As the adage goes, “you have to run before you can walk.” This also applies to photography. Once you’ve learned how to consistently make a good image within your camera, what is the next step?
Well, for many, the next obvious step is to work on a body of work or a single project. By working this way, you’re no longer going for a single good image, but many good images which all need to work together to tell a cohesive story.
Photographer and YouTuber Bryan Birks invites American photographer Mark Steinmetz to discuss two of t\his projects, one on little league baseball and one on summer camps. Neither of these things is inherently impressive or inaccessible, but it’s through Steinmetz’s vision that the images and stories that come through are impressive.
As Birks comments on Steinmetz’s work: “it looks like something that anyone can do. It looks simple, easy. Doesn’t look too complicated. I could go out and do that.”
Perhaps that’s precisely the point: a project doesn’t need to be this grand thing, but the little moments that might be unfolding in your own backyard. What’s important is how you, as a photographer, apply your vision and creativity to make something out of what is there.
