There are good reasons for this episode to have a two-in-one headline. Our initial idea for this show was to discuss the role that happenstance and luck play in photography, but the conversation with our impassioned and articulate guests, Amy Touchette and Gus Powell, quickly turned to a more generalized chat on the principles and practices of street photography—and how lucky we were to have them speak intimately about their work and on photography as an artistic and personal endeavor. For me, it doesn’t get much better! But back to the two headlines within a headline—perhaps it is our collaboration with chance and a photographer’s ability to recognize, organize, prepare for, and even control what is referred to as chance that is the true essence of street photography.

As better writers than I have written, “You make your own luck, Gig,” or “Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.” Finally, and this quote seems made for the street photographer: “Chance favors those in motion.” Drop us a comment if you can name the above-quoted writers and share with us a story on how you collaborated with chance to make a wonderful photo.

Photograph above © Gus Powell

Guests: Amy Touchette and Gus Powell







Chelsea, Manhattan, 2013 (Rolleiflex)

from The Insiders (Rolleiflex)

from Street Dailies, South Williamsburg/Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, 2016 (iPhone)

from Street Dailies, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, 2014 (iPhone)

Photographs by Amy Touchette



from The Company of Strangers

from The Company of Strangers

from Mise en Scène

from The Lonely Ones

Photographs by Gus Powell

Gus Powell, Allan Weitz, and Amy Touchette

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Host: Allan Weitz

Senior Creative Producer: John Harris

Producer: Jason Tables

Executive Producer: Lawrence Neves