Alex Coghe

Street Photography, my feelings and approach

“WHEN A PHOTOGRAPHER IS ABLE TO FILTER HIS KNOWLEDGE AND HIS FEELINGS THROUGH THE ART OF WRITING WITH LIGHT, HE WILL BE ABLE TO BE ABSOLUTELY PERSONAL.”

My style is marked by raw street photography images with the obsession of the decisive moment, but always with a documentary eye. I am a photojournalist, but I’m not afraid to call myself a street photographer, because many of my photos are made in the street with an approach and the aesthetic characteristics of this genre. The fact to call myself a street photographer doesn’t affect my creativity.

When I talk about raw images is because I am not interested to present pretty pictures, and never been interested to propose something reassuring for the observer. This is because I am connected with the streets and the streets that I cross often are full of harsh things to see, and I am not going to hide them.

I always photograph with respect. Respect for people and even for the place I am is fundamental.


I think that a good picture should have a mixture of good composition, effective management of light and then a good exposure. But it is not a purely technical discourse. Content is the soul of a photograph.

Street photography for me is simply my way of living and seeing the world. It is about going out with my camera always, even if I go to the supermarket, and capture what attracts me. Some people think it is a photographic genre. For me it is an approach and a way of living photography that allows me to never get tired of having a camera with me.

After all these years as a professional photographer everyday is a new day, just like the first day into this great thing called phoptography.
Street Photography is my life.
This is the reason why I still enjoy and I go out on the street with the same enthusiasm and desire of discovering things.
The fact of being a street photographer influences also my work as a portrait and commercial photographer, and you can see it also in my journalistic coverage.

Street Photography, the good street photography is something that documents, that communicates something about a moment captured by the photographer, and by so much also reveals something about the author of the photo. A good street is a revealing moment, a sublime dichotomy of the ES and the world around us, or at least the perceived one. With this reason you have to be demanding, with the moment captured, if there are true contents or not, if there is a composition worthy of this definition, if the street is genuinely represented and without straining, and for so much communicating that energy that only the street is able to reveal. The photography of street is to represent reality, however we can play with that reality and make it our own, revealing other meaning, perhaps another perspective.

The photograph of the street is direct, you don't stage anything and you have to worry about reacting very quickly, otherwise the moment goes forever. It may seem obvious, but Street Photography is a complex game. Only the photographer aware of this will achieve important results, through a lot of practice and dedication.

If you want to get good good what you want to know when you want to have a good technique and a good time for an excellent knowledge of the camera and the goal.

In addition to a true immersion in the reality that you are photographing, becoming sensitive, empathetic with the environment in which you are working. This is what makes you a different kind of photographer.