Use Photography to See Beyond Reality

Use photography as a way for you to peer beyond the veil of reality.

So today’s thought is about going beyond—transcending the world through the medium.

I find that by using light in my photography, I can achieve this goal of going beyond the mundane nature of life. Through wielding light and shooting specifically in high-contrast black and white, I can discover new things about the way that I see the world.

Because with light, there is this removal of control, right?

There is the unknown.

When I consider light, I consider the way that it’s always in flux and changing throughout the day, throughout the seasons, and throughout our lifetime.

Ultimately, I find that through stripping away color and focusing on light and shadow play, focusing on black and white, and specifically crushing the shadows and exposing for the highlights with high-contrast black and white, I start to simply notice every little fleeting moment and detail.

Everything around me becomes infinitely fascinating.

Enter the Flow State

I think because I have this really simplified and streamlined workflow with the way that I’m shooting, I can tap into the flow state of responding and photographing intuitively and instinctually without thinking.

When I enter this period of flow and start to recognize the patterns of light that are all around me, I feel like I peer beyond the veil of what’s obvious.

I think that is a really powerful place to be as a photographer.

Because what happens when looking at life this way is that no matter where you are in the world, and no matter how mundane things may be, you can wield this power of light with your photography to essentially cultivate infinite possibility.

And what that looks like is simply using abstraction as the ultimate superpower, the ultimate solution to the practice.

There Is Infinite Potential Right in Front of You

I think that as street photographers, we get caught up with this preconceived notion of photographing a particular kind of subject matter or visiting a particular location that is interesting.

Maybe you think of the photographs from Magnum or any of the great masters of the past who have traveled the world and photographed in certain locations.

And you can have this idea in your head of:

Oh, I guess that’s what I should go out there and shoot.

I guess I should go to these places.

I guess I should make photos that look like that.

But what if we remind ourselves that there’s actually infinite potential that you can tap into right in front of you?

No matter where you are and no matter where you may be, whether you’re in a bustling city like Philly or in a rural neighborhood in your backyard, it merely requires this mindset shift and this recognition of what’s in your control.

What’s in my control is moving my body, recognizing moments, and photographing.

What’s out of my control are the moments I’m photographing in terms of finding an interesting moment.

What’s out of my control is the lighting conditions and whether or not today is going to be cloudy or sunny.

And so what you’re left to do is simply move.

To walk.

To explore.

To shoot more.

Stop Hunting for the Photograph

When you remove the external outcome and goal of creating a particular kind of image and start to cultivate this inner curious state where the way that light casts upon things is what triggers you and what interests you, then you’re going to simply start to do.

Don’t allow your preconceptions of what you believe you should be photographing to guide you.

Don’t allow the hunt for a trophy, the hunt for an interesting moment, or the hunt for a subject to be what’s guiding you in terms of going out there to chase something great.

Instead, allow light and life to come towards you.

From that shift in your practice, I believe you’ll start to actually shoot.

If you’re waiting for something, if you’re hunting for something, well, maybe you’ll never actually shoot.

But if you’re looking at the simple ways in which the light casts upon a window and the way that you can underexpose the photo, or even crop in to 71mm and get extremely close to that surface and make an image because you’re curious about the way that the light is casting upon that thing, then I think you can start to thrive.

Everything Becomes Potential

In the past, maybe I would never look at reflected light from a window as something interesting for me to photograph.

But since adopting this workflow of stripping away color and boosting my contrast to the max, I’m now looking at that window as potential for my photography.

I’m now looking at the way the light is peering from these trees, and I just simply start photographing because I’m curious about how that thing I’m photographing is going to then be rendered upon my camera sensor.

Ultimately, it’s the surprise that arises in the frames that I make through embracing abstraction, through embracing the grit, the grain, and the extremities in the contrast, that gives me that curious state.

It keeps me in that curious state to continue shooting.

It becomes this flywheel of curiosity, movement, and simply clicking the shutter more.

I just haven’t stopped photographing consistently throughout the entirety of my days since photographing this way over the past four years straight.

And it’s just so fulfilling.

Forget Everything You Think You Know

I’m just trying to share that simple fact that when stripping everything bare to instincts, light, and shadow, you’re going to enter the flow.

And it requires you to forget everything you think you know about photography generally and life itself.

Then, through making pictures, you’ll start to relearn everything again from the ground up each day.

You return to a blank slate—day one—each and every day.

I think that’s where you thrive.

It’s when you never reach the peak, but you’re just endlessly climbing, endlessly discovering, experimenting, and going headfirst into the unknown.