Interviews

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Photo by Constantinos Arvanitis

Introduction

We have been blown away by the amount and quality of submissions to the Street Hunters Monthly Theme Contests, and each month has brought a new cavalcade of eye candy for us to behold. Roy Rozanski, Kristof Vande Velde, Christoph Wuzella, Sreejith Kaviyil, Zlatko Vickovic and Svilen Nachev have given us the cream of the crop through for the first six months, and they have clearly set the tone. With each month, the act of choosing becomes a more blissfully arduous task because of the standard set by the previous winners and the influx of quality work.

The calendar turned to July, the third episode in a five-month stretch where the Monthly Theme Contests will be focused on colors. As the weather started heating up, the theme got cool with color blue. But were the submissions to be cool as well?

Indeed they were! We were hit with a blast of blue, and once again, tough decisions had to be made. And once again, as we climbed into the ring to take blow after blow of blue, we knew the winner had to be more than just a snap with blue in it. Constantinos Arvanitis brought it all together with his winning shot, giving us his work that not only nailed the color, but also married it with impeccable timing and clever composition.

Svilen Nachev Street Hunters interview cover

Introduction

The Street Hunters Monthly Theme Contests have produced genuinely exceptional winning shots. We here at HQ expected great work, and, quite honestly, this year’s crop of winners have exceeded our expectations. Through the first five months, Roy Rozanski, Kristof Vande Velde, Christoph Wuzella, Sreejith Kaviyil and Zlatko Vickovic have not only cleared the bar, but also raised it! Needless to say we get a ton of submissions every month, and the work of these previous winners has made us better judges for it!

June found us in the second instalment of a five-month stretch where the Monthly Theme Contests will be focused on colors. May kicked off the run with the color green, which was utterly crushed by Mr. Vickovic. June’s theme was the color red, the most passionate of the primary colors. We were anxious to see if we got flooded again with quality images.

Well, we were swept away by a River of Red! But like we said before, the photo really had to stand out within the constraints of the color theme. A photo with just that color element would not be enough! The cream does indeed rise to the top, and for the month of June, Svilen Nachev has ascended to the peak with a cracking, clever shot that features one boastful banty with a bold red beard!

Zlatko Vickovic Eyes Without the Face
'Eyes Without the Face' by Zlatko Vickovic

Introduction

Month after month, we here at Street Hunters have been wonderfully overwhelmed with a flood of great submissions for our Monthly Theme Contests! The contests from the first quarter of 2017 have yielded four truly outstanding winning shots from Roy Rozanski, Kristof Vande Velde, Christoph Wuzella and Sreejith Kaviyil. Four months. Four winners. Four great shooters from four different places on the globe. So what would May bring? Would we be showered yet again with great work?

May begins a five-month stretch where the Monthly Theme Contests will be focused on colors. From May through September, each month’s theme will be one specific color. It may seem simple enough, but the challenge itself raises the bar. The photo really has to stand out within the constraints of the color theme. A photo with just that color element would not be enough.

May’s theme was the color green, and, appropriately enough, we were presented with a bumper crop of green goodness! There was a multitude of shots with clever use of the color, popping off the screen and grabbing our attention. But one shot was more than just a poppin’ o’ the green. More than clever. Ladies and gentlemen, Zlatko Vickovic won this month with an explosion of green!

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Sachin Khona interview cover

Streethunters.net provides a great platform for showcasing the work of many street photographers from all around the world, be they famous and well known masters,  up-and-coming photographers, or even lesser known lights who have flown under the radar. Through sharing their work online in our Facebook group on Flickr, and by participating in our monthly themed street photography contests, photographers have a great opportunity to get their work out there and give us as editors and you our readers and fellow street photographers the fabulous experience of being able to enjoy great street photos every single day. But even with all these ways of sharing your work with us, there’s still a lot of great street photography work that we don’t get to see, which is why we always welcome you guys dropping us an email from time to time, letting us know what you’re up to, and showing us some of your street photos. And that’s exactly what Sachin Khona, a Vancouver based wedding photographer and member of street photography collective The 8 Street, did, when he asked us to take a look at the street photos he’d produced after his month in India. We really enjoyed looking through Sachin’s India street photos, and we figured that many of you would too, so we asked Sachin if he’d like to take part in an interview to discuss his street photography, and much to our delight, he said yes! So get ready to dive into Sachin Khona’s exclusive interview with Streethunters.net…

Sreejith Kaviyil interview cover

Introduction

The winning shots for The Street Hunters Monthly Theme Contests have been outstanding! Each month, each theme, has brought us a slew of great submissions and choosing finalists has become a most  delightfully arduous task. Christoph Wuzella knocked us out in March with his Flash theme submission. Kristof Vande Velde took us into the Surreal with his otherworldly February submission. And Roy Rozanski crossed us up properly with his Zebra Crossings submission for January. So, what would April bring?

The theme for April was Juxtaposition, and again we were showered with some killer submissions! Juxtaposition, as defined by Merriam Webster, is “the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side often to compare or contrast or to create an interesting effect.” The clever capture/use of juxtaposition can truly make a street photograph. That being said, there was cleverness abound within April’s submissions. However, there was one shot that brought it home with *multiple* juxtapositions! The one who prepared the buffet of juxtaposition? That would be Sreejith Kaviyil!

