Looking back again to assignment three the hardest was establishing a theme for the set of images. Street photography is difficult at the best of times; you pound the streets with the hope of a “keeper” image or 2 from the day and in reality, there is no theme to the pictures. Any themed set are usually put together retrospectively from various shoots or are the product of an extended period of work based on a statement of intent
Six to Eight weeks of shooting along the loose theme of “mobile telephones” did not feel like it was long enough to do the subject justice. I felt that I was grabbing shots that were not the best and tried hackneyed techniques to make the shots work. Coming up short on the research around other street photography practitioners; I was more focused on getting the images.
I shoot a lot of street style photography but not until I started this course did I concentrate on a theme – therefore over the course of the assignment there was a tendency to fall back toward my “default programming”.
I tried to step away from the graphic style of Cartier-Bresson, as the busy nature of Hong Kong would have limited areas and times to shoot. I concentrated on capturing people in their daily life, and while the images are good, they do not push the boundaries for the decisive moment. Lack of research being the major downfall.
Before the course and this unit, I was perhaps a little anti “the decisive moment” as there are many photographers on Facebook groups who see themselves are the gatekeepers of street photography. Who delete images from images sharing groups because it does not live up to their vision of “pure street photography”. This doesn’t help the development of personal style nor the development of photography as a whole.
Yes, an image has to show “that fleeting moment” but this can be expressed in many ways – in my original submission I had missed this in a couple of cases by shooting a too static a scene, but anything can be the decisive moment we just have to present it well. And this where my poor research comes to the fore.
Creativity needs to be fed, and that food is the work of others how it was shot before who can we replicate it, how we can change what has gone before and built upon it, what should be avoiding be it been done a million times before. By not fully researching I have hampered myself, particularly in this assignment, as I have not been able to make the best use of interpreting other styles and successes into my style.
This is a fact that I will take forward significantly in all my further studies research and self-reflection are a big key to success I can see that now – to neglect is to work with one hand tied metaphorically behind your back. Focusing on only your images is the worse thing you can do…