Me, Myself and I
My name is Frank Meffert. I am a street photography enthusiast based in the beautiful city of Frankfurt, Germany. I shoot with a Fujifilm X100F and I really love this camera. I sold my Sony A7 and all the related Sony fullframe equipment and switched to Fujifilm, because it’s perfect for street in my opinion. Most of the time, I use a focal length of 35mm (full frame equivalent). I really like to travel and meet like-minded people around the world.
Street photography is my hobby, I work as a full-time software engineer for the German Air Traffic Control (ATC). You can find out more about that here.
Philosophy
I started to take photography seriously in 2013, when I always asked myself the question “How can I capture the feelings and emotions of moments in a candid and pure way?”. My first DSLR was was a Sony A58, which actually was a DSLT, using translucent mirror technology. Immediately, I started to take photography courses and taught myself the basics of light, exposure and composition. At the beginning, I did some long exposures, but it started to get boring after a while, because it wasn’t challenging enough. I always enjoyed taking pictures of urban sceneries and architecture in big cities when we were traveling. But those travel pictures had one thing in common: they had a lack of life and dynamic. This was the moment I stumbled across the genre street photography. There are several definitions of what street photography is and what it is not. For me street photography is about capturing life in public space in a pure and candid way. That doesn’t necessarily mean it has to take place in urban space, but urban environments are my personal preference.
What intrigues me so much about street photography is the fact that it’s fast and dynamic. You really have to focus on observing people in the urban environment, which is changing rapidly. It’s like you’re observing a huge stage where people, things, colors and backgrounds are the actors (Thomas Leuthard, Goind Candid).
My biggest challenge at the moment is to approach strangers on the street and to make candid portraits of them, because I have to cope with the fear of getting into trouble (i.e. discussions or even worse: getting beaten or attacked).
The following street photographers inspire me very much: