So, recently I’ve begun to question myself a little. I’m feeling stagnating, the shots are too similar, there is no clear agenda or goal to what I’m shooting. So I’ve been asking myself, why street photography? Or, that is not totally correct, the question have more been “what?” What do I want with my street photography. Do I want do art, do I want to tell stories, do I want to document something, what? I felt that I was shooting without purpose, and it got to me, and I felt that it affected the quality of what I was doing.
Get me right, I don’t think that I’m a great photographer, that I’m the next Joel Meyerowitz, Boogie, or Bruce Gilden (I’ll never have that courageous hutzpah). Nor do I feel that I have some huge impact, or that I’m a certified photographer, street or whatever other kind of photographer. I’m solely referring to myself in context of myself and whatever I have on mind to share.
If anything, I’m an academic with a sociological and anthropological approach to the society I live in. Maybe that’s what is trying to pull me in some direction or another. I’ve only been doing photography since May last year, and only with a “real” camera since July. So I’m a newbie. And I think that until now it’s the newfound creative energy which has driven me. But it’s settling.
No, I’m not saying that I’m getting tired of it. On the contrary. I’m getting more excited about it, more wanting. And that’s what is getting to me, because before I felt that it was enough just going around and capturing the moments, and once in a while take more time to composing a photo (read more about that in “A Girl Under a Tree“). But I feel that I need to tell more.
It might seem like I’ve already been doing that here on the blog. Other posts have had something to tell, and the photos have added to whatever I had to say. But they, the photos, have all been momentary thoughts, suddenly appearing. What I’m hinting at is that I need to put a goal in front of me, before I go out. To have a purpose with the photography.
And not only a purpose, but also an angle, a more settled style – though that will never settle in respect of how my photos look like. More in what they are telling, the subject, theme, etc. I still don’t want to settle with black and white over color, there are shots that only work as the one or the other, and there are shots that work both as monochrome and color.
I have some ideas, some projects I want to do. And I don’t want to do projects because I think that I’m a great photographer, documenting creator, or the like. On the contrary, I want to do the projects so I can become good at what I do. To have a focus, and to have something to tell, rather than just capturing random moments, however interesting they might be. That’s the answer I want to give to the why and what. I need a purpose.
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