Street fashion photography is a genre all its own. And the best street fashion photographers combine high-fashion and street photography, taking the top labels off the catwalk and onto the sidewalk.
This article is the No. 1 location for inspiration if you’re interested in street fashion photography. We look at all the top photographers working in this genre, showing you examples of their best work and providing links so you can see more.
You can also see our article on the Best Fashion Photographers if you’re interested in more classical fashion photography.
When most people think of fashion photography, they imagine supermodels striding down catwalks or highly stylized photoshoots with beautiful people wearing elegant clothes. But street fashion photography has a more down-to-earth approach.
By combining fashion and street photography, designers and photographers offer a more relatable image of high fashion. They are still some of the biggest clothing brands, but the clothes are seen from a street’s-eye-view.
Sometimes the urban setting is used as a contrast to the expensive clothes. But in other cases, the street is the perfect environment for the clothes in question. The photographer is showing the viewer how the clothes and accessories are intended to be worn.
Street fashion photography also tends to be more inclusive. You’ll see fewer long-legged, size-0 supermodels, and more familiar body shapes. Often, street fashion photographers don’t even use models. They take pictures of well-dressed civilians, either posed or candid.
Photographer Bill Cunningham summed it up best; ” The best fashion show is definitely on the street. Always has been, always will be.”
Now we look at all the coolest street fashion photographers. The list is mainly made up of contemporary photographers, but we’ve also included some classic fashion photographers who used the street as their studio.
Coming from Harlem, Joshua Woods lives and breathes New York Street Fashions. For Woods, New York street life and fashion are inseparable.
He not only shoots individuals from different backgrounds, but he also enjoys capturing the eclectic outfits they wear.
A lot of street style photos we see out there tend to focus on high street fashion. But Woods is one of the few photographers out there who fixes his eye on urban streetwear.
As the world shifts towards urban fashion, he’s starting to gain the recognition he deserves in the industry. This has, rather ironically, landed him gigs with the high-end brands like Gucci.
Woods may be from this generation, but he has the taste for classic fashion photography. He’s embraced analog and is an accomplished film photographer.
Joshua Woods: Website | Instagram
Cass Bird is one of the most in-demand young photographers in the fashion industry. She’s already worked with iconic names, like Vogue, Dior, Calvin Klein, and Kith.
Bird’s photos are stylish and modern with a huge dollop of fun thrown on top. Locations play a big role in her photography style, as she uses them to build memorable editorials and campaigns. She’s an expert of the environmental portrait.
She’s even used street scenes for high-fashion marks like Chanel. But even when she’s shooting for the big brands, her humour still comes through loud and clear.
Cass Bird: Website | Instagram
This famed New York photographer pioneered street style photography decades before the internet was even a thing.
Cunningham worked for The New York Times non-stop from 1978 until he passed away in 2016. His column On The Street was influential for many photographers in the mid-2000s.
In essence, Cunningham was a documentary photographer who solely focused on the unique fashions he saw in the streets. He loved taking candid images of both regular people and celebrities in a manner that feels approachable to the masses.
Everyone who looks at his photos gets the sense that he doesn’t only shoot clothes, but the attitudes of the people he photographs.
It’s been almost three years since Cunningham passed away. But still, his work remains a template for many budding street style photographers around the world. Even though he’s not an “Instagram photographer,” you’ll learn a lot from looking at his images.
Bill Cunningham: Website | Instagram
The man responsible for the ever-popular blog Facehunter started taking photographs at art events in Paris in 2005. More than ten years later, Rodic is one of the most respected street style veterans around.
Rodic’s ability to mix fashion with culture is incomparable. Although he started out photographing around Europe, he now travels the world to capture the new trends happening in different countries.
His work goes beyond documenting pretty clothes and delves deep into the assortment of styles that are unique to the locations he visits.
As one of the pioneers in the world of street style blogging, Rodic has had the opportunity to work for the likes of GQ and Vogue Italy. In 2010, he also published the celebrated book The Face Hunter which cemented his place in the fashion industry.
Yvan Rodic: Instagram
Frank Horvat was a pioneer of street fashion photography. As early as the 1950s, Frank was shooting fashion in the street rather than in a photo studio.
The busy, chaotic, and often grimy streets perfectly emphasis the bold, elegant clothes. The models shine through the urban hustle and bustle like diamonds in the dirt.
Horvat’s style influenced street photographers just as much as it did fashion photographers. His eye for composition in busy environments is unparalleled, giving his shots a candid energy that brings them to life.
Frank Horvat: Website | Instagram
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Phil Oh didn’t have any background in fashion or even photography when he started.
While traveling around Europe, Oh started taking photos of people he saw on the streets for fun. But then his career then took off once he posted his images to his website.
Oh’s approach is less formal and rawer than other street style photographers. Although he’s not the most technically proficient, people like his snapshots because they look authentic.
His seeming lack of concern with composition makes his pictures feel you’re living in the moment.
