How to Make Funny Street Photos
Reading time: 5 minutes
Humour is deeply ingrained in us humans and as we all know it’s a very important emotion. If your friend called you up regularly just to moan or complain or be miserable, you probably wouldn’t be friends with them very long. We all need humour in our lives, funny stories, television shows, books, art and of course photographs.
In times of trouble and sadness, what is it that often keeps you going? It’s of course your sense of humour. Now I’m no scientist, so I couldn’t begin to explain the science behind humour and why we evolved to appreciate it, but I know it’s what I love to see in a street photograph because it surprises me and I know how tricky it can be to capture an original moment that isn’t cliché but that can still raise a laugh or a second of wonder.
When you start looking for them, you’ll notice the streets are filled with funny, happy moments. Families with their kids, street performers, best friends cracking jokes, drunk revellers - the list goes on. When humour is this important to us in our lives how could we not try and capture those funny, lighthearted moments that make us chuckle? Humour can be one of the hardest things to include in our street photography though, so how do we capture funny moments on the street well? And what kind of funny moments can you look out for that will make for great images?
Photographers that capture funny moments well
In the excellent street photography documentary Everybody Street, Jeff Mermelstein said, “some people think my pictures are funny, I didn’t realise that, and it makes me excited. It’s hard to be funny” and I couldn’t agree more with this. Making funny photographs is hard but that’s what makes them so rewarding, not only to capture, but for viewers to appreciate as well. If you’re not familiar with Jeff Mermelstein’s work then definitely check out his photography, he’s got such a great eye for funny moments and seems to have this wonderful knack of capturing them without any trace of cliché.
Another famous street photographer that had such a great sensibility for funny moments is Elliot Erwitt - famous for capturing those lovely irreverent moments, juxtapositions, expressions and animals with humans.
And then there is always the iconic Joel Meyerowitz’s street work which often shows these wonderful street tableaus laced with humour.
Also a few contemporary street photographers who in my opinion incorporate humour really well in their work are Josh Edgoose, Paulie B, and Matt Stuart, so be sure to check out their work if you’re not familiar with them.
A few funny things to look out for on the street
Facial expressions
Things out of the ordinary
Juxtaposition
Surreal situations
Bizarreness
Lovers doing something strange
Animals and humans together
Events & street performers
Things shown out of context
What makes a funny image?
As we’ve covered already funny images are hard to make, not just because really funny or strange moments are rare but also because everyone has their own sense of humour. What one person might find funny, another won’t find the least bit interesting. That’s what keeps life, comedy and humour exciting though because if we all found the same things funny or exciting then the world would be pretty boring.
It’s also very unlikely anyone is going to make a ‘laugh out loud’ photograph, so for the context of funny street photographs what I mean is images that make you smile or chuckle to yourself a bit or that make you feel a little moment of delight - you know when you’ve seen a funny image, it usually makes you happy.
Ultimately it’s not for you to decide how people will feel about your images. All we can do is find situations we find funny or witty or odd and then capture them. If we have that emotional reaction to the scene and capture it with our camera, it’s likely other people will enjoy the image and find it funny too.
Be wary of clichés & making fun
A quick note on clichés: it can be easy while in the pursuit of making amusing street photographs to fall back on clichés, for example a kid on their parent’s shoulders pulling a funny face. Fun, but is it funny? Maybe not, unless it’s a really good example of a funny face, or there are other elements in play like the reactions of strangers, surroundings, composition etc. But clichés are always a good place to start, get comfortable and confident shooting the funny images that might be a bit cliché then you will find the more original scenes over time. The more you practice the more you notice.
No one likes being made fun of, so in my opinion you should approach your street photography with sensitivity, you want to capture funny and fun moments, but you don’t want to ridicule people.
Have fun
Finding humorous moments is now right at the top of my agenda when I go on a street photography walk, but it’s only something that I’ve recently become very attracted to, so I’ve got a lot of work to do to improve my own way of capturing amusing scenes. I know it’s really important to be patient and going out regularly will always give you the best chance to get humourous photos in the long run.
If you’re having fun out on the street and approach the world with a positive good-humoured outlook, you’ll start to collect more funny street photographs. Next time you’re out with your camera really observe the streets for moments of humour, whimsy, oddness, anything a bit amusing and try your best to capture those moments - I’m sure your work will grow because of it if you do.
Of course there’s a lot more to street photography than just funny moments, so check out this article next which covers street photography in more detail: What Actually is Street Photography?
