Get to know Wes Olsen, a longtime West Seattle-ite who’s discovered a new way of viewing and valuing his community through his passion for street photography.

One of the things I love about street photography is the way that people are captured in very candid moments, not posing for pictures or framing themselves in a particular way. In the age of the selfie, it’s definitely a refreshing take. And sometimes the results can be pretty surprising, including to the subjects of the photos themselves, because street photography creates opportunities for people to see themselves in a very different light.

It’s a thought I took with me to the Junction recently, when I asked people I met on the street if they thought other people ever saw them differently than they see themselves. Hear the revealing things people of the Junction had to say.

How we see ourselves as individuals and as a community is something I find myself thinking about whenever I’m scrolling through the latest photos from Wes Olsen, a local budding talent who recently returned to sharing his work on Instagram under the handle westseattlestreets. We talked recently about what led him down this path, and how he’s capturing our everyday history through his camera lens.

Stay up to date with the street photography of Wes Olsen on Instagram through his handle @westseattlestreets, and check out more of his work at www.wesolsenphotography.com