I'll Always be street
Most people think you need to be in a big city to be a "street photographer", but that’s just not true. You can take me, currently out in bumble-fuck nowhere, and I still feel the urge to roam, explore, and photograph whatever I find interesting. Coming from Chicago, where there are absolutely endless possibilities and opportunities for great photographs, to a couple of rural towns within a fifteen-minute drive, that house about one to three thousand people combined, it's almost a complete 180° from what I'm used to… but you know what? That doesn't change you and how you photograph. You might just have to look a little harder, and spend more time finding photographs to make.
Most people think you need to be in a big city to be a "street photographer", but that’s just not true. You can take me, currently out in bumble-fuck nowhere, and I still feel the urge to roam, explore, and photograph whatever I find interesting. Coming from Chicago, where there are absolutely endless possibilities and opportunities for great photographs, to a couple of rural towns within a fifteen-minute drive, that house about one to three thousand people combined, it's almost a complete 180° from what I'm used to… but you know what? That doesn't change you and how you photograph. You might just have to look a little harder, and spend more time finding photographs to make.
Prior to moving out to Washington, I was a little concerned about what I would photograph without having a huge metropolis and its surrounding suburban utopias to provide me with visual arousal. I turned to one of my favorite photographers of all time: William Eggleston. Eggleston was well-regarded in the world of fine art photography. One of the reasons I was drawn to Eggleston so much is the fact that most of his time photographing was spent in the small town of Sumner, Mississippi. Despite the fact that he spent most of his life in a small town, he was able to create an AMAZING body of work. If anyone is interested in seeing more of his work, please don't just Google search a bunch of his work. I have almost all of his books. Just ask, and I'll let you borrow them.
Inspired by what Eggleston had accomplished, I set out to two of the towns nearest to me and took a walk around for a little bit. I didn't spend as much time walking around as I wanted to because it’s still pretty chilly out here, and for some reason, I forgot to bring gloves with me. Anyway, it didn't start off very easy, and I probably walked a good two miles before even taking one picture. This might be an unknown fact about Eggleston, but he was known to only take one shot and move on. This is something pretty uncommon, even in the days of film. Just take a quick minute to Google search Robert Frank, Alex Webb or Constantine Manos' contact sheets. Here you'll see just how many pictures are taken of a single scene. It’s often referred to as “working the scene”. I digress. I wish I could be more like Eggleston, but unfortunately, I'm not. I like to walk around a subject/scene, if I have the ability to. Sometimes, the best shot is not the first one taken.
I dont normally show a contact sheet but i guess i kind of have to since i talked about it so much lol.
So, this is my plan while I'm here for the next 11 months. Yes, I'm counting how long I've been here... When I'm not working in the orchards, or working on my photo project of the orchards, I'll be exploring the areas with a camera in hand, as I always do. This time it’s just in a smaller, more confined area. Hopefully, this inspires others to live with eyes wide open, and understand that you don't need to live in, or travel to, exotic places to make great work. I'm not saying “don't travel and explore places”. By all means, do it if you have the financial stability to travel to the places you'd like to photograph. Although, if you want to challenge yourself, while saving some money, try spending time around your current environment, and be observant.
You need to be your own worst critic!
Who are you photographing for? I often times find my seeking the approval of other people, whether it be from friends, other photographer, or social media likes and follows. I know I've sat at a coffee shop a few times just after posting up a new picture on Instagram or Facebook and incessantly refreshing the browser or phone for new likes. i mean who doesn't like admiration from others? I don't want to make accusations but i think anyone who says they don't like appreciation or the approval of others is lying.
I recently had an image featured on an Instagram account and boom 1500 likes later i was obsessed. I started posting up more images to try and repeat my so called success. Success... What does that mean to you? The word is most commonly correlated to your financial status, the brand named cloths your wear or the the type of car you drive. I don't want to sit here and say i never yearned for any of these things, because i did. There were times when i used to put all the money i had from working at my 9-5 into car parts for my car. I would buy the newest phones and electronics.
This last year as been different though. I've spent a lot of my time reflecting and trying to understand myself better. Part of this process i've found one thing i really desire the most. My own happiness. As selfish as this sounds, I think you need to be happy for yourself first before you can pass this on to other people you interact with. The one person you should aim to impress is yourself. So i decided to go through ALL of my images. I'm not sure if people understand how many images i actually have that no one has ever seen. lets just say its nearing the 50k(not including film negatives) . I'm still in the process of narrowing it down to my favorite images but it's going to take some time.
I'm slowly whittling down my collection of images, but its taught me something in the process. I'm starting to learn and see a common theme between them all. I'm getting a better handle at who i am and what i enjoy. Before i end this blog post, I'll leave you with this. Do things for yourself, Create to make yourself happy and everything else will follow.
