The Forms of Silence

Sam Lee (also known as Sam L. Street) is a contemporary street photographer based in Amsterdam. His work captures the quiet poetry of everyday life-fleeting, unguarded moments found both in the streets of his hometown and while traveling through other cities. In his new book, The Forms of Silence: Street Photography, Sam continues his search for rare moments when the ordinary transforms into something quietly profound. The project began with a small camera and long walks through city streets-capturing fleeting instances where light and shadow converse.

In 2024, one of his photographs was selected for Tribute to Saul Leiter: Early Color at Belgrade Photo Month. The following year, he received the Silver Award in the international reFocus Awards for abstract street photography, and his work appeared alongside Tatsuo Suzuki in Street Photography France (Edition 11, 2025).

Author of Street Level: Poems from the Street (2023) and a member of Street Photography France, Sam lectures Theology of Migration at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he earned a PhD in theology. He also holds a Master's degree in Development Sociology from Leiden University, specializing in Japanese society, culture, religion, and migration.

As a sociologist and theologian, Sam's professional life often unfolds at the intersection of human vulnerability and resilience. Street and urban photography became a refuge from this intensity-offering moments of stillness, quiet observation, and unexpected beauty. Drawn to the subtle transformations of the city-rain turning streets into living paintings, fallen leaves scattering like soft gestures of affection-this book is not presented as a declaration of mastery, but as a record of a search: a personal attempt to listen for stillness in a world that rarely stops shouting.