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.
Welcome to Street Photography Diary #4, where we look at photographs I’ve been making with the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome.
Today we’re talking about light, photography, exploration, curiosity, and my overall philosophy around the practice.
The way I think about photography these days is becoming much more liberating.
I’m throwing the camera around in unfamiliar spaces. Looking at faces. Looking at people.
Of course I’m thinking about composition.
But more than anything, I’m honing in on intuition.
I’m letting the chips fall where they may.
I’m not trying to say anything particular with my photography anymore. It’s a radical approach in a way.
The Inner Spiritedness
I’ll see the sunrise hitting the buildings.
I’ll notice reflections creating abstract shapes across the scene.
But what really keeps me photographing every day isn’t the camera.
It’s this inner spiritedness.
This enthusiasm for life.
This love for mundane everyday life.
Just waking up in that state keeps me perpetually photographing.
And I think this is extremely important to talk about because photography actually has very little to do with photography.
The Technical Phase
There are a few stages photographers go through.
At first you learn the technical side:
How to set the camera
Where to position your body
How to synthesize light, subject, and composition
Timing and framing
Once you become comfortable with your gear and understand these fundamentals, something interesting happens.
You can finally begin to play freely.
Photography becomes much more intuitive.
Your Photographs Are You
I believe the photographs you make are essentially a reflection of who you are.
When you make a frame of someone or something, it’s your state of being that is reflected back through the photograph.
Your attitude. Your curiosity. Your way of feeling about life.
All of that carries into the photographs you make.
So to put it simply:
If you’re a boring person, your photographs might be boring.
But if you live an interesting life — if you explore, travel, interact with people, and embrace new experiences — those things live in your subconscious.
They shape how you see.
And that ultimately shapes your photography.
Feeling Deeply, Seeing Clearly
A lot of photography practice gets in the way of simply feeling deeply and seeing clearly.
Today I want to talk about the power of consistency in street photography and why this matters more than motivation and inspiration.
I’ve been practicing photography for over a decade now, and I pretty much haven’t missed a single day. In the past 3 years alone, I’ve made around 379,000 frames.
I’ve created a system in my practice that makes photography inevitable.
Show Up. That’s It.
I find that by remaining in the process — staying in motion, going out there, actually photographing — I find meaning in everyday life.
The more I show up, the more I detach from the outcome, the better I become.
The more I fail, the more I improve.
If you’re attached to outcomes — whether it’s making a “good” photo, getting validation, building a project, making a book — all of that gets in the way of actually doing the thing.
What’s liberating is photographing for the sake of photographing.
Just letting the chips fall as they may.
Authentic Expression Comes From Doing
Through that approach, you discover how you actually see.
You discover how you feel about life.
Consistency is just this:
Showing up daily and doing the thing.
Not planning it. Not thinking about it. Not building some perfect idea in a notebook.
The work is done out there in the world.
Not in your head.
Photography Is Insanely Simple
When you really break it down, your only responsibility is this:
Wake up with enthusiasm and go outside.
That’s it.
You’re not responsible for:
Seeing something interesting
Making a great photo
Coming home with anything
You’re only responsible for showing up and making new photos.
The Power of Volume
Even just 1–2 frames a day is more powerful than shooting once a week.
Because consistency compounds.
Over time, you develop:
Instinct
Awareness of light
Sensitivity to patterns
Physical intuition in your body
You get to a point where photography becomes effortless.
Where flow becomes inevitable.
Consistency Over Projects
Consistency matters more than having a cool project or theme.
My practice is daily. I treat it as a visual diary.
Welcome to Street Photography Diary episode number 3, where we look at photographs I made recently with the Ricoh GR4 monochrome.
Today’s topic is finding yourself through photography and embracing the spirit of play.
The reason I say this is because the more I return to that childlike state, that sort of innocent state where you’re sensitive to life, the more photography becomes effortless.
You’re embracing the sights, the sounds, the smells of the street.
You’re looking up at the clouds and the way the light opens and thinking:
Wow, this is incredible. This is sublime.
When I started my day, I essentially woke up and made a frame.
The first thing I noticed was the beautiful clouds in the sky.
There’s something really special about monochrome photography and the way it unlocks novelty in the simplest scenes I photograph. A simple view from the window can become extraordinary through the camera.
