Street photography or Voyeurism?

   Voyeurism is defined as the derivation of sexual satisfaction by watching people secretly, especially when those being watched are undressed or engaging in sexual activity. This too, in a way could be related to street photography, no the public caught on camera in the streets are usually not engaging in any sexual act but there is still a sense of voyeurism within this act. 
Many street photographers enjoy capturing the public when they think no one is looking, so that they capture real people carrying out real acts, no one is playing up to the camera. This could be defined as the photographer gaining pleasure from looking at people who do not know they are being watched. 


   Some people could argue that street photography is not the same as voyeurism because although many street photography images include people they are not the main point of focus, the image would still probably have been taken anyway, if the people were not there. Voyeurism is usually about an individual person carrying out particular activities, street photography is not about prying into someone's life but rather about a moment in time, a split second where everything comes together. Yes some street photographers do pin point on certain individuals, such as Bruce Gilden who actively looks out for interesting people to photography, but this differs from voyeurism as he does not watch them for a long period of time and take many photo's. Gilden thrusts his camera into their face for a split second to get his image and then he is away, he is hardly 'watching' them or capturing them during an intimate moment. 

   So what is street photography? One way in which street photography could be defined is the exploration of the relationship between form, colour and placement, one moment is captured, what happens within the frame at that split second is what street photography is about. A lot of the time people are caught within this frame but as I mentioned earlier they are not the main focus, they are mere objects within a larger scene. 


   I feel that some street photography is more voyeuristic then others, for example Bruce Gilden is an example of this, where his photography is all about the people and he is very much so imposing himself onto them. Another photographer who's work is similar to this is Christophe Agou. 

Agou completed a series entitled Life Below which consisted of images that he took on the New York underground. This work too could be considered to have elements of voyeurism, many of the subjects that he photographed where unaware of what he was doing. I feel that Agou's work is more voyeuristic than Gildens, as Agou actually sat with these people and watched them for a while before photographing them. But still I feel that neither of these works are truly voyeuristic, no images have been taken for anyone's sexual pleasure. I suppose you could say that everyone has a slight trace of voyeurism in them, most people enjoy watching others and are quite nosy, if you saw someone's curtains open and could see into their living room would you look? 
In this sense you should call everyone a voyeur as we all on a day to day basis watch other people and enjoy it.