I call my street and documentary work “stories.”

In documentary, everyone knows the plot, and you show how this version went down. Think weddings, corporate events, theater.

In street photography, you put yourself where something interesting might happen and react if it does. Maybe you have time to think. Maybe something already happened, and the story is evidence, not action. Maybe you get your head around it as it’s happening. Those are the hardest and most rewarding for me.

How do you plan for something you can’t anticipate? Build instincts. Try to reduce the time you need to find the relationships between people, backgrounds, and frames.

You may be completely, objectively wrong, and that’s fine—this ain’t journalism. Just by freezing motion, parts of a story can fall away, while others come forward, and you’re left with something new.

Almost like there was always something else, hovering under what you could see.