Street Manual

A field guide for street photographers.

by Luke Carey

Projects2 hours

Mannequins and Their Humans

The uncanny doubles.

Photograph mannequins and the people around them - the resemblances, the contrasts, the accidental rhymes between plastic and flesh.

How to shoot it: Shop windows at dusk, when the interior lights come up and the street reflects in the glass, give you plastic and flesh in one frame. Work the gap between the frozen pose and a living passer-by who briefly echoes or contradicts it. A standard lens keeps the proportions honest. The best frames are accidents of timing, so pick a strong window and wait rather than chase.

The output: Quietly unsettling and consistently funny.

Camera Settings

Any.

The Assignment

Walk a shopping street. Find five mannequins with human parallels.

Free Course