Abstract

Abstract street photography removes or reduces the literal content of the frame in favour of form, texture, pattern, light, or line. The subject is not 'a person' or 'a place' but a shape, a colour relationship, a geometric coincidence.

This is not a lesser form of street photography. Some of the most enduring street photographs — Saul Leiter's rain-obscured windows, Harry Callahan's snow-covered cars, Ernst Haas's light reflections — are effectively abstract.