Waking Up Like It’s Day One
When I think about the way I orient my day, I try to wake up like it’s day one again.
My goal as a photographer is to return to that childlike state of being.
Almost treating each night like a miniature death, and each morning like my first breath — like I’m a kid again.
From that state of being, photography becomes effortless.
When I’m in the spirit of play, when I wake up with this inner curiosity, I’m eager for the day. I’m enthusiastic.
And from that state, photography becomes a joy, not a chore.
Wandering Without Looking
When I walk the streets, I’m not looking for anything.
I’m simply wandering like a little kid who’s lost and trying to find his way through society.
And honestly, that’s the most innocent way I can describe it.
I never want to feel like I know everything.
You can sit and read books all day. You can stare at information on your screen and feel like you understand the world.
But in reality:
We’re just these little flesh creatures walking around who really don’t know anything.
When I photograph, I tap into that understanding.
That I am flesh. That I cut. That I bleed. That I feel sorrow, pain, greed. That I have desires. That I am imperfect by design.
The Courage of a Child
Think about a child.
A child falls down, scrapes their knee, and gets back up endlessly.
There’s an inner courage there. An eagerness.
That spirited energy that pushes us out into the world to explore and try new things.
Photography becomes my way of evoking that feeling.
It’s how I express that inner childlike spirit when I’m on the street.
It’s not a serious chore where I put the photography hat on, wipe the lens, and go out to tell visual stories.
It’s simply a way to express myself openly and freely.
The Snapshot of Everyday Life
By embracing the snapshot, by simply bringing the camera with me to the places I inhabit during my day, I can more authentically express what I have to say.
It starts by emptying my mind.
Starting the day from a blank slate.
Then walking the streets with my camera — living life — and letting the photographs arise naturally.
On this particular day, I joined my sister-in-law’s nieces and nephews on a trip to the Franklin Institute.
Just photographing my everyday life.
And through those frames, I begin to discover myself.
The Personal Power of a Photograph
I made a photograph of a new family member — my brother recently got married — so I’m spending time with new family.
And there’s something powerful about photography.
On a subjective personal level, a photograph can resonate extremely deeply.
Sometimes it’s hard to explain exactly why.
But there’s a quality to images where ambiguity creates meaning.
When there’s no clear sense of place or time, the frame allows the mind to wander.
To ponder.
To ask questions.
And in that way, the photograph becomes a reflection of yourself.
The Boy Running Through the Heart
The photograph near the end of the slideshow resonates with me deeply.
It’s actually a very banal, simple photograph.
A boy running through the Heart sculpture at the Franklin Institute.
But the simplicity and ambiguity of that moment evoke something powerful.
I remember being a young boy myself, running through that same sculpture during school trips.
On this day, he was running through the sculpture over and over again — fast — trying to make it through the maze.
And I’m running behind him with the camera, trying to photograph him.
I must have run through that sculpture five times, chasing the moment.
Then suddenly the light glimmers across the scene.
The ripples in the shirt illuminate beautifully.
The textures around him come alive.
And that moment becomes something special.
Ambiguity and Emotion
What makes photography so joyful isn’t always the subject itself.
It’s the feeling that comes back to you later when you look at the photograph.
The ambiguity.
The mystery.
The emotional resonance.
Photography as Self-Discovery
By treating photography as a visual diary, by simply photographing your life and bringing the camera along for the ride, you begin to discover who you are through the frames you make.
When I look at that photograph:
I see myself.
As much as I’m photographing the external world, I believe the images become a reflection of my internal state.
The way I feel.
The way I perceive life.
And maybe photography is less about what’s in the frame…
and more about how you’re framed within it.
Just Play
When you photograph loosely, when you simply play and stop taking the process so seriously, something interesting happens.
You start to photograph more honestly.
More authentically.
And to me, that’s the real joy of photography.
The mystery.
The feeling.
The discovery of yourself through the images you make.
Closing
With that being said — thank you for watching.
I also recently released Flux Volume 1, a small photo book of my work from 13 days of street photography in Tokyo.
It’s about 57 photographs across 100 pages.
If you’re curious, check that out — it’ll be the top link in the description.
There are also lots of resources on my website, including a free course on mastering layering in street photography and other guides.
