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The second volume of Flux, a photographic diary by Dante Sisofo.
A collection of 55 photographs across 100 pages.
Photographed in Philadelphia between November 2022 and May 2023, this book marks the beginning of a transformation — the first months of working in black and white, and the initial step into a new way of seeing.
If Flux Vol. I represents the moment when vision came together, this volume represents the origin — the entry point into the stream of becoming. These photographs trace the early stages of a chronological visual diary, where the act of photographing becomes inseparable from the act of living.
Shot in Philadelphia, these images mark the foundation of an evolving practice rooted in daily observation, instinct, and repetition.
At the heart of Flux is a simple idea: you cannot make the same photograph twice. Light is always shifting — across bodies, streets, and time — reshaping the world moment by moment.
Members only — access your books at production cost.
The first volume of Flux, a photographic diary by Dante Sisofo.
A collection of 57 photographs across 100 pages.
Photographed in Tokyo in November 2025 — wandering the streets of Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Shibuya over thirteen days — this book marks the moment when a decade of photographing the world, and the past three years of working in monochrome, came together into a unified vision.
At the heart of Flux is a simple idea: you cannot make the same photograph twice.
The way light casts upon the world is always changing — across people, surfaces, streets, and shadows — transforming reality from one moment to the next.
Shot with a Ricoh GR in high-contrast black and white, these photographs embrace instinct, motion, and the fleeting rhythm of everyday life.
What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante getting my morning started here along the Schuylkill River Trail in Philadelphia, photographing with the Ricoh GR IV monochrome.
Got the high contrast black and white small JPEG files cranked to the max so that I can embrace my instinct.
So why photograph this way?
Why shoot small JPEGs, high contrast black and white?
It’s for speed and simplicity.
I want to strip away everything from the medium of photography and return to pure instinct. Not trying to impose a visual style — I’m trying to remove everything until all that’s left is a black box with a shutter button.
Just point and shoot.
No technical noise.
Photography Is Physical
Photography isn’t just visual — it’s physical.
Your eyes connect to your brain, sure. You can recognize leading lines, composition, all that.
But what actually makes the photograph?
Your body.
You are responsible for positioning your physical body in relationship to the subject.
If you don’t move, you don’t make the photo.
You can see everything perfectly in your head — but if you don’t physically step into position, nothing happens.
Photography is psychological, yes.
But it’s ultimately physical positioning that determines the result.
Why the Ricoh GR
The reason I use the Ricoh GR — especially this monochrome setup — is because it’s always with me.
It lives in my pocket.
Hidden.
No one even knows I’m photographing.
And because of that, I’m always in a flow state.
When I have to wear a camera around my neck, clean the lens, “be a photographer” — I limit myself.
That friction kills the moment.
The lack of a viewfinder?
That’s not a limitation.
That’s freedom.
Constraints = Freedom
My theory:
The more constraints, the more creative freedom.
You might think freedom is having unlimited choices.
But that’s overwhelming.
If I step off this path, I fall into the river. If I go the other way, I get hit by a train.
So the only way is forward.
And in that constraint?
Endless possibility.
Staying in one lane unlocks infinity.
When I stop switching cameras, colors, lenses — I move forward.
That’s where the work happens.
No Good or Bad Photos
There’s no such thing as a good or bad photograph.
Only new photographs to make.
I’m chasing a perpetual flow state.
Not results.
Curiosity.
What does life look like photographed?
That’s it.
Returning to Light
Photography = drawing with light.
By stripping away color, I return to the essence.
Now I’m curious about light itself:
How it hits surfaces
How it renders in black and white
What it looks like when reduced to extremes
High contrast black and white?
It’s like a charcoal sketch of reality.
No Post-Processing, No Safety Net
There’s nothing to fix later.
No RAW files.
No editing.
No safety net.
I throw myself into the deep end.
And that’s liberating.
Now all I’m left with is play.
From Friction to Flow
I remember being in Hanoi in 2022.
RAW files. Hard drives. Backups.
It was slow. Tedious.
Felt like a burden.
When I got back, I sold everything.
Picked up the Ricoh GR.
Since then?
3+ years.
Around 370,000 frames.
I’ve never been more prolific.
And the quality?
It’s there — because of the quantity and the flow.
Infinite Novelty
I can walk the same path every day.
