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A new street photography exhibition is opening at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center tonight.
“Views From the Street” is a curated show featuring 18 photographers – nine artists from Denver and nine international artists from the Women Street Photographers group.
The exhibition includes depictions ranging from Georgia’s rural Adjara region on the Black Sea coast to fresh interpretations of Denver’s urban scenes and is “infused with elements of playfulness and profound observation,” said curator Samantha Johnston.
“If you say ‘street photography,’ I think people automatically connect to New York City and to big metropolitan areas,” Johnston said. But what she enjoyed most was finding images that weren’t “just about the big expanse of a huge city… but also these small moments” captured by people who are looking – and seeing – a wide variety of life on the street.
We spoke with 5 local photographers ahead of the show. Here’s what they had to say about the artistic – and existential – elements of their work.
Jeff Tidwell
Jeff Tidwell’s work is cinematic, capturing the vibrancy of life in each frame. He’s drawn to candid photographs, though he does street portraiture as well.
He said he fell into street photography accidentally, unaware the genre existed.
“About 12 years ago, I went on a mission trip and bought a camera and documented that,” he said. “When I got back I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I love this’ and dove headfirst into it.”
Tidwell searches for “people on the street that are living life – not just walking, but actually encountering things that are going on.” He also loves something that’s often considered a faux pas in street photography: eye contact.
“There's something special about eyes,” he said. “When you're looking into someone's eyes, you're seeing a little more than just a profile.”
In Views from the Street, all of Tidwell’s images are shot through windows. He said this is a type of photography he finds himself coming back to year after year.
“There's a challenge to shooting windows and reflections,” he explained. “I love playing around with the reflections, shadows, layering within the reflections, and also masking, depending on where you're standing, to block some of those reflections so you can see what's behind the window.”
Tidwell said street photography often faces criticism for being invasive or — worse — exploitative. But he’s hoping that Views from the Street will open people’s minds to the genre.
“I'm hoping people can come to the gallery and see that this is truly documentation. It's artistic. It's done tastefully and done with respect for the people that we shoot.”
Armando Geneyro
Armando Geneyro’s images are detail-oriented and serious about capturing the subject’s humanity.
Geneyro is drawn to shooting candid and portrait shots around the city – especially in Denver’s Black, Brown and Indigenous communities. He’s captured Denver car culture, Nuggets fans celebrating the team’s championship-winning season and countless snaps of other moments, big and small, as they shape life in our city.
“A lot of times there's a lack of authenticity in street photography,” Geneyro said. “A lot of people treat it like they're hunting for images – and I think that's why it's been important for me to connect with people.” While many street photographers view themselves as documentarians removed from the scenes and the people they shoot, Geneyro craves more connection.
“It's been important to me to connect with my subjects more and build relationships, whether it be something that's just for the moment when I'm taking their photo or something that develops,” he said. “Black and brown community has always been important to me to document …There's a lot of lack of authenticity in street photography when it comes to those communities.”
In Geneyro’s view, taking someone’s picture is a social contract. “You're asking them to trust you, not to make them look good in some vain way, but to respectfully tell their story as authentically as you can,” he said.
In addition to street portraits and candid images of life in the city, Geneyro is passionate about concert photography. One of his three images selected for “Views from the Street” is a portrait of Chuck D from the hip-hop group Public Enemy.
“One of my passions is hip-hop. I love going to shoot concerts,” Geneyro said, explaining how he reaches out to artists’ managers to set up shoots when they come to town. When he saw Chuck D was coming to Levitt Pavilion last summer, he knew he had to be there.
“(He’s) a bucket list artist for me,” said Geneyro. “Chuck D is somebody that shaped my views – my political views – as a youth. I still hold onto a lot of how he views the world.”
Here’s one of the images Geneyro captured of the hip-hop legend just before he stepped on stage at Levitt Pavilion in 2023.
Anthony Maes
Anthony Maes is another local photographer working to document Denver’s communities of color. He has a bold eye and can give everyday life a punch of style.
He mostly shoots portraits, nightlife and the people he loves.
“A lot of my work is photographing people of color, especially in brown and Latinx communities,” he said, noting he doesn’t like the term “Latinx” but uses it for clarity. “Especially being Chicano and documenting other Chicanos, it's super important – our history and preserving that archive.”
He’s honored to have his work included in the Views from the Street exhibition and said the show means a lot to all of the photographers involved, especially the up-and-coming artists.
His three photos in the show all capture Chicano “happiness, growth, strength and community,” he explained. “And I'm glad to share these three images that really showcase who we are and what we're about.”
Yojimbo Jack
Yojimbo Jack’s work is sensitive – and often optimistic.
He’s drawn to relationships between people and gestures that reveal human character.
At a young age, Jack was diagnosed with autism. He said he has always been “very observant” and “a little more vigilant than others.” These characteristics drew him to the camera.
“I fell into photography because it does help me understand – from a neurodivergent perspective – people and social behaviors,” he said. “But also it helps me understand a lot of other things, even from an existential perspective.”
He continued, “A lot of people feel like the world's ending, but we still go out and we have fun, and we still have these intimate moments on the street.”
Jack said these fleeting moments can’t be articulated in words. “That's why I take the pictures,” he said, “I take pictures to find the hope.”
Here’s one of his photographs, an untitled image, that will appear in Views from the Street.
Matthew Steaffens
Matthew Steaffens’ work alternates between playful and pensive.
His images have captured fleeting moments of summer, life in the aftermath of the pandemic and an otherworldly celebration of La Catrina.
Steaffens got his start as a wedding photographer – which is approximately on the opposite end of the spectrum from street photography. But one photographic principle unites all of his work: light.
“One of my favorite things to do is just kind of hunt for light,” Steaffens said. “I usually find a scene or a light that I like and kind of post up and wait for the right people to come in.”
“Everything you see is in natural moments that I've found,” he said. “I'm typically a pretty introverted photographer, so I'm not approaching anybody or the situation.”
He admitted that street photography can be invasive, even if artists adhere to photojournalistic principles.
“I've always approached street photography like the golden rule – shoot others the way you'd want to be shot,” he said. “I try to think, if I'm a parent or if I’m having a bad day or I'm having the best day of my life, how would I want to be shot in that situation?”
At this point in his career, Steaffens said his taste is shifting. He’s drawn to subject matter that’s “a little bit more whimsical,” he said, “versus the gritty nature of the street.”
One such photo, “Dog, interrupted,” appears in Views from the Street. Steaffens said the photo captures a fun, atypical moment.
“The dog, in one sense, reminded me of Snoopy flying through the air. But when you take your dog for a walk, it's kind of like their time,” he said.
And in a moment he documented, the dog in question “seemed a little annoyed, perturbed that the owner stopped for the photo versus spending the time with him.”
Other local photographers in the exhibition include Josh Bergeron, Kenneth Wajda, Rudy Ortega and Stephen W. Podrasky.
International photographers from the Women Street Photographers group include Lisandra Alvarez Valdés, Melissa Breyer, Vanessa Charlot, Farnaz Damnabi, Natela Grigalashvili, Hiroko Hirota, B Jane Levine, Gulnara Lyabib Samoilova and Regula Tschumi.
“Views from the Street” is up at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center from Aug. 16 through Oct. 5. Opening reception from 6 - 9 p.m. on Aug. 16. Other special programming with local and national artists will take place in August and September. More information about artist conversations and walking tours here.
