Types of street photographer: the sniper

Unlike the invasive street photographer, who likes to pounce on his unsuspecting victims as soon as he gets the chance, the sniper type generally keeps a safe distance. In order to maintain that safe distance he uses photographic equipment from which a super zoom or, alternatively, a huge telephoto lens, literally, stick out.

The ones I usually find on the streets generally look for a good location, I suppose in accordance with the focal length they are going to use, and from there they aim at passers-by in the purest style of a sniper or a hunter on the stalk of a piece of big game.

I have heard Bruce Gilden himself often repeat Robert Capa's famous phrase: "If a picture is not good enough, it's because you weren't close enough". If Bruce Gilden took this premise to the extreme, at least he was consistent. The sniper is looking for a shortcut. Close-ups yes, but from a safe distance. Evidently, and this is a personal appreciation, the photographs resulting from this practice generally tend to show the results of this incongruity.

There are also hybrid street photographers who use both sniper-type equipment and the invasive technique. I shared a walk with one of these photographers in Havana. I remember the terrified faces of certain people when they suddenly perceived that they had a cannon pointed at point blank range in the hands of a guy ready to shoot them without mercy. I had no choice but to warn him that acting as he did in a place other than Havana could cost him dearly in terms of physical integrity. Not to mention the number of photographic opportunities we missed when people saw him approaching with his bazooka in his hands.