Although Oh was still inexperienced at the time, fashion publications took notice of the images he posted on Street Peeper. Eventually, his eye for cool outfits gained him entry into some of the best red carpet events on the planet.
Apart from photographing celebrities for Vogue USA, he now also collaborates with other magazines including Elle and Harper’s Bazaar.
Isha Shah is best known as a music photographer, being at the forefront of the UK music scene. But her dynamic photographic style drew the eye of the top fashion brands, particularly in the sportswear department.
Shah’s streetwise style is the perfect match for sports wear for Adidas and Nike. She also embraces all things London, though I don’t just mean red buses and phone boxes. She often shoots in playgrounds with London’s densely populated areas, which are not exactly tourist attractions.
Her portraits are fabulous. But even though they are posed and planned, the urban environment gives them energy and relatability. She’s quickly becoming one of the top street fashion photographers.
Isha Shah: Website | Instagram
Blomst worked as a model before she became a photographer. In 2005, she found herself shooting stylish Swedes for the street fashion blog Stockholm Streetstyle, which she shared with her boyfriend. Little did they know that it would later on become a lucrative career.
Stockholm Streetstyle was among the first of its kind to appear on the internet. Within months, big fashion publications took notice of Blomst and her boyfriend’s work and invited them to work for them.
Not long after they launched their blog, they were getting invites to big gala events to photograph celebrities.
These days, Blomst still continues to photograph people around Stockholm. She also still poses in front of the camera for her blog as well as commercial work.
Caroline Blomst: Website | Instagram
Adam’s Sinding’s website warns you that “This is NOT a Street Style Blog.” And it does a good job persuading you to delve deeper into this American photographer’s vast collection of fashion photos.
Sinding sees himself just as much as a photojournalist than as a fashion photographer. He likes to photograph using a telephoto lens that almost feel like paparazzi snapshots but without the superficiality. What makes him different is that he tell stories instead of simply shooting well-dressed people.
He loves to capture people’s personalities and moments as much as he loves documenting pretty clothes. He also excels in shooting intimate close-up portraits where his subject look straight into the camera.
Apart from shooting street fashion, Sinding now also photographs editorials for magazines and ad campaigns for fashion companies.
In 2018, he published his first book This Is Not A F*cking Street Style Book.
Adam Katz Sinding: Website | Instagram
This LA street style photographer has a fraction of Instagram followers that some of his contemporaries have. But take a look at his body of work, and you’ll see why he’s one of the best in the field right now.
While most of his colleagues had to learn from scratch, Regas cut his teeth photographing runways and backstage scenes.
His experience and technical know-how make him a formidable force in streetwear photography.
Regas likes to create images that appear more editorial than paparazzi. Unlike his contemporaries, he is meticulous about the composition and the lighting in his images.
Not to mention that he shoots his subjects against beautiful backdrops of fashion meccas such as Paris or Milan.
Tim Regas: Instagram
Canadian photographer Tommy Ton’s main contribution to street style photography is his ability to foresee the trends in fashion. While other photographers follow what’s popular, he hunts for new styles that most of the public has not yet seen.
At 16 years old, Ton was exposed to the world of fashion by working for the designer Wayne Clark. And as he developed his skills as a photographer, he found his niche taking street style photographs.
His images are all about glamour and prestige. Although he shoots in urban areas, his subjects appear as though they’re walking on the catwalk.
Like most street style photographers, Ton has also collaborated with fashion publications such as Style.com and GQ.com.
He also shot advertisements for fashion powerhouses such as Louis Vitton and GAP among others.
Tommy Ton: Instagram
This former fashion director first gained fame in 2005 when he started taking photos of stylish individuals on the streets and posted them on his website The Sartorialist.
Since then, it has become one of the most prominent street fashion blogs. And The Sartorialist Instagram account is also proving to be even more popular with 1 million followers so far.
Schuman’s work combines the elegance of fashion editorials and the candidness of street photography.
His main interest is taking photos of regular people on the street. But as his fame grew, he was tapped by major companies to photograph celebrities and fashion icons on the red carpet as well.
In 2009, Penguin Press published a collection of his images also named The Sartorialist. Selling 100,000 copies, it remains one of the most popular fashion books to date.
After the success of his first book, he released two more anthologies, Sartorialist Closer, and Sartorialist X.
Scott Schuman: Instagram
These street fashion photographers have shown how eclectic and creative this genre can be. As we’ve seen, the street has proven to be one of the best fashion studios for photographers for generations.
Some fashion photographers put their models in urban environments, while others find civilian models organically in the street. But no matter which approach they take, the hustle and bustle of the street adds energy, realism, and dynamism to the photos.
Street-style fashion photos are found in all the top publications. But now these photographers are helping everyone to stay bang on trend by showing us the hottest looks from around the world.
In reality, it takes a lot of skill and dedication to master the art of street fashion photography. We hope this article has inspired you become a street fashion photographer worthy of this list.
