Developing Your Style

I think photographers spend too much time trying to decide what their style should be instead of making enough photographs to discover what it already is.

Style is not just a preset, a certain film stock, or always photographing the same subject. Those things can become part of it, but I think your style has more to do with what consistently catches your attention and how you choose to photograph it.

The more I have photographed this year, the more I have started noticing patterns in my own work. I am drawn to documentary moments, older buildings, signs, cars, local businesses, strange details, and places that have some history or character to them. I like photographs that feel a little nostalgic, and shooting film has definitely influenced the way I want my digital photographs to look as well.

None of that was something I sat down and planned.

It came from making a lot of photographs.

I have also photographed just about everything this year: sports, events, people, architecture, wildlife, cars, ordinary streets, and plenty of things that probably do not fit neatly into any category. Even with all of that variety, certain ways of composing, editing, and looking at things keep showing up.

I think that is where style starts.

You can learn from other photographers and be influenced by their work, but eventually you have to make enough of your own photographs to figure out what you naturally gravitate toward.