▶ VIDEO — youtube.com/embed/f4uB-lGUJFQ?feature=oembed
▶ VIDEO — youtu.be/f4uB-lGUJFQ
Stop Photographing People (Street Photography Advice)
What’s poppin’, people? Dante here, currently walking around Philadelphia.
Today, I just wanted to talk about an idea in street photography that’s been really beneficial to me, and perhaps controversial, because in street photography, we have so many preconceptions about what this is or what it means.
And, you know, that’s simply to stop photographing people.
Look Beyond Humanity
You know, if you’re a street photographer who’s photographing humanity all the time and focused on those fleeting moments, sidewalk surfing, and looking for gestures, how about you look up at the light and look at the architecture?
Look at the way the light is casting upon surfaces.
Look at the textures.
Look at the details.
Look at the construction workers still.
You know, don’t not look at humanity. Don’t not photograph these moments and fleeting things.
But actually, when you’re on the street, think about how you can enter the flow state by photographing everything.
By tapping into that sort of curiosity within you, when looking at something mundane, when looking at a glass pane and the reflective surfaces in front of you.
When looking at everything as potential for your photography, you’ll actually start to fuel your curiosity.
You’ll start to unlock more potential as a street photographer whose primary focus tends to be on humanity.
Unshackle Yourself From Expectations
And I think it’s still important to tap into those candid, fleeting moment photos that we’re all seeking.
To have that sort of thing as our goal, in a way, where we want to display life and the nature of life, humanity, et cetera, and tell stories.
But when you unshackle yourself from the burden of only making those kinds of photos, I don’t know.
I think you’ll just start to thrive more as an artist.
I feel like ever since I started doing this act of just photographing different things, whether it’s the posters on the walls, the facades of buildings, textures, details, and things, I’ve just been much more joyous as a photographer as well.
Because essentially, now I’m not really dependent on whether or not I see somebody or a moment that is interesting.
But it really comes down to my own inner curiosity and whether or not I’m looking at life more closely.
You know, whether I’m feeling deeply.
Don’t Limit Yourself to One Thing
And yeah, I think ultimately street photography is a good sort of categorization of what I do and what kind of photographer I am.
I walk the streets.
I’m primarily interested in life.
I’m photographing people a lot of the time, candidly.
However, I think it’s important not to limit yourself to only one thing.
And so, as a street photographer walking the streets daily, don’t get caught up with some preconceived notion of what the photo should be or what a good photo is.
Just slow down and start to appreciate small things.
Right now, I’m looking at the way that this shape is formed with the reflective surface in front of me.
And yeah, that’s kind of interesting to me.
Tap Into the Spirit of Play
You know, I’m looking at everything these days and just really tapping into the spirit of play.
Just clicking the shutter more, moving on to the next photo, kind of treating each photo like an instant sketch.
Kind of just like a small idea.
Just chipping away, chipping away.
And then over time, through compounding repetition and photographing more, I think you’ll actually benefit from having these other kinds of photos with more variety when it comes to sequencing something.
Whether you’re making a book or a zine, or even just looking at your archive generally.
It’s much more satisfying to have a wide range of imagery than just the same old sidewalk stroll, people coming towards you, layered photograph, typical street photography, run-of-the-mill juxtaposition of things.
Photograph Everything
And so, yeah, the mindset shift of photographing everything has completely transformed my street photography.
I really just wanted to share that very simple message to hopefully inspire you to open up the possibilities in your photography and to not limit yourself to only photographing humanity.
So yeah, that’s pretty much all I wanted to say.
Thank you for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.
Peace.
DANTE SISOFO · · dantesisofo.com/stop-photographing-people-street-photography-advice/
