Barry Ashenhurst – Breaking Conformity in Street Photography

Barry Ashenhurst is a retired photojournalist based in Newcastle, Australia, who worked for some of the country’s premier sporting and lifestyle magazines. After decades of professional work—from motocross tracks to caravan publications—Barry transitioned to street photography, trading his heavy camera bags for a single Sony A7 and 35mm lens. His article “Feeding the Fire” will be published November 5th in Street Photography Magazine.

Barry’s journey into photography began in his family bathroom darkroom, eventually moving to his parents’ dog kennel when his mother tired of the smell of chemicals. His approach to breaking into magazine work was unconventional but effective: “I’ve never approached a magazine and said, this is who I am, this is what I can do,” he explains. “I’ve always just sent them a complete product, like a complete story, with the pictures, with captions set out in the editorial style that that magazine uses.”

Today, Barry is concerned about what he sees as a lack of originality in contemporary street photography. He’s particularly critical of the trend-driven nature of the genre: “There’s a conformity, a strangling conformity in a lot of this stuff. I think they get onto someone and they see what he’s doing. So now everyone’s photographing silhouettes.” Rather than following YouTube tutorials or copying popular photographers, Barry advocates studying the masters—combat photographers like Don McCullin and documentary photographers like Sebastião Salgado.

Drawing on wildlife photographer David Yarrow’s criteria, Barry believes great photographs share three qualities: “Number one, you probably can’t take it again. Number two, it’s interesting enough to look at for a long time. And number three, it touches the heart.” He challenges street photographers to apply these standards to their work instead of chasing trends.

Barry’s philosophy is simple: “If your photographs are boring, you’re photographing boring stuff, mate. Go and find interesting things to photograph.”

Barry does not currently have a website or other online presence. However he is very well read and during our conversation shared several excellent book and photographer recommendations. I was impressed with his admiration of the writings by the late Joe Baegent from West Virginia. It was a pleasant surprise that someone from the other side of the planet was inspired by stories about the unique culture of my native Appalachia.