Stop Trying to Be Perfect
In life, it seems that many people strive to be perfect just to impress others. They work boring jobs to buy things they don’t need, all to impress people who don’t even like them. It’s a sad truth. What can we do about this? Let the chips fall as they may!
“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” – Tyler Durden
Let’s Evolve
The whole point of humanity is to evolve. We must transcend and go beyond our basic, traditional notions of how to live.
How Does This Relate to Photography?
In photography, we should embrace imperfection and not obsess over composition or perfectly aligned shots. Forget trying to make a “good” picture that pleases some teacher or judge. In order to push our capabilities, we have to let go of everything we think we know and create without worrying about traditional standards. We don’t want to be perfect! In street photography, we strive for something real, authentic, raw, and gritty.
My Frustration with Photography
Right now, I’m frustrated with photography. The industry sells a lie to the masses—that to become a better photographer, you need to be polished and perfect. Sharpness, perfect compositions, pretty backgrounds, beautiful models… I say that’s all BS. It makes things more mediocre, if anything. Street photography has become trendy, predictable, and boring. When photographers view other people’s work, they get trapped, influenced by mainstream ideas of what street photography should be.
Boring People Care Too Much
The people who spend time on YouTube, comment on Reddit, scroll Instagram, and engage with these platforms all day—they’re often boring, basic. We don’t want to be boring or basic. To rise to the next level, you have to ruffle a few feathers and upset others. To be imperfect is to be human. There’s no such thing as a perfect person, a perfect picture, or a perfect anything.
How to Combat This?
- Delete your Instagram
- Stop watching YouTube
- No more Reddit
- Don’t view work in galleries
These platforms have become gateways to mediocrity. You either get it, or you’re upset by it. Stop consuming others’ work and make your own world. Craft your vision through intuition and repetition. Create with an autotelic mindset, propagating your voice on your own platforms. Don’t be a slave to social media, conventional thinking, or anyone’s morals or dogmas.
Why Does It Matter?
This matters because we need to go further with our creative potential. To evolve and move forward, we must embrace imperfection and be willing to experiment. Tinker, innovate, mess up, fall down, take blurry pictures, miss shots—whatever it takes to reach the apex version of ourselves.