Photography styles are overrated

If you start to read about the business of photography, or the key to success on social media, the first advice you'll hear is: "have style and stick with it". While it might be true for certain things, this approach is bad for street photography and bad for you if you're a photographer who wants to grow and wants to get better. I know it is tempting to use one successful style, but it is detrimental to your growth as an artist, or even if you're a hobbyist.

The easy route

Having a consistent style and doing the same thing over and over again can lead to success on social media. Your follower number might grow quickly, and soon enough, you'll be trapped into the necessity to do the same thing in order to get the likes you crave. Of course, you'll be very good at that particular style, but you will miss out big time with anything else. Street photography is a very creative, vast genre. Why do you want to put yourself into a box? Don't you want to explore different things? I know many people might complain under your posts about why you changed your style. But the truth is, you don't change anything; you just experimenting, as you should as a creative person.

Many people love to put you into a box and label it as documentary style, fine art style, black & white style, etc. This is a natural reaction as these labels are easier to understand, and they don't have to think about the other sides ever. But creatives are not single-minded, single-sided people. They love to experiment; they love to discover new things.

The narrow focus

While having one consistent style might make you a great photographer in that one thing, your focus will be narrow, always looking for the same things, the same shots, the same editing techniques, inevitably killing your creative curiosity. Even if you think you have found the perfect genre and style for yourself, I suggest taking a break from it and experimenting with other things. It doesn't matter if you don't plan to post the results or don't want to be great in that other style; just do it because it can further train your creative muscle. Widen your view, finding inspiration is always a good thing, it's going to help you even if you plan to work in one style only.

What happens if you change your mind?

This is the other problem with having only one style you're great in. What if you happen to get bored of it, or your creative mind just wants other things to try after a while? If you've built your following base on one style only, they might not want to follow your journey into another style. If you keep yourself versatile and great in many styles, everyone will know you as a creative person who is not stuck in one particular thing.

I think photography is so universal; there are so many possibilities. In my opinion we shouldn't lock ourselves into one style. That is, in my opinion, can be so limiting. And if you think about it, making photos for getting more likes, going viral or becoming somewhat famous is not a viable reason. Photograph what you love and get better at it. Photography is about passion; keep it that way.

Previous
Previous

Leica 5x5

Next
Next

Pure Street Photography interviews me