What's In a Style?
Clothing styles change. Should photography?
The idea of style is pretty contentious in the photography community. Some artists live and die by their style, treating it like some kind of badge of honour they won’t deviate from. While others hold their style with open hands, regularly changing it up.
Is one way better than the other? No, but both have different purposes and benefits. In my opinion, the former leads to consistency and dependability. The latter allows for more creative expression and growth.
But where I land on this continuum is still up for debate.
*The images above are from the Hamilton Cardinals All Star game this summer.
My work definitely doesn’t fit into a box that you could label “bright and airy” or “dark and moody” or “vintage film.”
And if I am being totally honest, I don't ever want to be put into any confined box because I can imagine the limitations it would put on my work. If I am only showing or selling bright and airy images, would I have ever been able to capture anything I did in this email? Probably not. Or if I did capture it, I could not share it because it doesn't "fit".
For me, taking pictures is about accurately showcasing a moment in time (surely this is a nod to my journalist self). But I also think it's because I’m usually shooting with a David Alan Harvey quote ringing in my head:
“Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like.”
And every moment feels different, every location, every subject. Add to that the fact that clients come with their own visions too, and I shoot and edit reflecting their own vision too.
But what I do know is that I tend to lean into darker images, I love shadows and I push contrast. And I really do appreciate vibrant colour when it matches the scene.
*The images below are from the US Baseball Hall of Fame. Dominicans do what Dominicans do: re-enact all the greats in the Great Hall.
So while presets are convenient, I almost never use them. And everything I shoot is custom edited (hence I have a huge backlog of my own images that I can’t seem to get to the bottom of).
Still though, I do hope that when anyone looks at my galleries they will notice that while they can be vastly different there is also a consistency.
At the end of the day, I don’t want to fit into a perfectly curated aesthetic — I want to leave you with what it felt like to be there, a joy in unposed photography, and above all else, storytelling.
