Obsession Fuels My Street Photography
What’s poppin, people? It’s Dante.
Today I want to discuss how obsession fuels my photography.
When I go out there and practice my daily street photography, I’m inspired purely by curiosity. I have this obsessive quality with my practice where I return to the same streets and walk with repetition and consistency. It’s because I have this obsessive quality with most things that I take up in my everyday life.
For instance, the gym — I can’t miss a day.
Or practicing my photography — I’m always out there in the spirit of play.
I have this innate ability to cultivate an insatiable love for whatever it is that I’m doing.
Curiosity Is the Engine
When it comes to street photography specifically, it’s the unpredictability. The unknown. The open world. The act of exploring.
That’s what creates this obsessive quality within my practice.
When I go out there and photograph, I’m simply curious about how life will render in a photograph. I’m curious about the way the light casts upon surfaces. I’m curious about glances, gestures, humanity.
At the end of the day, I photograph as a way to remain open, curious, and receptive to life.
Photography propels my body out there daily. It’s the excuse. It’s the thing I think about consistently throughout the day because it’s the way I articulate the mundane.
Chipping Away at the Mundane
My goal is to find new ways to go out there and play.
New ways to embrace the mundane — but still find something.
Still find potential.
Still go out there with rigor and discipline that somehow feels effortless.
Because I’m obsessed, I’m blessed with the ability to prolifically photograph throughout my everyday life, wherever I may be — no matter how mundane things may seem.
When I’m making pictures, I’m really chipping away at the mundane. I’m asking myself:
Can I say something new here?
Even if the space is overlooked.
Even if something in the frame feels banal.
Through the photograph, I can elevate the mundane to a new height.
The Magic Black Box
I am enamored with the camera — this magic black box that gives me the ability to create new worlds.
Through world creation — through taking from the world and creating a new one — I give my life purpose and meaning. That sense of meaning propels me obsessively to photograph in a stream.
Not to make a single image.
Not to create my next “best” photograph.
But to create photographs in a stream of becoming — of evolution and change throughout my lifetime.
I never want to consistently make the same frames. I’m always trying to find new ways to play this game.
Infinite Possibilities
That’s why I’m obsessed.
Because I recognize the infinite possibilities within the medium. I don’t believe everything has been done. I think there is still so much more to see, to do, and to photograph in our lifetime.
That’s why I keep walking.
That’s why I keep going out there consistently.
It’s such a novelty to explore with a camera.
I treat myself as a flâneur — someone who walks aimlessly without any preconceived destination or notion of what I’m looking to photograph.
I don’t have a checklist.
No theme.
No project.
No outcome.
Just an inner sense of curiosity about life.
And that’s what reflects in the photographs.
Photography as a Compass
Photography becomes a superpower. It’s beyond the medium itself. It’s a way to orient myself in everyday life.
It’s a compass.
It keeps me grounded.
It keeps me out there.
It keeps me in the eternal now.
We have a past. We have a future. But those are not my concern.
My concern is remaining in the moment — curious about life.
By photographing my way through everyday life obsessively, I cultivate an infinite sense of curiosity.
That’s where I seek to be as a photographer:
Openly exploring with childlike wonder — endlessly.
Being and Becoming
By remaining present, I enter this simultaneous state of being and becoming.
Evolution and change guide my practice.
No two days are the same.
The light is always in flux.
The world is always changing.
The moment I press the shutter cannot be repeated.
I cannot create the same photograph twice.
That idea fuels me.
Because I know my next photo — that will be my best photo.
And so I practice daily. With repetition. With consistency. With obsession.
Because I recognize the infinite possibilities of photography.
With that being said, thank you for watching.
I’ll see you in the next one.
Peace.