Still find new photos.
Because light is always changing.
Because life is always changing.
You cannot make the same photograph twice.
Now I photograph everything:
Family
Daily life
Self-portraits
Textures
Plants
Trash
Everything
Everything is photographable.
Beyond Style
I’m not trying to create a recognizable style.
I’m trying to become a vessel.
To just be.
To exist in the moment.
To feel deeply.
Say yes to life with every shutter click.
The Sublime
There’s something beyond words.
That feeling when you’re walking…
Sun on your skin. Birds. Cars. People.
And you click the shutter.
That moment?
It’s sublime.
Life is fleeting.
Flowers bloom, then decay.
That’s what makes it beautiful.
Destroy to Create
To create something new, you have to destroy.
If I made the same photos every day, I’d be bored.
To change is happiness.
To evolve.
To grow.
That’s the goal.
Don’t Blame Your Location
Your city isn’t the problem.
Your perception is.
Even in the same place, every day:
There’s infinite novelty.
You just have to see it.
Pure Instinct
Too many choices kill creativity.
Too many decisions.
Too many systems.
I want none of that.
Just instinct.
When photography becomes an extension of your body, it becomes effortless.
The Ricoh GR has no viewfinder — and that’s exactly why it’s the better camera system.
A lot of photographers think about the lack of a viewfinder as a limitation. But this is actually what frees you.
With the Ricoh, there is no viewfinder. There’s only the LCD. You have no choice but to use the screen.
And that constraint? It liberates you.
You start to articulate the camera in ways you haven’t been able to before. You remove the camera from your eye and photograph wherever your body moves and exists within space and time.
You Don’t Need a Viewfinder
People say:
“I need a viewfinder. This isn’t a serious camera.”
That’s completely missing the point.
If you think you need a viewfinder to compose a photograph — you’re wrong.
How do I create strong compositions? How do I line everything up perfectly?
It’s from my eye. It’s from how I see. It’s from how I move my body into position.
Not from raising a camera to my face.
Breaking Out of Eye-Level
The viewfinder locks you into one perspective — eye level.
But with the LCD screen?
I can shoot high. I can shoot low. I can shoot from the hip. I can extend my arm into space.
I can throw the camera over someone’s head, switch to macro, get extremely close, and make images you literally couldn’t make with a traditional system.
The camera becomes:
An extension of your eye. An extension of your body.
The Ricoh GR is the closest thing to not having a camera.
Less Control, Better Results
When you remove the viewfinder, you lose some control.
But that’s the point.
You stop forcing compositions. You start responding instinctively.
We don’t walk around seeing the world through a box at eye level. We perceive fluidly.
And when you shoot with the LCD:
You play more
You experiment more
You surprise yourself more
Less control leads to more interesting results.
Movement, Experimentation, and Modern Tools
The Ricoh is small, stabilized, and fast.
You can shoot one-handed. You can use slow shutter speeds. You can isolate subjects while motion drags through the frame.
You start making images that feel:
Ethereal
Surreal
Experimental
And it’s no coincidence — Ricoh shooters tend to push things further.
The tool changes the mind.
Becoming Invisible
With no camera to your face, you disappear.
You blend in.
You’re no longer “the photographer.”
You’re just part of the scene.
I use the tourist technique a lot:
Hold the camera like a phone
Look up at buildings
Act casual
Then drop the camera and shoot
It’s fluid. It’s natural. It’s invisible.
And that’s exactly what I want.
The Evolution of Photography
Think about it:
Large format cameras on tripods
Rangefinders
SLRs
DSLRs
Electronic viewfinders
And then…
You remove all of it.
You land here:
A pocket camera. An LCD screen. Pure instinct.
This feels like the natural progression of photography.
The Real Point
No viewfinder = no restrictions.
You are fully responsible for:
Seeing
Feeling
Responding
And that’s why the Ricoh GR is superior for street photography.
In an Escher town In the Palace Gallen, hidden low And the peaks stay Saint And the streets wind up and down below To the balcony Where the hands embrace amidst the rows And the flickering screen And the smell of almonds in the grove
Don’t leave Don’t leave To come so close to offer this Don’t leave, won’t leave
And the screen says, “Stay,” every time The image it plays in my mind And we say Grace Every time we’re in this place Is it mine in the mirror? Is it mine or the mirror that we make?
