Featured Street Photographer of the Week: Devin Stewart

I can’t get enough of Devin Stewart’s (a.k.a. Jetlag and a Camera Bag) street photos. This is one of those times where it was extremely difficult to choose just a few images for a post. Take a look for yourself and enjoy our mini interview.

How did you get started doing street photography?

“When I started getting serious about photography I used it as a creative outlet from my day job in the corporate world. I was drawn to street photography due to the lack of preparation and gear required to shoot on the streets. I didn’t need a studio, models, did not need to wait for the golden hour or even a fancy camera for that matter. I would just go and start shootin’ whatever interested me, documenting moments of time.

Traveling also spurred me on to really explore how people live in their day-to-day lives in different countries and I always make a point to take the back roads and allies, rather than the tourist beaten path. Currently my family lives in South Korea and there is always interesting cultural moments that need to be caught on film.”

How would you describe your street photography style?

“I just shoot. I study the masters of street photography intently (H.C. Bresson, Bruce Gilden, Daido Moriyama), but I spend more time reviewing the works of Larry Burrows, Tom Page, Henri Huet, Kent Potter and many more.

These names you don’t hear very often in relation to Street Photography because they are Vietnam Combat Photographers. I have the most respect for combat photographers, these guys and gals go in the bush (jungle) and shoot alongside the Marines, Army Infantry and so forth but with a camera not a rifle, with some film, fatigues and a good pair of jungle boots.

They produced the most awesome images that had ever graced printed paper while being shot at, injured and of course a lot of them lost their lives in doing so. I respect that, I could never replicate what they do. So when I’m shooting in whatever country I happen to be in and my feet hurt from walking all day, or I can’t find any good coffee or I start blaming my gear for some lame reason. I stop and think well at least I’m not being shot at and under a time line from an editor. It puts things in to perspective for me and I just keep shooting.”

What kind of gear and settings do your use when head out to the streets?

“I shoot all film and develop my own black and whites. I typically shoot with my Leica M6 TTL with a Zeiss lens. When I travel, I also carry a medium format Mamiya 6 with 50mm lens. I shoot with Ilford and Kodak films, Kodak for color.”

What is your biggest goal as a street photographer?

“This is a good question. I shoot for me and my family. I don’t try to please anybody with my images, or try to gain ‘Likes’ or followers on the social platforms. I love photography and I love traveling with my family and I like to share our experiences because we are very fortunate to have this lifestyle.

My children are pretty young and they have seen a lot of sites and countries. I’m not sure they will remember it all, but some day they will have all my images and then all those memories of traveling in their childhood will come flooding back.

They will of course remember visiting the Taj Mahal, but they won’t remember a group of folks huddled around a trash fire to stay warm at 6am in the streets of Old Delhi. No worries, Dad took a picture of that its right here.”

There is plenty more where these photos came from. I highly recommend checking out Devin’s Flickr photostream. Give him a follow and get inspired.