing in search of asylum throughout the world.

The internally displaced number over a million, and another million that have found refuge in neighbouring countries or in Europe; however, by virtue of a historical and geopolitical paradox, this country - the emblem of war on earth - has also become a place of welcome: over 30,000 Yemenites have already landed on the Somali coasts, in flight from the Arabian peninsula (where the Houthi rebels are at war with the Saudi-guided coalition) and have found refuge in a nation that for 25 years now has been under the anarchic rule of hordes of undisciplined soldiers.

The help these Yemenites are receiving from the Somali people is indicative of the desire for change afoot in the former Italian colony. From Bosaso to Dolow, this desire for change is palpable everywhere: girls from Mogadishu go to the beach; beauty parlours and games arcades are opening up; people want to start living again, and to do so they are prepared to stand up to the dictates and threats of Al Shabaab. The jihadist group, although in difficulty and rocked by an internal crisis, has not however ceased to carry out terrorist attacks and take carefully targeted action against journalists, government figures and international troops.

The climate of terror, the corrupt state administration, the formation of armed clan groups are all contributing factors to the disease that has been devouring Somalia for decades, but rising up against it today is the collective sentiment of a people that do not wish to feel alone and has decided to take its destiny into its own hands in order to conquer fear and look to the future."

"An Irish Traveller girl enjoyed cotton candy at a popular Travellers Fair in Carlow."

"By coincidence, I rediscovered 5 rolls of Tri-X 400, shot in a café in Brussels, that I thought were lost.

The 3 Portes café was located in the neighbourhood of Les Marolles on the Place du Jeu de Balle in Brussels. It was an everyday meeting place for local people that unfortunately no longer exists. There were a few typical cafés like this around the square where people gathered to socialize, drink, dance and flirt."

"Members of the French Navy's bagpipe band "Bagad Lann Bihoue" visit the Sphinx - October 2020. While working on a long-term photography project based on the city of Cairo since 2018, I've visited the Pyramids numerous times.

Before Covid, the site was usually packed with tourists and local vendors. The few times I visited during Covid, it was virtually void of visitors, providing not much more than a good opportunity for stock photos of the pyramids. However, on a random morning visit in October 2020, I was shocked and surprised to see a cluster of 20-30 red-doted hats atop the heads of a large group of pristine bright white-uniformed men standing out against the barren desert landscape. A candid shot of a rare visit made even rarer by the fact that there was almost nobody else around due to the circumstances."

"I live for spontaneous encounters that can only take place in the streets, looks, compositions and colors lead me to create portraits through contact and empathy. A woman blindfolding her eyes from the sun, a shadow flooding the edges of a fruit stand, a scarf carried away by a sudden gust of wind, these ordinary scenes become extraordinary fragments that make up my photos. I am fascinated by the contact with people - silent understanding, expressive gaze... The street is a constant spectacle of life."

"Young children train in martial arts and boxing in the old fishing neighborhood of Jamestown, in Ghana's bustling capital city of Accra. August 2021."

"The Greater Rochester area's payphones are part of a felicific calculus regarding the decision made to leave the payphones and the locations in which they are located. Frontier Communications were losing money from these payphones and decided to maintain them for the greater good of one of the poorest cities by the number of people under the United States' poverty level.

To many individuals, these payphones serve as a social marker or social indicator, and to others, they serve as a marker of crime. Such social markers often draw conclusions from the perception that one area is worse than another. Often these perceptions can lead to dangerous or ignorant decisions.
This perception that I witnessed firsthand drove me to educate myself on what was leading these individuals to their perceived notions of a place they had never visited before. I began to look at census maps and overlay them with maps of the payphone locations. What became apparent to me was the direct correlation between the poverty level and the payphones' location. The average income for these areas of payphones is under $20,000 per family."

"An elderly woman out shopping in Belfast feeds the doves, a sign of peace, in front of murals on a wall, which Belfast is famous for, of the U.D.A., the Ulster Defense Association, and the U. F. F. (Ulster Freedom Fighters) a cover name given to the paramilitary attack group of the UDA so the UDA would not be outlawed. The symbology on the mural takes the shape of a flying bat decorated with a cross, hovering menacingly above the three figures, the woman, a soldier in the mural holding a gun that appears to be pointed at an actual man walking on the street, down the alleyway toward the woman, who eyes him with a somewhat tense gesture. The troubles in Belfast erupted over divisions between Catholics and Protestants."

"An inveterate people-watcher, I find observing and capturing them with my camera to be a fascinating pursuit. I attempt to document glimpses of the normal behavior of humans in their natural habitat. To do this successfully, one must be patient and quiet, pick a good spot, be prepared, and remain respectful. This represents a small sample of my collection."

"A leisure walk around the city park spontaneously brought me to this relaxed guy lying at the center circle of a football pitch. There was a very prominent L-shaped pitch marking pointing towards him, so I composed with a lower perspective to bring out more dynamic tension of the leading line in this image."

"The San Gennaro Feast takes place in Soho, NYC, every year. Most of the concession stands and activities are on Mulberry Street in Little Italy between Canal and Houston Streets and on several cross streets as well.

The event is in September and lasts for ten days. Often there are dense crowds. My favorite shooting situation seems to be a crowded frame with optimal chances of layered photos that fill the frame. The density and flow of the people also make it easier to shoot from very close up with a wide-angle lens. I have been immersed with candid street photography for about ten years."

"Rockstar is part of an ongoing project without a deadline, called "Book of Characters". This idea of focusing only on the character and putting the composition aside was born during my recent search for something more human and raw, trying to find spontaneity and friction in my work in a more direct way and keeping the aesthetics and abstractions out of the frame. I almost feel like a casting director in public places."

"Shot in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. An old lady was resting under the umbrella, while a cobbler was doing some repair job by the umbrella."

"The Iberian Peninsula is a geographical concept formed by Spain and Portugal, two geographically united countries but separately by an invisible border.

"The Iberians" is an essay about my travels through this territory visually narrating the things that happen while wandering around Iberia, how to write in a sketchbook. The knowledge of a specific territory gives depth and meaning to my project, that is why my work is a continuous journey through Spain and Portugal. They are places where I explore the concepts of territory, border, light, memory and identity through the observation of the other.

In "The Iberians" I rediscover the common places, their people, their culture, their realities circumscribed to geography, in short, I explore the human condition."

"My interest in this proposal is the human being immersed in his daily life in public spaces, for his spontaneity and unconscious relationship in that environment. I look for in these visual experiences, the reflection of the possible oneiric or irrational appreciations, without losing the interpretation of their anthropological reality..."