Discovering & Developing your Photographic Style

Let us start here, by considering photography as the temporality-breaking artform it is. Thinking about how you (the photographer) and they (the subject/s) are immortalizing a present moment in time that has not existed before instills value in the picture you are taking – regardless of reason, content, or audience.

Greg Weight once said, “every photograph has already been taken, but it hasn’t been taken by you.”

Perspective. Style. Influence. Inspiration. Motive.

Now back to you, thinking about your style of photography.

What do you like taking pictures of?

What style of photography do you find most inspiring?

There are so many elements of a photo that can be controlled by the photographer if they wish to – format, composition, colour, focus, exposure, types of lighting, action, stills, portraiture, landscapes – I could go on, but they are some prompts to start manipulating, investigating.

Mind you, this whole process is as endless as you wish – as a process it is something you find and make your own through practice.

Perhaps a less obvious aspect of style is the influence of the photographer’s personality, relationship with the subject/s, and their philosophy surrounding their art. 

Photographer Elsa Dorfman believes that any subject that steps in front of her camera is responsible for the way that they look. While I was watching The B-Side (a documentary on Dorfman) this quote struck me and forced me to reflect on my approach to my subjects. 

She was interested in the surfaces of people. I think I am too, but only in part. I also love directing and seeing the difference confidence and trust makes with the people I photograph. Through the art of photography, I want to offer subjects a way of perceiving themselves, I want to center beauty, character, story, authenticity, and personality.

I want my pictures to almost be a celebration of their existence in a place and time. I consider photography to grasp more than the surfaces of people, and I understand my role in capturing that.

You might be more like Dorfman, there are no rights or wrongs, only you developing your style and voice as a photographer.

The next component of style you get to experiment with concerns the tools you choose you use.

Let me take it back to the beginning. You are just starting out as a photographer and are trying to find your style. I have been taking pictures since I was 14, the progression of my style has been influenced by practice, inspiration, different subjects, camera brands, lens and body combinations, and my dabbling in film photography.

So many factors! So many opportunities to play and find what feels like your authentic vision! Though I feel the most settled in my style and approach now, I know that both will continue to develop as I do.

I started with an Olympus point and shoot, the one your mum would take on family holidays in 2009. Then, at school I would use a Canon 1200d. I liked it so much I bought the 1300d with a 55-80mm lens. I didn’t like the harshness of the images and the high aperture, so I bought a fixed portrait lens…enter my absolute love for soft portrait photography. I then found mum’s point and shoot Pentax and started playing with film. Then came the Canon EOS 3000 – I fell further in love with film. And then, my two current favourites, the Fujifilm XT4 and the Asahi Pentax.

The photographer is in every photograph they take, whether they are within the frame or not –

that is the resultant power of having your own style.

Go get it! Go experiment! And if you are struggling to find people to photograph, do what I do most days and take self-portraits!