SVEN DELAYE
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PROJECT · 2020—ONGOING

Instant Streets

A street portrait project built around a simple exchange: a photograph, a conversation, and a print given back to the person who stood in front of the camera.

Instant Streets began in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, as a response to one of the questions at the heart of street photography: what happens to the relationship between photographer and subject when an image is simply “taken” from the street?

Instead of photographing people without their participation, Sven Delaye approaches passers-by and asks them to pose for an instant portrait. Using a Fujifilm Instax SQUARE SQ20, he makes the photograph on the spot and gives the print to the person he has photographed.

The result is a growing collection of direct, unembellished portraits. More than a catalogue of faces, the series is an exploration of the encounter itself — a moment in which photographer and subject both take part in making the image.

The project has been featured by The Street Rover, which described the series as an ethical reconsideration of the relationship between street photographer and subject.

Read the full article in The Street Rover →
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