It seems that at the streets there are lots of situations, quite different one from the other. Not every shot is to be one to one, vis a vis a muscular mafioso.
There are plenty of tricks, and in many situations you cannot but use them accordingly. Therefore I find no reason why Stu couldn't include shooting from the chest within his arsenal.
Nevertheless, I have my basic approach, without which I don't believe I could go far. I am not going to the streets to spy or to sneak images ridiculizing people. I go for the contrary, because I have a kind of attraction towards socializing with people, because I identify with my subjects. A camera can be also an excuse for socializing, without loosing our former goal.
Once in the past, I happened to know a bit Larry Towel, a Magnum photographer, touring conflict areas around the world. When I saw his images of Gaza Strip, I went highly dissapointed. The images had a tremendous aesthetical depht, but there was no reason at all why they had to be made in Gaza, unless he was in need of a scenario, a "curious" background. And what about the people, their life, their plight, their attitudes ?
This is the opposite approach of my master street photographer Beniliam. His human sensitivity towards people and life is of the highest calibre in Photography.
Therefore I am ready to engage ('confront') my subjects whenever necessary with good humour and symphaty. In case they show a sign of discomfort towards me taking their image, I don't. A sign of discomfort can origin either from a particular good reason not to be photographed (for example a foreign worker without permission), OR by the inner feeling of the photographer's discomfort, being catched by the subject.
Not every day I am in a glorious state of mind for the Street. A day I am not, better I stay at home.
I am only a beginner at the Street trade. But in my opinion it is not about streets, it is about humans first of all. Each of us in RFF is a human too, not just artists, let's dig there and find our common grounds and meeting grounds with people at the streets.
Cheers,
Ruben
PS
Although I may sound above like the good Sammaritan, I am convinced that the skneaky attitude, becoming the main one, is a self defeating tactic as well, for "installing" you into an adversary attitude towards your subject.