Where we haven’t run Deep into the rows Where the olives grow Lost in the unknown Until lost is all we know And the pollen silt Till we’re tracing in the snow
And down into the screen Says “Stay,” every time The image it’s burned in my mind And we say Grace Every time we’re face-to-face Is it mine in the mirror? Is it mine or the mirror that we make?
Take all the time it takes To make all the time it takes Take all the time it takes To make all the time it takes Take all the time it takes To make all the time it takes Take all the time it takes To make all the time it takes Take all the time it takes All the time To make all the time it takes All the time Take all the time it takes All the time To make all the time it takes Don’t leave Take all the time it takes All the time To make all the time it takes All the time Take all the time it takes All the time To make all the time it takes Don’t leave Take all the time All the time
Future Islands – Find Love
I was alone when I found out, nothing is what it seems In paramour, in arrogance and dreams I was alone again at the start of another spring Here, with all the petals turning red My heart was turning green
And so I walked around the lake And there, sitting in the sea A young lady who called my name She opened up to me
In fair her hair, the light of air Found wisdom in her life Two pecans where here soul stared Throughout the white light
She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart to me” She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart to me, and you may find what you seek”
“I wanna find love, I wanna call your love my love” “I wanna find love, I wanna call your love my love” “Well, you’ll never find love, you’ll never find a love like I love” “Well, you’ll never find love, unless you open your heart, my love”
She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart to me” She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart to me and you may find what you seek”
“I wanna find love, I wanna call your love my love” “I wanna find love, I wanna call your love my love” “Well, you’ll never find love, you’ll never find a love like I love” “Well, you’ll never find love, unless you open your heart, my love”
She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart to me” She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart” She said, “Open your heart to find the things you want in this life” “The things you want in this life”
Street Photography Diary Entry #5 — Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade
What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante.
Today we’re gonna be looking at my street photography that I recently made during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade here in my hometown, Philadelphia, with the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome.
And so today’s topic revolves around photographing at parades.
There Is No Such Thing as Cliché
I think it’s the perfect opportunity for me to discuss what I am personally looking for when photographing in these situations.
In street photography, we call these moments cliché. Photographing a parade—it’s cliché, right?
I think there’s just such a misconception around that.
When I’m at a parade and I’m looking at all of the complexity—the people, the action, the crowd, the density, the details, the textures, the light—everything around me is infinitely fascinating.
There is no such thing as cliché.
If you think everything’s been done, you’re not gonna make a picture.
If you think photographing a parade is boring, it’s going to inhibit your ability to find joy in your everyday life.
The Parade Is a Gift
The parade is a treat.
It gives you the ability to get close and engage with humanity.
The parade is a gift from the street photography gods.
It’s your opportunity to:
explore your perspective
try to make new photographs
push yourself
When a parade happens, that’s when it’s time to go.
Blurring the Line Between Documentation and Myth
You’ve got:
the photojournalist documenting the event
the street photographer avoiding making it look like a parade
There’s this idea like:
“I want to photograph the parade, but I don’t want it to look like a parade.”
And I’m out there photographing, petting this gigantic police horse—this mythic creature.
I’m trying to create mythic street photography.
Something beyond this world.
Photography Beyond Fact
It doesn’t matter if I’m at a parade, walking a mundane street, or in the woods.
I don’t look at life as fact.
By documenting and abstracting at the same time, I open up infinite possibility in how I can make photographs.
The Moment With the Children
On this day, I wandered toward the end of the parade.
I saw these children playing with blankets, pretending to be flying squirrels.
Two little creatures, just playing against a brick wall.
A simple scene.
But I saw:
innocence
playfulness
ambiguity
My curiosity pulled me in.
Creating Ambiguity
Street photography isn’t about where you are.
You can create a frame with:
no sense of time
no sense of place
A frame that creates myth and meaning.
I’m not looking at the moment as fact.
I’m trying to reflect how I feel about the world through the frame.
I’m trying to connect my internal feeling to what I photograph.
Staying With the Scene
This wasn’t a quick snapshot.
I stayed.
I observed.
I was present for about 10 minutes as the moment unfolded.
I chipped away at the scene, making frame after frame.
And eventually, I found it.
