I’m sure we’re on the same street, John. I hate trying to explain what makes street street, which is why I default to suggesting that people who ask simply study HCB and those who followed him in order to understand. On the other hand, I’ve discovered that there are many people who can study the great street photographers without ever grasping the difference between what they’re seeing in those photographs and the kind of photograph Ivo re-posted earlier in this thread.
The shot at the top of this thread isn’t one of Robert (Stamper)’s very best street shots. But it’s street, and Robert obviously understands what makes the difference. Ivo’s post is static and obviously staged. It’s not that there aren’t visual elements in Ivo’s post that could come together in passing to make a street shot, but the picture wasn’t made in passing, and it just doesn’t come off that way. You could jaw or write all day and never really be able to explain the difference. Yet the difference is there. Some grasp it; some don’t, and that’s just the way the world works.