Street Photography

Edge of Humanity Magazine

2 years ago

Photographer Rolf Roew is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of these images. To see Rolf’s body of work, click on any photograph.

“I AM NOT AN ARTIST, I AM A PHOTOGRAPHER.” (Helmut Newton)

That makes a lot of sense to me. Instead of speculating about what I am, I would much rather describe what I do. I take photographs. And I love it. My photographs are the expression of my personality, of course. And – thank God – my personality has all kinds of traits.

My first full-blown series was “Timeless Venice”. That is almost exclusively monochrome photography of historical architecture. The predominant mood is melancholy. The series certainly reflects part of who I am, but as I’m also quite a lively person, I need some playfulness in my photography as well.

So, in London and Tokyo I have continued my architectural photography (this time both color and monochrome), but my recent focus has clearly been on street photography. And Tokyo turned out to be exactly the field of experimentation I had been looking for. Just one tremendous playground for the street photographer. Many times, I just present silhouettes or people are out of focus or underexposed. I also like to compose complex layers of elements by taking photographs through windows and using the reflections in them. That way, I leave a lot to people’s imagination. I try to capture the atmospheres and moods I find, but it turns out that again it’s quite often melancholy.

Right now, I’m working on an extensive, spontaneous series of bizarre little buildings in Tokyo, that immediately appealed to my delight in defiance and stubbornness (“Architectural Anarchy”). And I am definitely going to do more street photography in Tokyo soon.

All images and text ©Rolf Roew