What I’m Really Looking For
At the end of the day:
I’m looking for ambiguity.
Not just action. Not just obvious moments.
I want:
no time
no place
sometimes no face
Just feeling.
Just mystery.
Just myth.
Emotion Without Explanation
Emotion in photography doesn’t have to be direct.
It doesn’t need:
words
facts
obvious expressions
I believe emotion can arise without explanation.
We can go beyond the obvious.
Same Perspective, Any Environment
Whether I’m at a parade or walking a quiet street—
my perspective stays the same.
The external environment doesn’t matter.
What matters is how I see.
Closing
That’s how I approached the St. Patrick’s Day Parade here in Philadelphia.
Today I’m going to be doing some street photography POV with my Ricoh GR IV monochrome here in my hometown Philadelphia. So hit the streets with me and let’s go and see what we can find on this cloudy Sunday.
It’s around 10:30 AM, so it’s probably going to be quiet on the streets. Not much action or really anything interesting happening.
But I find that these kinds of situations are the perfect examples to showcase in a street photography POV video.
A lot of the videos you see online are reliant on a spectacular day — an event, something interesting happening. But I really want to showcase the mundane nature of street photography and how it requires you to have an open mind with curiosity in order to find anything really out there.
Despite your location. Despite the external circumstances.
There’s still so much novelty out there in the mundane nature of life.
So thanks for watching this video — let’s go hit the streets.
So there’s actually some street performers at the park right now. There’s a lot of energy on the corner.
But for some reason, my body is just gravitating towards this alleyway.
It just seems more interesting to me today. I don’t know why.
Whoa… look at those shoes. There’s so many. And the laundry up there — wow.
So I can get crop mode, 50mm, underexposed one stop so I can get closer…
Wow. That’s beautiful.
I’m glad I came down this empty alleyway.
One of the things that I do when I photograph in these kinds of mundane situations — photographing trash, inanimate things — is I’m really just looking at the way that light interacts with surfaces.
At the end of the day, I’m just curious about how light will render in a photograph touching this monochrome sensor.
I’m not looking at the content like:
“This is a thing.” “This is a piece of trash.”
I’m looking at the qualities of things — the imperfect textures, the surfaces.
As a way to evoke a feeling in the photograph that isn’t necessarily about the thing being photographed.
The ultimate challenge for a photographer is to photograph something… but make it more interesting than what it is.
That’s a very difficult thing to do.
But I think through simply pointing and shooting — following that inner curiosity that leads you down unfamiliar spaces — you can get there.
Not taking it so seriously. Just following your nose. Wherever the wind blows.
Following that childlike curiosity in between the cracks, in between the alleyways of the busy streets.
These doorways… they’re just kind of beautiful when photographed.
I don’t know.
Let’s throw on the Ricoh GF2 flash and see what this does.
I like the flash because I can isolate these strange little things from the background.
I’m photographing some bells above me outside of the African American Museum in Philadelphia.
The image looks really interesting.
I’m overexposing a little bit — it’s very dark inside the bells.
But when you play with exposure, when you tinker, when you use your imagination — looking at the mundane nature of life…
You can elevate it to a new height.
You can make something from nothing.
When I’m looking at life these days, I’m not looking at it for what it is…
But what it could be through my own personal, subjective interpretation of reality.
And I think that’s the message for today.
This was just a little hour walking around the city with the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome.
A way for me to showcase that there’s so much possibility in the mundane nature of life.
So much novelty out here.
But it requires your inner childlike curiosity to come out and play when you’re on the street.
Recognize this:
There is no such thing as good or bad photographs.
Only new photographs to make.
If you limit yourself based on content or location — and blame that for your lack of enthusiasm —
Recognize the infinite possibilities of photography through light.
Light is always in flux. Always changing.
You cannot make the same photograph twice.
I could walk the same lane every day, the same routine…
And still make new photographs endlessly.
It’s through unlocking that infinite possibility — through recognizing novelty within light — that got me here.
So just follow your curiosity.
Don’t take it so seriously.
Don’t look for something interesting.
Recognize that life is inherently interesting.
The mundane isn’t what it seems.
I’ll leave you here — just walking around Philly on this chilly Sunday afternoon.
A little hour stroll.
Whoa… look at this building.
The simple way light glimmers upon life is enough to keep me curious.
