Street Photography Style Is NOT What You Think

Style Isn’t an Aesthetic Decision

What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante.

Today I want to discuss style in street photography — this notion of your authentic expression, who you are as a photographer.

I think a lot of photographers want to look at a picture and say:

“I took that picture.”

And when you see a body of work from another photographer, you can say that’s a photograph by such and such.

I believe this is something everyone seeks to achieve. Everyone wants to make something that is theirs. As a photographer, you want your voice to be seen. You want that vision to be authentically yours.

But my idea around style might be a little different.

Because I don’t believe style has anything to do with aesthetic decisions.

Not whether you shoot black and white.
Not whether you shoot color.
Not grainy photos.
Not blurry photos.
Not shooting through reflections.
Not smudging your lens.

Those decisions have nothing to do with your vision.

Style Comes From Instinct

When it comes down to style, I believe it arises through the cultivation of instinct.

Your instinct — with consistency compounding over time — ultimately reveals your authentic perception. The way that you see, feel, and experience life.

Photography isn’t really about photography in the technical sense.

It’s not about:

• how you operate the camera
• why you make certain aesthetic decisions
• how you process the photograph
• even what’s inside the frame

Style is not something you can force.

Style is not something you can choose.

Style comes to you through consistency and the cultivation of instinct.

The Role of Repetition

Instinct is the moment where you no longer think.

But instinct only arises with time.

To arrive there, you must photograph with repetition.

Essentially every single day.

When you photograph consistently, it becomes inevitable that you will eventually discover what you have to say.

But you will not force this with an aesthetic trick.

You won’t force it by saying:

• I’m shooting layers now
• I’m photographing textures
• I’m working in this particular location

Style arrives when you stop thinking.

When you cultivate the pure gut instinct that subconsciously pulls you toward photographing certain things.

Finding Your Voice in the Edit

Over time, you begin extracting photographs from that stream of work.

And that’s when you start to see it.

That’s when your voice begins to reveal itself.

But this only comes through time spent actually out there photographing.

Not in the darkroom.

Not in Lightroom.

Not in how you shake your film canister while developing.

Not through presets or filters.

Your voice arises from pure intuition.

Why I Simplified My Photography

For me, this is why I stripped my practice down to a simple setup.

A Ricoh GR in my pocket.

A fixed lens.

A small JPEG file with the contrast cranked to the maximum.

I’ve stripped photography bare.

There is no going back.

We have black and we have white.

When the practice is simplified this much, I find that instinct develops much faster.

Responding to Life Intuitively

For the past three years working this way, I’ve been responding to life in front of me in the spirit of play.

Not thinking.

Just responding quickly.

Photographing intuitively.

Photographing from a state of being.

The reason I shoot black and white with maximum contrast and a simple JPEG workflow is because I want to remove all the superfluous technicalities of photography.

What’s left is instinct.

And instinct arises when there are no decisions to make.

It arises when you no longer have to think.

When the Camera Becomes an Extension of You

Eventually the camera becomes an extension of your body and your eye.

You no longer question why you’re pressing the shutter.

You simply know.

You see something.

You position your body.

You feel how the photograph wants to exist within the four corners of the frame.

This doesn’t mean you should photograph randomly without understanding your gear.

But the deeper point here is separating style from the technical and aesthetic decisions photographers make.

Surrendering to the Practice

My workflow is really about forgetting everything I think I know.

About photography.

About life.

I surrender to the medium.
I surrender to the practice.
I surrender to the process.

And I trust the passage of time.

The more I strip away from the practice, the more what remains is pure instinct.

Style Reveals Itself Over Time

After more than a decade of practice, I’m now stripping everything bare.

My camera.

My mind.

My process.

Everything about the way I engage with the medium.

When I’m on the street, all that remains is instinct.

And I believe that is the purest way to cultivate your authentic way of photographing.

Because two people can shoot the same camera.

The same settings.

The same film.

You can go in the corner and shoot Tri-X.

I can go in the corner and shoot Tri-X.

But the frame you make — from your internal state, your feelings, your perception — will be completely different from mine.

Photography as an Unrepeatable Act

You cannot make the same photograph twice.

Photography becomes an unrepeatable practice.

An endless exploration of your subconscious mind.

It arises in the moment you click the shutter.

It arises when you walk through life with a camera and photograph consistently, repetitively, obsessively over time.

Eventually, you will find that authenticity you’re looking for.

But it will not appear magically through aesthetic or stylistic decisions.

Because when you remove friction…

what’s left is instinct.