I think I’ve been lost in the past few months with my street photography, I hit the streets and nothing happens and the photos I capture just don’t do anything for me. I guess I’ve been more worried about what others think and for me, that’s not what it’s about. I don’t know why this bothers me, now don’t get me wrong I love being on the streets with my camera I find it relaxing, however, should I care what other photographers think of my work?
I feel that because of this I’ve lost my way and I was struggling to find a new direction in my work. Now I know some photographers will think that this is a bad thing, but for me, it helps me push myself to find the more interesting photos that I love to see.
I enjoy pushing myself and working harder to find those great stories and I can tell you it’s hard work. But anything worth doing is worth doing right and it’s never easy and why should it be. I read a blog that someone posted a few days ago about how street photography has changed and more and more people are doing it and the photographer felt that with digital cameras it’s made photography more accessible to the average person, however, everyone now thinks they're a photographer. With street photography, people think it's just a case of taking photos of random people walking about, which of course isn't the case.
With more people starting to take up photography it has become harder to stand out from the crowd, but again, why should this matter?
I also feel that photography has become more about how many likes you can get on Instagram and less about the image and story that had been captured. I fell into that trap that is social media, finding myself getting frustrated by the followers I had on Instagram and on my Facebook page, I was getting notifications saying a new person was following me but instead of my numbers going up, they dropped. Along with the followers come’s the likes, why wasn’t I getting more likes for my photos, was it because the photos were bad? But again why should this matter? And the truth is, it doesn’t matter, surely If I liked the photo that’s all that should matter, right?
I do street photography for me and not for anyone else.
For me, photography is about capturing the moments of a time that would otherwise be lost to time. I love how I can capture a wonderful moment that no one else has, it's not about following trends. I see too many people copying what other photographers are doing and in doing this they don’t understand why the photo was taken in the first place, I’ve had photographers copy my photos I’ve taken through the windows of shops etc. But they just don’t get what I’m seeing, they see a person and take the photo, which means nothing and I bet if you were to ask the person why they took it they wouldn’t be able to tell you.
I was a member of 63 groups on Facebook and I would post the same photo to all the groups, why? Well to get the likes and I got lost in what matters, the photo. So I removed myself from 90% of the groups.
I’ve started going back to what matters, the photo and moment and for the most part it’s making me happier and in turn, this is making my photos better. I’ve been doing street photography since I was 12 years old and I have a real passion for it, which I did lose for a short time. Now my passion is coming back to me and I’m remembering why I fell in love with street photography. Head to the streets find what matters to you and don’t worry about what others will think.
Do you agree with me?
Photos below are some of my favourites
