Do you have problems defining yourself as a photographer? Do other people label you as a certain genre of photographer, but you feel that label is incorrect? If so, or even if you don't care about labels, this is a great video to make you think about what you shoot and why.
Dave Herring offers a frank discussion about the difference between how you see yourself as a photographer and how others may view you. The message is relevant whether you care about or pay attention to a specific genre or label. Watching the video and following Herring's process will help you analyze your body of work and why you do it, and it may help align your vision with reality.
Herring is often labeled a landscape or travel photographer. These labels are easy to understand when looking at his work, but that is not the way he sees himself. He considers himself a documentary photographer, documenting the land and historic sites. The confusion stems from a misunderstanding of the intention of the person behind the viewfinder.
The video offers a four-system process that Herring has used to dial in the "type" of photographer he is versus what he thinks he is. One of my favorite concepts he discusses is what he calls the 3:1 rule. I'm sure others have heard of it before, but it was new to me, and I love it. The 3:1 rule is that for every three minutes you spend taking your "hero" image, you spend one minute playing around the area and experimenting with other shots. His example is a 30-minute shoot at sunrise, followed by 10 minutes spent walking around the area, trying different compositions of the same subject. In his case, his play landed him what I imagine was a significant sale.
By allowing for experimentation, you may discover elements that define your work. It may reveal that your best work occurs when you incorporate foreground elements or forgo a high-key scene in favor of a dark, moody take. Regardless, experimentation is one way to find the photographer you are. If you want to broaden that experimentation across genres, The Well-Rounded Photographer: 8 Instructors Teach 8 Genres of Photography is a good place to start.
The point is not to allow a label to stifle you. Rather, it is to ensure that the way you label yourself, or how others label you, reflects the type of photographer you are. You may want to be Ansel Adams, but in reality, you always incorporate people in your photos and are actually a spectacular portrait photographer. You will do yourself a great disservice if you ignore what you are in favor of what you think you want to be.
Join the Fstoppers community for free
-
Post comments and join in the discussions
-
Browse the site ad-free
-
Share your work and get featured in the community
-
Compete in the photo contests for fun and prizes
2 Comments
Labels may fit nicely into business sales and marketing plans, otherwise why should I care about which genre of my photography other people perceive my images to fit within? Practically speaking, I photograph whatever strikes me as interesting, or emotionally compelling. It could be a piano one day, a portrait the next, close-up images of nature, or the grand landscape. I don't live inside a cage, and it doesn't matter how my photos are defined. From a business perspective it doesn't matter that much either. I use my diversity of subject matter as a selling point, with the only condition for what I sell being that every image is a possible candidate for wall art. I don't put family photos on my website... everything else though that I cross paths with that looks like art goes on it.
I'm not trying to become famous like Ansel Adams or William Eggleston. I don't expect to be labeled as a great landscape or documentary photographer. I think we often try too hard to emulate their models of success, when photography for most people is simply an act of capturing and holding on to our life experiences. My life is richer because of photography. I don't need to place artificial constraints or labels on it.
I would add to the conversation that I think the 3:1 rule is backwards. The inverse at 1:3 sounds about right to me... 30 minutes of exploring and experimenting with unplanned subjects to every 10 minutes of planned photography. In fact, most all of my time with a camera is looking beyond the obvious. Rarely do I have a preconceived shot in mind.
I don't care what kind of photographer I am, neither do I define myself. I do what I do for the joy of doing it. Neither do I care what other people think. If people like some of my pictures then great, if they don't then so what.