Could you be guilty of shooting cliché shots? Most of us have shot them at some point and it’s all part of the learning process. However, the cliché shot doesn’t provide the basis for one’s long-term development as a street photographer; it’s something of a creative cul-de-sac and we must be able to navigate our way out of it. 

As a street photographer for more years than I’d like to admit to, I’d a say that my style has largely been quite ’in your face’ and nearly always done with a 28 or 35mm lens. Certainly not at Bruce Gilden or Mark Cohen levels, but usually reasonably close to the action. But I’ve found that recently my style is changing and morphing into a quieter type of street shooting - and it’s what I’d like to call ‘poetic’ street photography. So what does this mean, exactly?

I admit it: the magical city of Venice is not normally associated with street photography. It’s a place thousands of photographers visit every year to learn landscape or travel photography; they shoot the blue skies, the green waters, the reflections, the sunsets and the bridges. But rarely the streets.

In the latest episode of my Street Photography Podcast I explore the delicate question of ethics. Street photography ethics is a topic that quickly turns into arguments, partly because candid photography depends on spontaneity while real people carry the consequences. We start from the central tension: consent. In the UK, photographing people in public is often legal because there is little expectation of privacy, but legality is not the same as doing the right thing. Thinking in terms of implicit consent, post-shoot consent, and explicit consent helps clarify what you are actually doing when you raise the camera, and what agency the subject truly has in that moment.

Stuck in a creative rut? Hear how a grey Liverpool day sparked a new project, why Venice is street heaven, and questions about photography degrees, project doldrums and which cameras are right for you. Plus a spicy rant on “multi‑award winning” hype.

In my latest video I run through some definitions of street photography, helping you find an approach that works for you.