Christoph Wuzella interview cover

Introduction

The Street Hunters Monthly Theme Contests for 2017 are off to a fantastic start! January and the Zebra Crossings theme featured Roy Rozanski’s superbly timed shot. February’s challenging Surrealism theme was seized by Kristof Vande Velde and his otherworldy blue-flame-head photo. March threw down the gauntlet with a theme challenge that is near and dear to us at Street Hunters HQ… Flash Street Photography!

Yet again, we were flush with quality entries and choosing a winner was no easy task, even when we narrowed the finalists down to three. Flash is becoming more and more popular in street, you can see posts featuring it appearing more frequently on social media feeds and online galleries and portfolios. And Flash Street Photography has been covered quite often here at www.streethunters.net. We wanted to see a great street photo that was blasted with light and punched us right in the eyes. We got punched, alright, and it was Christoph Wuzella who delivered the knockout blow!

Kristof Vande Velde interview cover

Introduction

The Street Hunters Monthly Theme Contest is working its way up through the gears, and some great images have been paving the way in the first two months of this year. Roy Rozanski set the tone with his winning shot for January’s Zebra Crossings theme. February served up another intriguing theme… surrealism!

There were several quality entries, and it was another tough selection. We wanted readers to knock us off our rockers a bit and they delivered! With street photography becoming more and more popular, the need to get weird on occasion is a necessity. Though there’s nothing wrong with “classic” street, so to speak, surrealism is a component that aids in keeping the genre fresh. After the dust settled, we selected a stunning shot from an extremely talented Belgian, Mr. Kristof Vande Velde!

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Tarik Ahmet Streethunters.net interview cover

We’re in a privileged position here at Streethunters.net in that we’re lucky enough to see a lot of different street photos from loads of photographers all the time. Just a quick browse through our Flickr or Facebook group gives you an example of the great work we get to enjoy on a daily basis. But what really gets our creative juices flowing is when we see a street photographer who not only pushes themselves out of their comfort zone, but also goes a step further and creates a set of photos that combine together to form something cohesive and powerful. We’re talking of course about street photographers creating projects. The particular project that caught our interest in this instance came from Tarik Ahmet, who dropped us an email to tell us about his experience on an epic 24 hour street hunt on the London Underground. Intrigued? You bet we were! Read on for our Streethunters.net interview with Tarik discussing the finer points of his crazy project.

Roy Rozanski January Winner Interview Cover

Introduction

The new year is underway, and The Street Hunters Monthly Theme Contest has a dozen new themes to partner up with it’s ration of months. At the beginning of the year, we announced changes in the prizes to be awarded to the contest winners. Instead of giving away COSYSPEED Camslinger bags, we’re giving the winner exposure… something every photographer enjoys! Who doesn’t want to have their work seen by more people? Our site has between 1500 and 2000 visitors a day and our YouTube channel is over 10,000 subscribers strong! The exposure comes in three ways. First, the announcement post, which proclaims the winner of the contest and showcases their winning image. Second, an interview feature with the photographer. And third, a YouTube slideshow of their work. The feature posts will remain on the web for as long as Street Hunters exists!

To kick off the new Monthly Theme campaign, we chose Zebra Crossings for January. We were looking for clever compositions using zebra crossings, and did we ever get some! In the end, a photographer who is no stranger to the Monthly Theme contests came away with the victory. In fact, he won just four months prior in September with his entry into the “Tattoo” theme ! AND, his photograph, “Untitled” was our Street Photo Of The Week 11/09/16! Ladies and gentlemen, Roy Rozanski is a photographic force to be reckoned with.

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Jonathan Higbee Street Hunters interview 8

Here at Streethunters HQ, the radar is always on and it is busy. As you probably know, there is an unrelenting flow of images coming in for landing at our social sites, and we’re always looking out for images touching down on remote fields as well. The internet begets crowded skies with street photography’s surging popularity, but every so often, our bleary-eyed air traffic controllers are jolted to attention by an image stronger than a cup of hot, strong joe.

Last fall, Jonathan Higbee shared such an image and our radar lit up. His photograph, ‘Times Square’ was our street photo of the week on October 30  and we weren’t the only ones to pick it up. The photograph earned Higbee the grand prize of the 2015 World Street Photography Awards and his winning shot is also the cover image for WSP’s recently released third annual book. The book is being released in conjunction with WSP’s exhibition at the Gudberg Nerger Gallery in Hamburg, Germany.

However, Jonathan Higbee is defined by more than his once-in-a-lifetime shot. At his core, the photographer is a New Yorker who has channeled his passion and love for the city into his own colorful, poetic style. One look at his portfolio and it’s plain to see that Jonathan Higbee, the street photographer, is also an artist. One with unwavering patience and a tireless work ethic. The same can be told from portfolio samples of his fine art and urban abstract/minimalism work. And it’s not just color and the moments that make Higbee’s work stand out. The shooter has a keen eye for the abundance of geometric delicacies the city can serve up.