Linda True, A Dreamy and Whimsical Street Photographer Appreciated for Fleeting Moments and Quiet Joy in Her Photographs

We would love to know more about you! Who you are and where you're from? When did you start street photography?

My name is Linda True, and I currently live in San Francisco. Street photography was something I just slid into after carrying a compact camera with me all the time from traveling and wanting to capture memories with friends. Having lived in multiple place, I feel like a perpetual tourist.  


What inspired you to become a street photographer?

I saw beauty in overlooked things, common place things, and fleeting moments. I wanted to capture them. I see images vividly, and I don’t have the technical ability to capture it in realistic painting or drawing. And there is this one moment from the early 2000s that still lives in my memory. I was walking down the streets in Washington DC.  There were three people power walking right in front of me into a restaurant. Two men in black suits with a women in a red dress and pumps in between them - their legs all in sync. The patterns, the emotion, the movement, the gloss on their shoes and the sheen on her stockings live rent free in my head in a 2x3 ratio. I have another moment of a dapper man in yellow in the middle of a cross walk while his daschund is squatting surrounded by oncoming traffic in NYC from two years ago. You could say it’s the regret of not capturing moments that will haunt me that drive me. 

How would you describe your work in terms of style and/or approach?

I have two styles of photography. Dreamy, colorful, and whimsical versus stark black and white. All my work usually conveys joy, wonder, or peace. Rarely do I explore more heavier emotions, but those that do stand out in my memory.