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So many street shots show me that the shooter was terrified of the subject." True and I agree with much of the other things you say in your post. That is one reason why I prefer to street shoot with longer lenses. I find that if I shove a camera in people's face it disturbs the moment. I don't know that I want photo after photo of people looking at me looking at them. Instead I want photos of people in the context of them doing something, oblivious to and undisturbed by my presence. So a longer lens works better for me. And of course it gives better subject separation from the background too. Bruce Gilden for example who uses a wide lens, is one photographer whose work I just cannot appreciate - just random faces staring at the camera. Yuk and so what?
Of course like you, I do not like photos that are "just snapshots" I agree with you that too many "street" shots I see are of this character. That is where the photographer's sense of aesthetics needs to play its part - too many photographers lack it. And on some days (too many days) so do I - its a struggle. But I always look for something in the image that is revealing itself to me that has appeal in terms of its composition.
And I think that (composition) is a large part of what people forget to do and therefore fail to get an interesting moment. If one looks at HCBs work it is very contextual - much of their interest and beauty is not in the human subject at all - its in the environment that they are moving in. Whether it's a street photo or a landscape the photographer's task is to make an image that jumps out and grabs the viewer by the eyeball. If someone cant do that then they are not truly being a photographer.
Speaking personally I do not know why so many street photographers regard themselves as being "above" using longer lenses. As if it's a sin. As if there is something not proper about it. Personally, I say, whatever works for the photographer - whatever gets the image. All that matters at the end of the day is that the image is good. Henri Cartier Bresson did not much use longer lenses so far as I know but then again he did not need to, he was that good.
The other thing many misunderstand is how he got his images. Sometimes HCB would get an image as he walked about. Often though, he would see the possibilities inherent in a particular space and hang around at that location, waiting for something to happen - for the right subject to come by at the right moment with the sun in the right direction to create the right play of light and shadows from the right angle. I think that is what he really meant by "decisive moment". Not so much pure dumb luck - but planning. Then waiting.
I truly think that not enough photographers understand this and instead spend their days randomly wandering the streets in the vain hope that the decisive moment would jump into their camera, instead of being like HCB who would try to "ambush" the decisive moment by positioning himself advantageously. The following photo is an example. He saw the possibilities in the location depicted and set himself up there for hours till the decisive moment came along in the fomr of a cyclist.
http://www.ventspleen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/HenriCartierBresson.HyeresFrance.1932.jpg
I think the difference is that HCB was a classically trained painter so he understood good images and how to compose them. Using a camera was just a different means to that end. The secret was not in his camera it was in his head.
The other thing I often think about when making street images is the need for the people in the images to be interesting. Perhaps this means they need to be attractive physically but usually this is not the case. They can be run of the mill people so long as they are interesting or doing something interesting or positioned in such a way that the image is interesting. But many shots I see are of people who just lack anything I want to look at because they lack eye appeal. I do not know how to define it better than that. Many people making photos just seem to randomly pick someone out and shoot, hoping for the best.
