What’s the point of your photography?

What’s the point of these images? (Find out in the blog…)

Are you taking pictures for the sake of it?

I recently met a photographer who was taking some very nice pictures. However, his subject choice was very random. He veered from one subject and one style to another. The images were good but I had seen many others just like them. It seemed that there was no real focus in his photography.

There is a growing number of photographers who are in a similar situation and they are not happy about it. They are seeking something more than just taking pictures of whatever crosses their path.

What do you want to say with your photography?

One word can change the aimless drift that can happen with photography (and all creative pursuits): purpose. Photography with purpose is much more satisfying. It gives us a reason to go out and make images.

But to create this purpose it is important to know what one wants to say when you make images. Again, it is far more rewarding to want to say something with your work, to create an image with a message. The message does not have to be obvious. It doesn’t have to make a serious point. It just means that you have an image, or a set of images, with more purpose.

Once you start making images with a message, you will often start creating a photographic project. Suddenly, you will find that you want to go out to create the next piece of a larger body of work.

The photographer I met has now decided that there is an interesting contrast between old and new buildings in London. What do these contrasts say? What happens when we place the very old against the very new? He has a project to work on and a purpose to his photography.

What’s the point of my photography?

In the broader context, I think my work is about two things. Firstly, I want to celebrate what is in front of us every day but which we do not really see. I also want to encourage people to be able to create their own interpretations of what is put before them.

For my current project I want to celebrate a floor (specifically, the floor at the Arnolfini Arts Centre in Bristol). I want to show people that there is beauty in the most mundane of things. I want them to see the ordinary in new ways.

What’s the point of your photography?

What do you want to say with your photography? What are your images about? It is well worth spending a little time on these questions both in regards to your current and future work.

Have a purpose to your photography: it is so much more satisfying!