A historical cross-examination through the lenses of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alex Webb, and Daido Moriyama.
L - R : Daido Moriyama, Alex Webb, and Henri Cartier Bresson. All images are copyright of artists or their estates
Preface:
My choice to write on this topic is two fold. One, on a few occasions I have been asked by up and coming photographers if I think there is a “best lens”, but beyond my personal experience with this question, it was brought to my attention by a friend, that as far as photography goes, “What’s the best street photography lens” is of the most googled topics on the internet. At least the photography internet.
And that question “what is the Best Street Photography Lens” has sprung a flood of articles, vlog post, and and message board threads by a myriad of well intentioned “experts” asserting that surely one lens could be the best. Most of these articles are ridiculous click bate dedicated to either getting you to click a sales link for this years new model blah blah blah, or they are some self-important dip shit claiming that they alone posses the knowledge of a “best” in a subjective medium… if you can’t tell by my condescending tone think they are fucking wrong.
Hence, I decided to approach this oh-so-googled topic from a historical context comparing the work of three masters each of whom tended to gravitate toward one of the three most common focal lengths in street photography: the 28mm, 35mm, and 50mm.
Spoiler alert: there is no best, and don’t trust any asshole who tell you there empirically is.
Now without further ado, three focal lengths, three legends, and the advantages of each.
1. Henri Cartier-Bresson
and the 50mm
Rightfully considered the godfather of street photography, Bresson was notorious for his distain of equipment. He hated the darkroom, didn’t crop because he hated the darkroom, and shot almost all his entire oeuvre on a Leica with a 50mm lens. Partly because he wanted to know how it would look and have the gear get out of the way.
However, his importance in the history of photography has also made his chosen focal length an inescapable choice for generations. As many of you may have heard, 50mm is often claimed to have the greatest equivalence to the focal range of the average human eye, so in effect to shoot on a 50mm lens is to show how YOU see the world.
On top of being an approximation of the photographer’s eye, the 50mm does offer some very serious advantages. The inherent lens compression of a 50mm does make for really lovely portraits which can feel really natural and quite intimate, and yet when turning the lens to try and capture a moment in the street the telephoto nature of the lens allows a greater ease of framing out elements of a scene. This is a particular advantage when you want to force the viewer into looking at certain detail, or scenario inside a larger environment.
This was a thing Bresson was masterful at. Finding the right street corner, or the perfect moment of human interaction and making a photograph in the midst of some other chaos. The 50mm is all about details, so for those enamored with the small things that the rest of the world passes by, the 50mm might be your best bet.
2. ALEX WEBB
and the 35mm
No human has ever made more perfectly balanced, seemingly complex frames than Alex Webb. Yeah, I said that as a fact. Find me someone you think is better, and maybe I'll change my opinion. A true master of not only color contrast and balance, but creating incredibly rich visual tapestries that the eyes can continuously wander across. Often shooting deeper apertures to allow the eyes to fully take in the scene, he seems to have a knack for knowing where to be to get multiple strangers all in the same frame doing something unique.
In an interview he once described himself as “Sisyphus with a Leica” - the 35mm lens and a massive amount of patience are his chosen tools in pushing the rock up the hill. And considering his penchant for complex imagery the 35mm is the ideal lens.
What the 35mm offers is a slight distortion from our natural visual landscape. Slightly wider than our natural field of view it shows us more of the world, but without feeling too off. Its still natural feeling, but with a little extra character.
The trade off is, with many wide angle lenses, images taken from a distance often feel really flat. So, the key with any wide angle lens, is it forces you to get close to the subjecting order to create separation or visual drama. You as the photographer can’t work form afar, but must be deeply in the scene. However, if your social anxiety can handle this immersion, the increased proximity to the subject coupled with the wider perspective can create truly striking images.
This is both true of 35mm portraits were you see the subject but also a little bit more of the world around them, and obviously has a huge advantage for capturing the streets. It's these reasons, and the work of individuals like Webb that have made the 35mm lens a go-to for street shooters for decades.
3. Daido Moriyama
and the 28mm
The self proclaimed “hunter of moments” Daido Moriyama is an absolute legend in the street photography world, and, along with Araki, perhaps one of the most famous Japanese photographers on Earth. Which is quite a feat for a a nation with a deep tradition of producing remarkable photographic talent.
Moriyama is the ultra wide point and shoot king. His work is graphic, immersive, surreal, and staggeringly gorgous. He shot most of his work on a Ricoh GR ultra tiny point and shoot camera, which allowed him to not only shoot really fast, but not draw too much attention to himself.
The GR came standard with a 28mm, which immediately gives a slightly abstracted experience. If the 50mm is how the eye sees, and the 35mm is just wide enough that it's interesting, but not quite weird, then the 28mm is how an Alien’s eye would behold the world. Most 28mm vignette - they distort and warp, particularly near the edges. It's also so wide that often everything is in some degree of focus, unless you have a super expensive lens or get insanely close, which feels more like an Emmanuel Lubezki film. The 28mm lens is surely (in my opinion) the most surreal lens of the bunch.
Moriyama himself said he strove for a sense of abstraction in his work rather than a clinical document of life, and the 28mm is the perfect tool for that. Though it's so wide you see much of the world, it's also so wide it very much feels otherworldly. Frames will either be so filled with information its overwhelming or up close portraits feel super distorted. This is an effect Moriyama used with such mastery that his images are still as arresting today as they were the moment he hit the shutter button.
For many the 28mm is a beloved look, but because of all its character and its particularities its a focal length that requires time and practice to learn to use well. But those who master it, the 28mm can stop you in your tracks with the beauty of what they shoot.
Epilogue:
The reason I chose to write this article was I hope that anyone asking the question of “what is the best?” will consider reframing the question to “what is the best for me?” I think experimentation is vital. Bresson himself was quoted as saying, “Your first 10,000 images are your worst.” So part of the game is just shooting a lot to learn and grow in how you make photographs.
I hope in showing you three masters, each of whom tended to use a particular focal length, you can see the stylistic difference that each lens can offer to your street photography. I think your own personal aesthetic preferences will likely govern some of your choices, but your personality might dictate more than you think.
Here are some questions to consider when picking the best street photography lens for yourself:
Do you thrive on being deep in the scene, or do you notice little details?
Do you want to show things more how they look to you, to do you want to distort the world so it's more about feeing?
Do you want to observe from afar or get up close?
All those questions will change which lens is works for you.
In the end there is no best, there is no right or wrong; but I think by studying masters we can learn a lot about what we love, and how we’d like to shoot. But at the end of the day, nothing replaces time spent behind the lens.
So I guess, all I really have to say is never leave home without a camera and don’t listen to the internet. Just go shoot more photos.
P.S. if you like the work of the photographers above here are some places you can buy their photo books.. no I don’t make money off this.. I just really love art books and think they are actually the best way to learn.