April - June 2023 Streetcap
It’s comeback season baby.
I have been doing street photography for long enough by now to know that when I hit a slump, it’s not going to last forever, and usually it’s followed by periods of improvement in my work. This latest slump has lasted practically a whole year since I moved back to the DMV from Baltimore. I wasn’t surprised and even welcomed it when it started, I was busy and focusing on other aspects of my life, and knew that photography would always be there when I was ready to jump back in. The latter point is something that I feel like lots of people forget when they try new things, but with enough commitment, you can move past that mental roadblock and it’s actually very healthy. Anyways…
Over the past few months, I feel like I have finally hit my stride again. I am now living right in the heart of DC, which has made it so easy to get consistent and quality practice in. Living in a city has been everything I hoped it would be. I can carry a camera with me for 5 minutes a day and find something worth photographing. The constant practice definitely feels like it’s been paying off.
In this post, I will recap the past couple of months of my Street Photography work, explore some recurring themes, and discuss some new projects.
Geometry
I think this has become one of the core foundations of my photographic style. Nothing catches my eye or inspires me and satisfies me the same way geometry does in the world around me. Lines, squares, perfect circles, right angles, and equilateral triangles all seem too perfect and mathematical to occur in nature and have become a symbol of the fundamentally man-made. I find that my favorite photos are ones that combine these graphic symbols of order with the natural chaos that is life.
Living in a city has been huge for me because even if I don’t have my camera with me, I am still constantly finding geometry around me on a daily basis. My eye is always on the hunt for shapes and lines in window reflections, architecture, or just looking down at the ground. As a result, I feel like I have gotten way better at finding intriguing compositions:
Gestures and Random Shit
As I mentioned before, the two elements I often combine in my work are Order (geometry) and Chaos. The latter usually takes the form of, as this section’s title suggests, gestures (facial or bodily expression, emotion, or action) and random shit (literally just weird things that you don’t see everyday). Once again I’ll hype up living in a city because weirdness is so much more present here. Every day I see someone wearing a flamboyant costume or haircut, or sitting in a trash can. These little moments are what make me happy to be who and where I am, our universe is so vast and so old, yet I’m living in a period of time where someone might dance chained to a disco ball as a performative art exhibition.
Travel - Royal Tunbridge Wells and Portugal
Another thing that always boosts my photography is travel. Seeing new things and experiencing the vast diversity of our species, cultures, and environments always invigorates me to document my own and photograph in new ways. In April I traveled to Royal Tunbridge Wells in England as well as Porto, Portugal and took some of my favorite photos of the year.
Ongoing Projects
Being able to build up consistency in my shooting habits also means I get to put more time into working on longer-term projects. A couple I am working on are The Lincoln Memorial and The Dupont Farmer’s Market.
The Lincoln Memorial
This project was born out of the slump I am currently working my way out of. Whenever I am feeling out of practice or like I’m falling behind with Street Photography, I like to go to a busy, touristy place to make it easier to snap photos of strangers without feeling pressured or stressed. The Lincoln Memorial quickly became a favorite due to its popularity and interesting geometric architecture.
The Dupont Farmer’s Market
This project is probably my most exciting prospect right now. As a local, I go regularly to this market to pick up produce for the week, so I can easily spend 15 minutes photographing it each week. I have definitely discovered some themes emerging - color matching, natural textures, and the little details vendors and customers wear on their sleeves (literally).
