Street Photography by Brian Michael Barbeito

Light (of Country Road and City Street)

Street photography can take many forms, and its content and style can be interpreted broadly. This series of photographs exhibit the nuance of light upon the subject matter I feel inspired by. Sometimes this light is from the sun, the day, and easy to explain, while at other times, it is electric light say, in the carnival barker’s summer night or the small town’s main street mise-en-scene of buildings and walkways. I like to sense and possibly imagine that places have a secret inner spirit that is sometimes visible. The rural loam and solitary barn and what they say about themselves, their seasons, and their history. Or the fairgrounds in the evening, buzzing electrical bulbs in the late summer dark, people at ease and quietly excited and proud to be amidst their metropolis and the warm weather. Street photography in my ideal series of photos would not exclude what some might consider prosaic; the regular items and symbols of the world come alive. Cable wires, signs, old and forgotten windows, a long fence nobody thinks of one way or another. All do their job and have a place in the world. All were made for a reason. The photographer’s job is to document and take note of that, to shed light upon the subject matter.