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Anonymous
What bruce gilden does may be considered street photography because he's on the street. It's far from polite, though - you could get arrested for harassment in many places. The flash and the range he shoots at, in particular, are terrible. It's exploitation at its best, and the emotions you're most likely to capture are surprise, anxiety or anger. Watch the video: in the first shot the lady looks terrified.
Good street photography doesn't need to involve getting into the person's face, flash usage, or anything else like that. I personally like to sit in an out of the way spot with a 105mm lens and shoot people who are about 10-30 feet away. From that distance you can get laughter, sadness, pensiveness, people doing funny little actions (picking their nose, rocking on their feet)...all the best emotions. If someone sees me taking a picture I just smile, nod, wave -- something that shows that I'm not a creepy stalker; just an artist, or an at least an eccentric.
If you're going to use a 24mm lens like Gilden does, then you're pretty much screwed from the outset. In that case, I say, get permission from the subject and if they say no then politely leave.
As a caveat, I will say that in that video I love the photo at 1:03. That captures a great emotion and a lot of dynamism, and that shot couldn't be taken the way I shoot (without permission, of course).
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