In last 2-3 years I’m feeling that is time to change, to evolve. Something doesn’t work well in my street photography, I don’t like anymore my pictures, sometimes I’ve a terrible sensation about my art. Usually I edit my pictures after 2-3 years. So in practice pictures I take today will be edited by me over the next 2-3 years. In other articles I’ve explained the reasons but essentially, between a lack of time and motivation, the main problem is undoubtedly the need to emotionally detach from my shots and the fear of revisiting what I’ve captured.
The fear of failing again and again. I don’t like to edit my works, it’s like looiking inside me realizing I’m wasted a lot of time and energies. Because usually I don’t like my photos. In this article I analyze a sort of strategy to change a bit my street photography. When I look back at the photos I’ve taken, I don’t like them, but in the meantime it’s a great opportunity to learn from my mistakes and ask myself why they don’t appeal to me. I’ve put together a short list of key points to keep in mind as I try to improve what isn’t working for me yet.
Here is 5 personal rules.
1. Spending more time on the streets: the obsession
The first goal is also the hardest, mostly due to motivation, time, and energies. Spending more time on the streets, becoming obsessive, merging with the asphalt, always trying to shoot, practicing much, much more. Now that I have a daughter, many work and family commitments, everything is more complicated, and this is certainly not the best time for such a reflection. I know this step is necessary, is the first one to reach.
It’s not just about practice but also about statistics, opportunity, luck, and serendipity: all essential for a street photographer and not necessarily tied to technical skills. But objectively, I have to spend hours on the streets, invest time and energy, maybe again come home with zero strong shots, day after day, failing over and over. A game that keeps getting tougher and more ruthless.
2. Less impulsive, more thoughtful
I’m going somewhat against my own philosophy especially after discovering film photography, which has helped me think and approach things differently. I’m taking a step back from when I wanted to be like Daido Moriyama, capturing anything and everything in a sort of stream of consciousness flow. No limits, no preconceptions. Ok but what about the results? Hundreds (or thousands) of photos.
What “depresses” me is then deleting almost all of them and feeling like I shoot randomly, like I’m a terrible photographer. This cycle has exhausted me, so I’ll shoot less impulsively, think more about the scene and the overall idea. I won’t come home with 200 shots in an hour, maybe less than half of that. I won’t overload my hard drives, and I won’t dread tossing everything in the trash during editing.
3. Changing places, finding light
The usual streets in the center of Rome have started to bore me. I no longer feel inspired watching always the same perspective of people walking toward me or ahead of me. Too often, I find myself shooting too close to subjects with that angled view that makes every shot look terribly similar and dull. I’m always moving, rarely stopping to compose, study, and apply the good old fishing technique. Almost every time, there’s no light, just shadows, chaotic compositions, unappealing backgrounds.
The same goes for the light itself, I need to bring light back into my photos. Photography is about capturing light, and living in Rome, I have far more of it compared to my highly respected and enviable colleagues in New York. Surrounded by their towering skyscrapers, they see very little light, which is why they use flash so often, maybe it’s not just a simple trend.
So, I’m searching for different streets, more open spaces with plenty of light and a new way to compose my scenes, but still in the centre of Rome, of course. Lately, I’ve been drawn to Piazza Venezia. I often try Via dei Fori Imperiali as well, but something feels off too scattered, too much of a tourist setting (the same issue as Piazza Venezia, in fact). Still, for the past few months, I’ve changed my approach, and I seem to be getting results.
4. Less closer, more centered: thanks american street photographers
So I find myself referencing again my colleagues in New York city, who have given me composition rules I had been denying myself. Watching photos almost exclusively on a smartphone had made me lose sight of the idea of secondary subjects in the background. I was putting everything in the foreground, big, clear, and highly visible. This is probably wrong in some cases: a photo taken too close can create a sense of suffocation, in addition to the wide-angle lens distorting the figures too much.
I learn by observing and studying american street photographers’ work; I see how a greater distance from the subject can improve composition and the overall scene (sometimes), making it perhaps smaller but more central and definitely more readable. This is the problem of looking pictures day by day on smartphone and stupid social. We lost small details and start thinking in different ways favoring simple compositions with “big sized” subjects. With this habit of shooting up close, I’ve gone overboard I get too close to the subject, distort the perspective, and end up making the scene feel too cramped.
5. Asking myself why my street photography sucks.
That’s all folks
Stay well, have always light in your life
Best, F.S.
Here is the link to my personal best pictures: street photography gallery
Read more about street photography, art, cinema
Leave a Reply