Street Photography POV: Finding Beauty in the Mundane
What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante.
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.
And that’s what it’s all about.
Curiosity.
That’s what guides me.
Nice.