Why use an ultra-wide lens for street photography, and is the result still documentary?

Asked 4/22/2013

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Some street photographers use ultra-wide lenses very close to people, which creates strong perspective distortion. What artistic or practical purpose does this serve, and would images made this way generally still be considered documentary street photography?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

13y ago

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This style of photography using an ultra wide angle lens clearly goes against the ethos of documentary photography since it

  1. presents the subject in a unrealistic way.

  2. forces you to get so close to people that you influence their posture or expression, thereby altering what you seek to observe.

It is however, a perfectly valid form of artistic impression. The wide angle gives a surreal look to images by dramatically enhancing the foreshortening effect.

Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1375

13y ago

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An ultra-wide lens used very close to people exaggerates perspective and foreshortening, which can make images feel surreal, energetic, or intentionally different from more conventional street photos. That can be a valid artistic choice if the goal is expressive, unusual, or caricature-like imagery.

But most photographers would not consider heavily distorted close-up images to be straight documentary photography. Documentary work generally aims to show people and events in a way that feels faithful to how they appeared, and getting extremely close with an ultra-wide can both distort subjects unrealistically and affect their behavior or expression.

So yes, this approach can be accepted as street photography in an artistic sense, but it is usually better described as expressive, stylized, or impressionistic street work rather than pure documentary. Ultra-wide lenses are more commonly used in documentary contexts to include more of a scene, crowd, or environment, not to strongly distort faces or bodies.

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