August Portrait ≈ Street Portraits, Portraits of Streets {Paris Street Photography}

August Portrait, In All Senses of the Word © CHANT WAGNER 2016

Street Portraits, Portraits of Streets Series

This series explores the interrelationship of street photography and portraiture asking two questions :

1) Is it possible to offer a portrait unposed and captured so quickly of a stranger or strangers met randomly, i.e., capture a truth about him, her or them? 2) Can you portray a street like you would portray a person, i.e., can streets have soul ?

In this picture, although the flower seller looks almost like he is immobile, he was in fact busy preparing a bouquet of flowers while looking ahead at potential customers. Lilies frame his head as symbols of his trade. On a more humoristic note, he inadvertently reactivates the Roman heritage of Europeans by looking like an august Roman emperor whose profile could grace coins.

We will continue to weave these two themes: street portraits and portraits of streets.